The Holy Eucharist
73. The Holy Eucharist
1. In the bodily order, a person must first be born, and thereafter he requires steady nourishment as long as life lasts. In the spiritual order, a person is born by baptism, matured by confirmation, and steadily nourished by Holy Eucharist. Every sacrament is a special aid to man in his spiritual life. The Holy Eucharist is the special spiritual nourishment required by the child of God.
2. The Holy Eucharist is one sacrament, though it is both the flesh and the blood of our Lord.
3. The Holy Eucharist is the most excellent of sacraments, for it is our Lord and God himself. But, notwithstanding its surpassing excellence, it is not required for a man's salvation in the way in which baptism is required. For baptism is the beginning of the life of the soul; Holy Eucharist is the consummation of that life. Yet baptism looks on to Holy Eucharist, as beginning looks to consummation. Indeed, all the sacraments are directed to the Holy Eucharist.
4. The faithful children of the Church give to the Holy Eucharist various and reverently significant names: (a) Eucharist, which means "good grace"; (b) Communion or Synaxis, to indicate the union and unity of the faithful with Christ in this sacrament; (c) Viaticum, a special title, meaning "companion on the way," given to this sacrament when it is received in serious illness to be the soul's companion and support on the way to judgment; (d) Sacrifice, inasmuch as the Holy Eucharist is confected and offered in Holy Mass, which is the identical sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross, except in the manner of offering: for Christ died on the cross, but does not die in the Mass; the Mass represents his death, but does not reproduce it.
5. Our Lord instituted this great sacrament when he was about to depart from visible communication with his apostles. He would remain with them in reality, but as wrapped in the mystery of this sacrament. Again, Christ celebrated the Pasch, bringing to an end the ceremony of the Old Law, and instituting a new sacrament, which is the true Pasch. Our Lord chose the solemn moment of this Last Supper to fix this great Eucharistic mystery deep in the minds and hearts of his apostles.
6. The paschal lamb was the chief Old Testament figure of the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. St. Paul (I Cor. 5:7) says: "Christ our pasch is sacrificed."
74. The Matter of the Holy Eucharist
1. The matter of the Holy Eucharist is bread and wine.
2. No determinate amount of bread and wine is requisite for this sacrament. No tangible quantity of bread and wine is either too small or too large for valid use in confecting the Holy Eucharist. Reverence, and church law, determines the seemly amount of the matter to be employed.
3. The bread which is requisite as matter for the Holy Eucharist is bread made of wheaten flour.
4. True wheaten bread, leavened or unleavened, is valid matter for the Holy Eucharist. The Church decides which type of wheaten bread is to be used. In the Latin Church, unleavened bread is prescribed; in the Greek rite, leavened bread is used.
5. True wine of the grape is necessary as matter for the Holy Eucharist. At the institution of the sacrament, our Lord said (Matt. 26:29): "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine . . ."
6. At Holy Mass, a little water is mingled with the wine that is to be consecrated. This recalls the fact that water was mingled with the last drops of redeeming blood that flowed from the side of Christ as he hung upon the cross. It also suggests, as Pope Julius says, the unity of Christ and the faithful: the wine signifies Christ, and the water the people.
7. This mingling of a few drops of water with the wine to be consecrated at Mass is a requirement of strict church law, but it is not essential to the validity of the consecration.
8. Only a very small quantity of water is mingled with the wine which is used as matter for confecting the Holy Eucharist at Mass. If much water were used, the mixture could no longer be called true wine, and therefore would not be valid matter for this sacrament.
75. Transubstantiation
1. The words of consecration, pronounced by the priest, change bread and wine into the true body and blood of Christ. This sacrament is not a symbol or sign of Christ's body and blood; it is, in actual fact, the body and blood of Christ.
2. By the consecration, the substance of the bread and the substance of the wine cease to exist, and there remains only the substance of the living Christ.
3. The substance of the bread and the substance of the wine are not merely dissolved or disintegrated, either gradually or instantaneously; neither are these substances annihilated. They are changed into the body and blood of Christ.
4. The whole substance of the bread is, by divine power, changed into the whole substance of the body of Christ. And the whole substance of the wine is, by divine power, changed into the whole substance of the blood of Christ.
5. The accidentals or accidents of bread and wine (such as, size, color, shape, taste) remain after the change, which is called tran-substantiation, has taken place. These accidentals do not become the accidentals of Christ; they remain the accidentals of bread and wine, even though the substance of bread and the substance of wine no longer exist to be qualified by these accidentals.
