Duobus modis exponere

Dear Reader,

I wish to share with you a post from my friends on the Monks of Norcia blog.

TWO WAYS TO EXPLAIN THE HOLY EUCHARIST

AUTHOR
Fr. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B.
LITURGICAL DATE

EF: Corpus Christi 

READINGS

1 Jn 3:13-18 & Lk 14:16-24 

T

ake, this is my body.  “This is my blood.”  These words, which are recited at each Mass, are rich in meaning.  What is their sense, especially given today’s celebration?  Let’s try to better understand the mystery of the Eucharist.  Let’s try to arrive at a deeper understanding of the Blessed Sacrament, which we have just honored with our procession through the streets of the city, with roads adorned with flower pedals.  How can we explain this mystery which we honor with such love and devotion?  How can we explain the change which takes place during the consecration of Mass?

 Let’s begin with what our senses tell us.  On the altar, what do we see?  Surely you’ll say:  “we see some bread in the form of small hosts, and we see some wine.”  How can we possibly honor these natural elements as if they were God?  How can we explain that these elements change, that the bread becomes the body of Christ and that wine becomes blood?  From all the possible explanations, I’ll choose two:  one from St. Ambrose and one developed by St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Ambrose bases his argument on the power of God to create the world ex nihilo.  Through what means did the Lord our God make the world?  With his word.  God spoke, said, pronounced:  Let there be light!  And there was light.  And St. Ambrose adds a passage from the Psalms to support his argument:  By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth (Ps 32:6).  The word of the Lord means the Son; by the breath of his mouth means the Holy Spirit.  If God made everything created from nothing through his Word, through his Son, one can thus deduce that the Word has an effective power.  And if this Word, this Word of Christ, was able to create the world from nothing, surely he is able to change something that already exists into something else.  So, when the priest pronounces the words: “This is my body; this is my blood”, he doesn’t use his own words, but rather those of Christ, and therefore it’s the words of Christ which change the bread and wine into his body and his blood.  This is St. Ambrose’s brief argument.

On the other hand, St. Thomas bases his argument on the distinction taken from the philosophy of Aristotle, through the substance of a thing and its accidental qualities.  The substance of a thing is its true nature, its proper essential identity.  For example, the substance of John remains the same even though his hair changes from dark to white after many years.  John remains John even if he used to be a baby, and now he’s an adult.  The substance of John remains the same even if he is skinny today and chubby tomorrow – all of these characteristics are accidental things.

When we talk about bread, the substance of bread is its essential nature.  The accidental things are the form, the size, the type of wheat used, etc.  In the bakery, there is a great diversity of possible forms of bread, but the essence of bread remains the same.

According to the tradition of scholastic theology, the change of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is explained like this:  the accidental characteristics of the bread remain; we still see with our eyes a small white host – but the very nature of the thing, its essence, is changed into the body of Christ.  The accidental characteristics of the wine remain:  red and white, sweet and bitter, etc. – but the substance of the wine changes, and it changes into the blood of Christ.

This change is miraculous, yes – but it gets carried out by the words of Christ, by the creative and effective power of the Word, and therefore even if the miracle requires our faith, it is still conceivable – at least in part – by our intellect.

As a consequence of this change, which we call ‘transubstantiation’, after the consecration of the natural elements of bread and wine, we honor the Blessed Sacrament with all honor due to God.

The sequence of this Solemnity of Corpus Christi contains a beautiful expression:  “Quantum potes, tantum aude” – that is, in praising God, and in a particular way, in praising him through the greatness of the Eucharist – dare to praise him as you can, and fully dedicate yourself to it!  The sequence exclaims:  “Let the praise be loud and high, sweet and tranquil be the joy, felt today in every breast.”  May these be our sentiments, too, on this solemn feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

(Translated from the original Italian by B. Gonzalez.)

Vale Amicus, Till next time....