I strongly affirm what you have stated here... superstition and magic have long been infused into our ecclesial mores and only recently, relatively speaking, has Christendom had the tools, knowledge and freedom to firmly rebuke it.  Jesus did not teach that the source and summit of our faith should be boiled down to a mere carnal belief in the real "physical" presence in the manna (i.e., body, blood, soul and divinity).  Instead, as you say, His chief teaching was about the transformative power of communing with Him and our neighbors through love, mercy, compassion and fellowship, which He so excellently modeled for us.