6. The element in a bodily thing that makes it the kind of substance that it is, is called the substantial form of that thing. When a substantial form is joined with primal matter, it constitutes the matter as an existing bodily substance of a definite kind. Now, in transub-stantiation, the substantial form of bread (that which constitutes the bread as this kind of substance and no other) is removed; it does not remain, for the substance is now not bread at all, but the substance of the living Christ. And the same is true of the substantial form of the wine; it does not remain, for, by transubstantiation, that which was wine is now not wine at all, but the substance of the living Christ.
7. Transubstantiation is an instantaneous change. There is no consuming of time, no movement of the elements (bread and wine) through successive stages or degrees as the change occurs which turns bread and wine into the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. That which infinite power accomplishes need not be worked by degrees, or with time intervals, as though some effort and skill were being applied to the work.
8. To say, "The body of Christ is made out of bread," is true when the words are rightly understood, that is, when these words are understood to mean, "Bread is changed substantially, and is now no longer bread, but the body of Christ."
76. The Real Presence
1. In the Holy Eucharist, Christ is present whole and entire (body, blood, soul, and Godhead or divinity) under the appearances or accidentals of bread and wine. The words of consecration (which constitute the form of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist) bring the living Christ, God and man, truly present. The words, "This is my body," bring Christ's body truly present. This is Christ's living body; therefore, it has its blood, its soul, and the Godhead which assumed this body. The words, "This is my blood," bring Christ's blood truly present. This is Christ's living blood; therefore it is in its body, with the soul, and the divinity or Godhead which assumed this blood. Thus, the whole Christ is present under the appearances of bread, and the whole Christ is present under the appearances of wine, and the whole Christ is present under both appearances together. For, if two things are really united, wherever one is the other must be. And Christ's complete humanity (in its elements of body, blood, and soul) is really united with his divinity. Thus, by the power of this sacrament, the body of Christ is present at the words, "This is my body," and, by the necessity of concomitance, the blood of Christ is present also, as is the soul, and the divinity. And the blood of Christ is present at the words, "This is my blood," and, by the necessity of concomitance, the body of Christ is present also, as is the soul, and the divinity.
2. Therefore, the whole Christ, God and man, is contained under each species-that is, each set of appearances, namely, the appearances of bread, and the appearances of wine.
3. And the whole Christ is present under every part or quantity of each species. As a loaf of bread is bread, and a slice of bread is bread, and a crumb of bread is bread, so, the Eucharistic species, in whatever quantity, is Christ. There is a difference, however, in the fact that Christ is not diminished as the bread is diminished when the loaf is taken and a slice is left, or when a slice is taken away and only a crumb is left. Christ is not made smaller as the species becomes smaller, but is whole and entire (entirely unaffected by any external dimensions) in any tangible quantity of the consecrated matter (that is, bread and wine).
4. The whole dimensive quantity of Christ's body is present in every particle of the Eucharistic species (every crumb, every drop), but Christ's body has not its external extension or dimensions. Nor is Christ's body measured, and "sized," according to the amounts and measurements of the species of bread and wine. The dimensions of the species are accidentals of the species; they do not become the dimensions of Christ. But the dimensions of Christ are present after the manner in which the substance of Christ is present, that is, complete in each particle, as bread is complete bread in each loaf, and slice, and crumb. The size of the sacred host is not the size of Christ; nor is Christ present in miniature, or as cramped under a quantity of the species; he is present whole and entire, and in full stature, but that stature is not externally measured or dimensioned.
5. Christ's body is not in this sacrament as a body is in a place. For a body in a place is there according to its external dimensions, and these make the body commensurate with the dimensions of the place it occupies. But Christ's body is not present in the Eucharist according to external dimensions. His body is present quantitatively, not in the manner of the external accidentals of measurement and dimension, but according to the manner of substance, which is complete in any quantity, large or small, that exists.
6. Our Lord is not present in a movable way in the Holy Eucharist. Only a body that is located (that is, is in a place according to external dimensions), can be moved from place to place. Hence, when the Eucharistic species is moved, Christ is not moved. If the sacred host be dropped, Christ does not fall down. If the sacred host be moved from right to left, from left to right, or raised or lowered, Christ himself is not thus moved about. Christ is not subject to local movement, even though the sacramental species are so subject.
7. The body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, as the Holy Eucharist is lovingly called, cannot be seen by any eye, even the eye of a glorified body. The glorified eye sees Christ in his own proper species, as he is in heaven since the day of Ascension. No eye can see Christ as he is present in the Holy Eucharist. Christ is seen there by the mind, the intellect, illumined by faith. The glorified intellect (in heaven) sees all supernatural things in its view of the beatific vision of God.
