Theme: Undergoing a “Pseudo-Transubstantiation”
Today’s
celebration of the solemnity of the Most Holy Eucharist is a celebration that
is at the center of the Church’s liturgical life and worship. It is the source
and summit of our Christian life and faith. The Council of Trent and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC
1376) make it clear that by the consecration of the bread and wine, there takes
place a change of the whole substance of bread into the Body of Christ and the
whole substance of wine into the Blood of Christ. This change, the Council of
Trent calls Transubstantiation.
For
us to understand this dogma of transubstantiation better, it is important to
look into what it is not first. There are two heretical theories opposed to the
theory of transubstantiation. The first, the heretical theory of Annihilation
claims that at consecration, the bread and wine cease to exist and the body and
blood of Christ is created ex nihilo (out
of nothing) to take the place of the former bread and wine. The error here is
the assumption that the ordinary elements of life are annihilated and supplanted
by grace. Thus, grace does not build on nature and in fact destroys nature.
This makes divine transformation a magic without the aid of the agent.
