Priest of the diocese explains Christ’s presence in the Eucharist
During the Protestant Reformation, there were many attacks made against the purported teaching of the Church on the Eucharist.
Pamphlets appeared, showing a giant Christ bearing marks of the Passion and several Catholics gnawing on His body.
Although John 6:54 uses the verb Trogo, which means “to gnaw,” the pamphlet was a wildly distorted interpretation of Catholic teaching on the Eucharist.
John uses Trogo to emphasize the reality of eating that is a necessary part of the Eucharist, but not to imply that the Eucharist has anything to do with gnawing on an arm or leg of Christ.
When we break the host at Mass during the “Lamb of God,” or when we chew the host after reception of Holy Communion, Christ does not suffer any injury. We do not physically touch, break, chew or taste the Body and Blood of Jesus, but only the physical characteristics of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In John 6:63, we read the words of Jesus, “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Sometimes, Protestants will point to this verse to say that Jesus used the word “flesh” earlier (“eat my flesh and drink my blood”) only metaphorically, because here he clearly says that “the flesh is of no avail.”
But Jesus is making an important distinction between earthly, mortal flesh (“no avail”) and his own human-divine — and most importantly — risen, glorified flesh.
This is the body, blood, soul and divinity that we consume in the Eucharist. We do not eat mortal, earthly flesh; we do not eat the pre-risen, pre-glorified flesh of Christ.
The Eucharist is the living flesh and blood of Christ, as he currently is, risen and glorified.
We eat his Spirit-imbued flesh and blood, but only in and through the veil of the physical reality of the bread and wine, which are essential to the Eucharist as determined by our Lord.
Understanding this distinction is vital as we seek to grow in our understanding of the true nature of the miracle of the Eucharist.
Catholics do believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in which the merely physical characteristics of bread and wine mediate the glorified, supernatural reality of the Risen Jesus.
Is the resurrected and glorified body of Jesus as he now is, ascended in heaven, real? Absolutely!
Is it physical? Yes, the body of the Risen Jesus — unmediated by the Sacrament of the Eucharist — is physical, but it is much more than physical, at least as understood on this earth.
In this world, all that is physical is subject to decay, but the risen body of Jesus is not subject to decay or death of any kind.
As St. Paul writes, it’s a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44).
A spiritual body is a physical body that has been completely penetrated and so transfigured by the Holy Spirit. It’s been thoroughly spiritualized.
Non-Christians (and even some Christians) will use the term “spiritual” in a derogatory way: “You have a spiritual way of looking at things, whereas I deal with physical reality!”
But Christians know that the spiritual is the most real. The physical decays and passes away, but the spirit is immortal.
When the Holy Spirit completely imbues a physical body, it becomes a resurrected, glorified body, what St. Paul called a spiritual body, which is more than physical.
The Eucharist is a Sacrament of this. The Real Presence of Christ as He is in heaven is mediated to us through the Sacrament.
Eucharistic miracles
I think it’s helpful to contrast the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which we consume at Mass, and the examples of Eucharistic miracles that have occurred several times over the centuries (and which we never consume).
A Eucharistic miracle occurred in the parish church of the Italian town of Lanciano in the eighth century. A monk of St. Basil was celebrating Mass and doubting the Real Presence.
Suddenly, the host appeared like flesh and the wine like blood. There were many eyewitness accounts of the event. The host had the same qualities as human heart tissue with the blood registering AB-negative.
Both the miraculous flesh and the five globules of blood remain on display (remarkably well preserved) in Lanciano 12 centuries later.
No one has ever desired to consume this tissue or blood, and the Church would not allow it, not simply for the reason of preserving a kind of relic, but because the Eucharistic miracle is no longer the Sacrament of the glorified flesh and blood of the Risen Christ.
The Church, to my knowledge, has never provided an authoritative explanation of this miracle, so the following remains my own. Take it for what it’s worth.
The miracle of Lanciano is that the Sacrament of the Risen Christ has become a physical relic of the pre-glorified body. It has become something that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is not.
Glorified body
We believe that, under the appearance of bread and wine and mediated through the Sacrament, we receive the living, glorified body, blood, soul and divinity of the Risen Christ.
In the consecrated host, all the physical elements of bread remain — philosophically, these are called the “accidents” of bread: its taste, color, size, molecular and chemical elements. However, the “substance” of bread, its “bread-ness,” which we cannot directly perceive, has been changed into the “substance” of “Christ-ness” (hence, the term transubstantiation).
By way of analogy, perhaps one could say that the spirit or soul of the bread has been changed, while the body of the bread remains the same.
But this change affects it on the deepest and truest level.
If scientists did a physical, chemical, molecular analysis of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, they would find only the qualities of unleavened bread. This is what is “physical.”
And these physical elements may be so changed (either by corruption or mixture with something else) that they are no longer recognizable as bread to be eaten or wine to be drunk, in which case, per St. Thomas Aquinas: “then Christ’s body and blood do not remain under this Sacrament” (Cf. Summa Theologiae III:77:4).
The Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ is incorruptible, whereas the physical elements of bread and wine, even after consecration, are nonetheless corruptible.
In other words, the only part of the consecrated host that is physical is the appearance (“accidents”) of bread and wine.
The “substantial” presence of Christ is supra-physical.
Is Christ “physically” present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist? If “physical” means the accidents of taste, color, size and molecular and chemical makeup, then the answer is no.
Christ is truly present in “substance,” but only in a mediated way through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
His physical, unmediated presence is what we await with blessed hope at the Second Coming of the Lord at the end of time.
When we consume the Holy Eucharist, the physical accidents of bread and wine are broken down and become part of our bodily metabolism, but the spiritual reality, the most real and enduring reality, is that we become part of the Body of Christ.
Only spiritualized flesh and blood could possibly make that happen!
This is why the Catholic Church teaches that Christ is not physically present in the Eucharist in an unmediated way, but He is truly, substantially present in His spiritualized and glorified body, blood, soul and divinity.
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!
Fr. Merz is pastor of St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish in Columbia, diocesan vicar for permanent deacons, and chairman of the Diocesan Liturgical Commission.
