In what sense they don't have life in them? John 6:53-57 John 6:53-57


  Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh
  of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.


In what sense people outside of the Catholic Church have no life in them? What is the Catholic interpretation of this verse?
I believe the counterpoint in the next verse explains it: 


  Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.  (John 6:54-55)


They lack eternal life, which John 17:3 defines:


  Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 


St Augustine, a Doctor of the Church, teaches in his 26th Tractate on John


  He spoke these words, not certainly to corpses, but to living men. Whereupon, lest they, understanding it to mean this life, should strive about this thing also, He going on added, Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life. Wherefore, he that eats not this bread, nor drinks this blood, has not this life; for men can have temporal life without that, but they can noways have eternal life.