Eating Christ's Flesh and Drinking His Blood?

Jesus, in John 6:54 makes the bold assertion that 'Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise Him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed and My blood is drink indeed.' Is Jesus speaking literally, that is, we must literally eat the physical flesh and drink the physical blood of Christ-- or is Jesus speaking figuratively, extending the metaphor of being the 'Bread of Life'? This sermon seeks to answer this question by first exploring the belief of the Roman Church in transubstantiation-- that the consecrated bread becomes the actual body of Christ and the consecrated wine,the blood of Christ-- the origin of this belief and how the Roman Church would interpret John 6. The Jews listening to Jesus also took Him literally. But are they correct? Jesus has been speaking metaphorically in this entire sermon. Why would He suddenly begin speaking literally? There are three reasons why Jesus is speaking figuratively, not literally. First, if Jesus is speaking literally, He is asking His followers to do something strictly prohibited in Scripture. Jesus would never ask us to do that! Secondly, if Jesus is speaking literally, and the bread becomes His flesh and the wine becomes His blood, Jesus is asking us to believe something that is not scripturally based, nor sensory verifiable. But Jesus' teaching is scripturally based and miracles in the Bible are sensory verifiable. Thirdly, if Jesus is saying that physically eating His flesh and drinking His blood results in eternal life, then He is contradicting what He has been teaching that eternal life comes through believing in Him. But Jesus never contradicts Himself.