261. Real Presence
261. REAL PRESENCE
Nothing more passionately separates Catholics from most Protestants is the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Couldn’t this be a sign only?
Whether the Body of Christ be in this sacrament in very truth or merely as in a figure or sign?
The presence of Christ’s true Body and Blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon divine authority. Hence, on Luke 22:19, This is My Body, which shall be delivered up for you, Cyril says: Doubt not whether this be true, but take rather the Savior’s words with faith, for since He is the Truth, He lieth not. . .
This belongs to Christ’s love, out of which for our salvation He assumed a true body of our nature. And because it is the special feature of friendship to live together with friends, as the Philosopher says, He promises us His bodily presence. . . . Hence (Jn 6:57) He says: He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him. Hence this sacrament is the sign of supreme charity and the uplifter of our hope, from such familiar union of Christ with us. . . .
Some men accordingly, not paying heed to these things, have contended that Christ’s Body and Blood are not in this sacrament except as in a sign—a thing to be rejected as heretical since it is contrary to Christ’s words. . . .
No body can be in several places at one time. . . (But) Christ’s Body is not in this sacrament in the same way as a body is in a place, which by its dimensions is commensurate with the place, but in a special manner which is proper to this sacrament. Hence we say that Christ’s Body is on many altars. . . (III,75,1).
Many Protestants also believe in some way in Christ’s presence this sacrament, but all these ways are different from the Catholic doctrine by being in some way a less complete presence. These range from (1) the merely symbolic (as an absent person is present symbolically in a picture of him, which is a kind of sign), to (2) the subjective (as the Holy Spirit is present in the faith and hope and love of the believer whenever any religious activity is performed, such as reading the Bible), to (3) the “occasional” (as God uses many religious things as occasions for directly energizing the human soul with grace, but He is not actually in those things, as a holiday is an occasion for giving gifts, but the giver is the person, not the day), to (4) the instrumental (as the power of divine grace is present effectively in the other sacraments as instruments, so that the water of Baptism is used as a means of Christ’s spiritual cleansing but Christ is not personally present in the water, so that it is not worshipped, and the water remains water and is not transubstantiated into Christ), to (5) the Lutheran alternative to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation which is called consubstantiation, in which the bread and wine are not changed but added to, so that Christ becomes really present along with them but they remain.
Why do Catholics believe the astonishing doctrine that what looks and feels and tastes and shows itself under a microscope as merely bread and wine are in fact not bread and wine but Christ Himself, the whole Christ, “Body and Blood, soul and divinity”? There is no physical, scientific evidence for it, nor is there any logical proof of it. Catholics believe it because Christ said so. St. Thomas wrote: “I believe all the Son of God has spoken; than Truth’s own word there is no truer token.” God said it, that settles it.
If Christ had meant His words only symbolically, He would not have allowed those of His disciples who could not stomach this nearly incredible teaching to leave him (John 6) but would have corrected their too—literal misunderstanding, as He often did to His disciples. But He did not do that here.
Christ can be in Heaven and on earth, on one altar and another, at the same time because His presence is not subject to the laws of nature. A merely natural body cannot be simultaneously in more than one place, and cannot be greater in size (“dimensions”) than the place it is in. Christ can. In other words, a miracle literally happens every time He says “This is My Body” through the lips of a priest. Christ never lies.