Let’s be honest. Out of all the teachings of the Catholic Church, by far one of the most outrageous, unimaginable, and seemingly ludicrous is the dogma of Jesus Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist. In light of such a seemingly ridiculous claim, it should at least pique one’s interest how so many of the most brilliant minds in all of history—Georges Lemaître, J.R.R Tolkien, Nicolaus Copernicus—have believed it.
Before explaining how this dogma can be true, it important to first understand exactly what the teaching is. The Council of Trent dogmatically defined it in this way: “After the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ…is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species of [the bread and wine]” because the “whole substance of the bread [is turned] into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine [is turned] into the Blood.”
This means that after the consecration, there is no longer bread or wine but only Jesus’ whole Person: his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The Church teaches this not as a metaphor, sign, or symbol (in the word’s ordinary usage) but literally true. Any person, therefore, who has gone to a Catholic Mass can say just as truly as St. Peter that they have been in the same room as Jesus.
Although it is relatively easy to understand this dogma, what becomes difficult is explaining how to make sense of it. To do this a bit of philosophy is needed. Aristotle asserts that every changeable being has a “substance” and “accidents.” Substance is that which remains the same about a thing even after it undergoes change. It is what is essential to it, what the thing truly is. The accidents are all those characteristics that exist in a substance, but that are not essential to what it truly is. For example, a cup can maintain the substance of a cup even if it has different accidents, such as being large or small, red or blue, hot or cold.
Using these distinctions to explain the Eucharist, St. Thomas Aquinas explains at the consecration, the substance of bread and wine—what the thing really is—ceases to be and is replaced by Jesus Himself. This is why the dogma is called “Transubstantiation,” meaning a “change of substance.” However, unlike all other substantial changes, this change does not also involve a change in accidents. Miraculously, due to God’s intervention, the accidents—or non-essential characteristics—of bread and wine remain the same. The host, therefore, looks, feels, tastes, exactly the same as before. Even under an electron microscope, no empirical difference would be found. Empirical observation can only observe a thing’s accidents, but not penetrate to the substance.
Now it is clearly within the divine power to be able to change the substance of anything (for God creates and sustains all things) while keeping the accidents the same. This is why St. Thomas Aquinas describes Jesus in the Eucharist as a “hiding deity”: He is present at Mass but puts up the “disguise” of the accidents of bread and wine to hide His glory, which would all but overwhelm us. Although this might sound crazy, remember the religion we follow. We believe that the infinite God became man. Although no doctor with any microscope could discover He is God empirically, He still is. As St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote, “Since then [Jesus] Himself declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is My Body,’ who shall dare to doubt?”
Once we come to accept this great truth of transubstantiation, we realize in a new way God’s humble and immense love for us. Not only did He become man in the Incarnation, but He also instituted the Eucharist so that until the end of time He would never be separated from us. Although He knew that in the Eucharist He would be abused, trampled, and disgraced countless times, He saw it as a small price if even one humble and contrite person would receive Him in faith. In the face of such a beautiful mystery, then, it is no wonder St. Thomas Aquinas would cry while elevating the host at Mass, knowing the greatest love story of all time lay before him. The kicker is that we are the beloved.
Featured imaged courtesy of Olivia Colombo
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