8. When, by an apparition, flesh or blood is seen in the sacred host, this is not the actual flesh and blood of Christ. The actual flesh and blood of Christ is present, but invisible. The apparition is an apparition, not a reality. The blood that is seen to flow from a consecrated host (as a miraculous manifestation) is not Christ's own blood, which is never shed again after the Passion. Such a manifestation is a fearsome reminder to the observers to be aware of the real blood of Christ present in the host invisibly.
77. The Accidents or Accidentals of the Holy Eucharist
1. A substance is a reality regularly suited to exist as itself, and not to exist merely as the mark or qualification or determinant of something else. An accident, or an accidental, is a reality regularly suited to exist, not as itself, but as the mark or qualification or determinant of something else. Thus, a man is a substance. But a man's size, age, appearance, knowledge, and so forth, exist, not as themselves, but as marks or qualifications of the man; these are accidents or accidentals of the man. Accidentals are said to inhere in the reality which they mark or determine or qualify. And the reality qualified by accidentals is called their subject. The subject of accidentals is fundamentally a substance. The substance of bread is the subject of the accidentals of bread; the substance of wine is the subject of the accidentals of wine. When, by transubstantiation, the substance of bread and the substance of wine are changed into the substance of Christ, the accidentals of bread and wine remain in existence without a subject. These accidentals of bread and wine remain accidentals of bread and wine; they do not inhere in the substance of Christ; they are not accidentals of Christ. Hence, while we can say of the sacred host that it is round, and white, and brittle, and that it is two or three inches in diameter, we cannot say any of these things of the reality which the sacred host actually is, that is, the body and blood, the soul and divinity, of Jesus Christ.
2. It seems that in the Holy Eucharist, the quantity of the bread and of the wine endures, and that the other accidents (such as color, flavor, brittleness) exist in this quantity as in their subject.
3. The sacramental species can, by divine power (since all action ultimately depends on God as first agent), affect other bodies. Thus, we can feel the sacred species on the tongue, taste its flavor, etc.
4. The accidentals (species) of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist are subject to corruption, that is, to spoiling, to souring. When such corruption is advanced to the degree that would make ordinary bread and wine cease to be true bread and wine, our Lord ceases to be present under the species.
5. When the sacred species are destroyed (corrupted by rotting, spoiling, souring, or mingled or melted in much water, or burned with fire), they generate other things; for instance, ashes, if the species be burned. Such corrupting does not affect the body and blood of Christ who ceases to be present as soon as corruption of the species occurs.
6. The normal effect of natural bread and wine (that is, its effect of nourishing the person who takes it in as food and drink) is in the sacred species, the accidentals of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist. But when these species are digested by the receiver, they are corrupted, and Christ ceases to be present under them.
7. The breaking or dividing of the species is not a breaking or dividing of Christ. It is a change of quantity which is an accidental of the species, and not an accidental of the body and blood of Christ. Christ is present, whole and entire, unchanged and undiminished, in every part of the broken host, and in every separated amount of liquid in the consecrated chalice.
8. Any liquid added to the chalice that would make it other than the consecrated matter of the Eucharist, would corrupt the species, and Christ would no longer be present. If only a drop or two of liquid were so added, the presence of Christ would be withdrawn from the tiny quantity which these drops would substantially change, but would not be withdrawn from the contents of the chalice as a whole.
78. The Form of the Holy Eucharist
1. The form of a sacrament is the authentic, authoritative, and effective set of words which constitute the matter (or sign) as a sacrament. The form of the Holy Eucharist is the consecrating formula of words used in Holy Mass: "This is my body . . . This is my blood."
2. The form of the Holy Eucharist is found in Holy Scripture (Matt. 26:27, 28). It consists of the words used by our Lord himself when he instituted this great sacrament.
3. The words of institution, reported by three of the four Evangelists, were words of instruction to the apostles, who employed them as the form of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist.
4. The words of consecration at Mass, uttered by a duly ordained priest who is, in this action, the instrument of Christ, actually change the bread and wine into the substance of Christ himself. Christ is the chief priest at every Mass, for he is the principal cause of tran-substantiation, and his power flows through the priest (the instrumental cause) who utters the consecrating words (the form of Holy Eucharist) in the name and the Person of Christ.
