The Eucharist

For me as a convert, the Eucharist was the hardest thing I had to grapple with before making a definitive decision. It seemed almost blasphemous for Catholics to claim that bread and wine could become Jesus Christ. I, as a Methodist was not exposed to this belief even though they claim to have a similar belief. Methodists don't acknowledge a physical change of the substance and they and other Protestants will reject the Latin Catholic philosophical construct of "transubstantiation" as being a heretical idea. While the East does not tend to use philosophy and is more simplistic in its approach to theology, I myself see nothing wrong with the term "transubstantiation."

What Protestants fail to realize is that the term "transubstantiation" is not being used to explain a mystery, nor does it make that claim. What it does do, is acknowledge that the term is a paradox. The Latin Church was prominent in the West and was much more into scholasticism and more technological advanced than their Eastern brethren. They used philosophy to help reveal beliefs of the Church that those on the outside could not come to grips. The term can be traced back to as early as 1079 by Hildebert of Tours, however it may have been earlier that it was used.

Here is an excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"The application of the foregoing to the Eucharist is an easy matter. First of all the notion of conversion is verified in the Eucharist, not only in general, but in all its essential details. For we have the two extremes of conversion, namely, bread and wine as the terminus a quo, and the Body and Blood of Christ as the terminus ad quem. Furthermore, the intimate connection between the cessation of one extreme and the appearance of the other seems to be preserved by the fact, that both events are the results, not of two independent processes, as, e.g. annihilation and creation, but of one single act, since, according to the purpose of the Almighty, the substance of the bread and wine departs in order to make room for the Body and Blood of Christ. Lastly, we have the commune tertium in the unchanged appearances of bread and wine, under which appearances the pre-existent Christ assumes a new, sacramental mode of being, and without which His Body and Blood could not be partaken of by men. That the consequence of Transubstantiation, as a conversion of the total substance, is the transition of the entire substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, is the express doctrine of the Church (Council of Trent, Sess. XIII, can. ii)." Catholic Encyclopedia

In simple terms, this means that the bread and wine cease being bread and wine (except in appearance with what the 5 senses can deduce) and become the Body and Blood of the risen Lord, Our Saviour Jesus Christ. What I had to decide after learning about the Church's position on the Eucharist was that either this truly is the God of the Universe coming down and changing the bread and wine into His Body and Blood, or it was the greatest blasphemy and folly committed by human beings.

After all, Catholics, particularly in the West, do what is called Eucharistic Adoration. This is where the Eucharist is placed in a device called a Monstrance and the faithful come to adore Christ. The Eucharist IS Christ. There was a miracle that occurred at Lanciano, in Italy the 8th Century A.D. The host and consecrated wine turned into real flesh and real blood. If the Eucharist is not Jesus Christ, then Catholics are committing the gravest idolatry committed by any religious body.

I encourage you if you have not yet been, to go to Eucharistic Adoration especially if you are not Catholic. You will find the true presence of Christ in ways so unexplainable.

Until next time,

-Andrew