I don't believe that this disputes what you say.
But you can come to a point where you comprehend an equation on levels other than purely intellectual. A good example here is when I was in college freshman physics, I coasted a car from the top of a hill, down a gully, and up the other side. I could feel the gravitational potential energy of my mass transformed to kinetic energy and back to gravitational potential. I had an epiphany where I could *feel* the equations in my guts. I'd have to think about the equations, now to remember them, and I would not trust I got them right. But I still have a gut-level understanding of what they mean.
As far as E=MCC is concerned, all I can feel in my gut is that mass represents a whopping great deal of energy. Beyond that, I would not venture.