The metaphysics of the Eucharist

When I was visiting Cartagena, Colombia, in the summer months, appearing in front of Iglesia San Pedro Claver (St. Peter Claver Church), the children were all dressed in first Communion suits and dresses.

The boys and girls were all wearing white and looked incredibly angelic. They also wore white first Communion ribbons, white gloves, and carried white Rosaries.

Since the Colombians are a mixture of European, African, and Indigenous cultures, and St. Peter Claver himself worked among the Africans in Colombia, the parish conveyed this tremendous sense of Catholicism: “universal.”

I had planned to visit the Baroque church without realizing I would be entering a church filled with children dressed in white. The children celebrated with their family, friends, and the communion of saints: baptized, confessed, and now receiving their first Communion.

This is an extraordinary moment in the life of a child and the grateful family members who participate in the celebration: receiving the Body and Blood of Our Lord. But why? And how?

The “why” we receive the Body and Blood of Christ is the command that comes from the Lord himself at the Last Supper, that Holy Thursday just before his crucifixion when Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover meal together.

Jesus anticipating his crucifixion and the fulfilment of his mission to save humanity from their sins, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me … This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you” (Lk 22:19-20).

Similarly, Saint Paul tells the community of Corinth what he received from the Lord was handed down to him – literally, tradition – as St. Paul states, “On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’” (1 Cor 11:24-26).

In Saint John’s Gospel, the words emphasize the finality of Jesus’ command, “Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person” (Jn 6:54-56).

So, besides the command coming from Our Lord, “do this in memory of me,” our Lord also tells us why we are to do this: so that we may have “eternal life.”

Because Roman Catholic teaching draws from both Scriptures and tradition which share the common source, the Holy Spirit, we have profound theological reasons for receiving Christ’s Body and Blood – ultimately, Christ gives us his body and blood for our salvation. This answers the “why?”

And now, for the “how”: We begin with the Apostles who continued to observe and transmit the teachings of Christ. The Apostles who were men chosen by Our Lord and instructed to transmit what he had done himself.

The chosen men for this sacerdotal ministry continued what Christ had taught, taking bread and wine and pronouncing the words of the Eucharist, “this is my body … this is my blood.”

The intellectual tradition of the Roman Catholic Church has always encouraged reflection, deepening our understanding of the Scriptures and the teachings of Christ. Because we are created in God’s image and likeness, our intelligence and freedom are actively engaged in the sacramental life of the Church.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican who sought to deepen his knowledge of God, Christ and his Church to proclaim the truth more boldly and with a deepened understanding, offered to explain the Holy Eucharist building on St. Augustine’s teachings of sacraments as “efficacious signs” of God’s grace.

The sign is the material element to the sacrament, and the form contains the words associated with individual sacraments. For the Eucharist, bread and wine (matter) become body and blood – “this is my body” and “this is my blood” (form).

Because the priest is consecrated by the bishop and only an ordained priest can consecrate body and blood, the bread and wine, which become the Lord’s body and blood, they are not mere signs but efficacious signs because they carry divine grace: that is, God’s very presence specific to the individual sacrament.

Saint Thomas, however, goes further than the efficacious signs in understanding the Eucharist: the Angelic Doctor explains, using metaphysics coming from Aristotle, that the bread and wine have accidents – their colour, their texture, their taste, remain the same after consecration, which is why we do not see or taste any change.

So, what changes, St. Thomas tells us, again drawing from Aristotle’s metaphysics, is the substance: we begin with a substance specific to bread, and a substance specific to wine, but this substance at consecration changes with the words pronounced by the ordained priest.

With the articulation of the words given to us by Our Lord himself, the bread and wine change substantially to the body and blood of Christ, from natural matter to supernatural divine substance, or what we call, as Saint Thomas taught, “transubstantiation.”

This is why what we receive is in fact whom we receive: Jesus, body and blood – his very divinity – into our very being. And that is why we say, “holy Communion.”

Father David Bellusci is a Dominican priest and assistant professor of philosophy at Catholic Pacific College in Langley.

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