268. Eucharistic appearances of bread and wine without their realities
268. EUCHARISTIC APPEARANCES OF BREAD AND WINE WITHOUT THEIR REALITIES
How can the accidents (appearances) of the Eucharist exist without a subject (substance) for them to be the accidents of? Isn’t this logically impossible, even by miracle?
Whether the accidents remain in this sacrament without a subject?
The accidents continue in this sacrament without a subject. This can be done by divine power; for since an effect depends more upon the first cause than on the second, God, Who is the first cause both of substance and accident, can by His unlimited power preserve an accident in existence when the substance is withdrawn . . . just as without natural causes He can produce other effects of natural causes, even as He formed a human body in the Virgin’s womb without the seed of man (III,77,1).
The Eucharist is not logically impossible, but it is physically impossible, like any other miracle. What is logically impossible is self-contradictory and meaningless, and cannot happen even by infinite, supernatural force. God cannot make 2 plus 2 to equal 3 rather than 4 even by infinite power, not because any power is lacking, but because it is meaningless. So if it is logically impossible for accidents to exist without a substance, then even God cannot do this.
But it is not logically impossible. God can certainly create the appearances of a fire, or water, without there being any actual fire or water, so that our senses are deceived. Even we can do something similar (though not identical) by hypnosis. God could even make the apparent fire to burn up something real, for He could create the effects (burning) of a natural substance directly, without using the intermediate cause of that natural substance (fire). So it is not logically impossible. It is only impossible physically, impossible by any power in nature.
But God created nature, and God’s power is unlimited by anything in nature. If He could become a temporal man without ceasing to be the eternal God; if He could create the entire universe out of nothing; if He could conceive a baby without a human father; then He certainly can maintain accidents in being directly without their usual substance being present. For God “is the first cause both of substance and accident”. He can bypass natural causes, as He did with the Virgin Birth.
How arrogant to limit God by our imagination! God has to keep reminding us over and over again of those two important facts of our existence, as He said to St. Catherine (and also, implicitly, to Job): (1) “I’m God” and (2) “You’re not.” The fact that we keep forgetting these two most obvious facts in our lives, and need to be constantly reminded of them, is proof of the fallenness of our minds, and of the loving patience of our Heavenly Father to His severely forgetful children.
And if He can do the miracles of the Creation and the Incarnation, He can do any miracles. How foolish to believe in the Big Bang from the Maker of the Big Bang but deny the possibility of any later little bangs from the same Source.
Therefore, when you deeply desire some good, and pray earnestly for it, do not think for one moment that God cannot do it, either by natural or supernatural causes. He is limited by nothing: not by the past, not by history, not by other things in the world, as if He had to coordinate all things in such a way that the good of each was compromised for the good of all. “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” If He does not do the good thing you pray for now, either He will do it later, or in another way, or He will do something better. “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Rom 8:28) in ways we seldom can foresee. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). His wisdom exceeds ours as much as His power does. It is utterly irrational to limit His reason and wisdom by what we take to be rational.