5. The words (that is, the form of this sacrament) are not uttered by the consecrating priest as words of a narrative; they are not merely descriptive or historical words. The words are uttered with efficacious power to do and to accomplish what they say. The power of the words comes from the divine power of Christ, in whose Person and by whose direction and will they are uttered over bread and wine by the consecrating priest.
6. The priest pronounces the words of consecration over the bread, and afterwards over the wine. Some have mistakenly thought that the effectiveness of the words of consecration is suspended, so to speak, until all of them are uttered. The truth is that the words of consecration are effective the instant that they are pronounced. When the consecrating priest says, "This is my body," Christ is instantly present under the appearance of bread; and when, a moment afterwards, the priest says, "This is my blood," Christ is at once present under the appearance of wine.
79. The Effects of the Holy Eucharist
1. Our Lord said (John 6:52): "The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The life of which our Lord speaks is the spiritual life of grace. The Holy Eucharist is the richest source of grace, for it is the sacrament which is Christ himself, by whom alone grace comes to man.
2. The attaining of heaven is an effect of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. For Christ says (John 6:52): "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever." Those who receive this sacrament worthily are immediately helped toward eternal glory. The Holy Eucharist is Christ, and it represents his Passion; it is only by Christ and his Passion that men can win to heaven.
3. To receive the Holy Eucharist worthily, a man must be free from mortal sin. Our Lord has prepared for us a sacrament to cleanse us from such sin. Hence, it would be sacrilegious for a person conscious of deliberate mortal sin to receive the Holy Eucharist. He must first cleanse his soul of mortal sin by receiving worthily the sacrament of penance. Although the Holy Eucharist contains all power, it was not instituted for the purpose of forgiving mortal sins.
4. Nevertheless, the Holy Eucharist does "blot out venial sins, and it wards off mortal sins from the soul," as Pope Innocent III has said. Hence, St. Ambrose declares that this daily Bread is a remedy for our daily infirmity.
5. The Holy Eucharist was not instituted for making satisfaction for sins, but for giving spiritual nourishment by uniting Christ with his members. This union, however, is effected by charity, and charity obtains forgiveness and renders satisfaction. A person who receives the Holy Eucharist worthily, does not receive full remission of the punishment due to his sins, but he does receive some remission of that punishment; the extent of this remission of punishment is measured by the devotion and fervor of the person receiving the Holy Eucharist. Also as a sacrifice (that is, as offered in Holy Mass), the Eucharist makes satisfaction according to the devotion "of the offerers," and "of those for whom the sacrifice is offered."
6. The Holy Eucharist is a most powerful preservative from sin. It gives a person spiritual nourishment which strengthens him against inner weakness, and it also arms him against assaults that come from without. St. John says (6:50): "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die." Manifestly, St. John speaks here of the spiritual death of sin.
7. Thus, the Holy Eucharist is of the greatest benefit to those who receive it. It is also of the highest benefit to those for whom it is offered in the sacrifice of the Mass.
8. Venial sins committed in the past do not hinder the effects of the Holy Eucharist, and, as we have seen, the devout receiver of the Holy Eucharist obtains remission of such sins. But venial sins that accompany the receiving of the Holy Eucharist partially hinder the effects of this great sacrament; yet they do not entirely block out the sanctifying grace and charity which the sacrament bestows on a man's soul.
80. The Receiving of the Holy Eucharist
1. The Holy Eucharist, usually called the Blessed Sacrament, is received sacramentally by one who actually consumes the sacred species. It is received spiritually by one who, through faith and charity, desires to receive it sacramentally.
2. Man alone may receive this sacrament spiritually. The angels see Christ in his own species, and they desire him so, and possess him so. Only man can desire our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
3. Our Lord is actually present in the Holy Eucharist; therefore, he who receives this sacrament, receives Christ. Even though a sinner receives sacrilegiously, he receives Christ. It is entirely mistaken to say that when the sacred species are touched by the lips of a sinner, Christ ceases to be present.
4. If a person conscious of mortal sin receives this sacrament, he "eateth and drinketh judgment to himself" (I Cor. 11:29). Such receiving adds to the sin already on the receiver's soul, the new mortal sin of sacrilege.
5. Unbelief and blasphemy, which involve contempt of God, are, in themselves, greater sins than the sin of receiving the Holy Eucharist unworthily. Of course, unworthy receiving of the Eucharist may be accompanied by blasphemy and contemptuous unbelief, and so it becomes the greatest of sins. But, in itself, although a very grave sin, a sacrilegious Communion is not the greatest of sins.
6. A priest is to deny the Holy Eucharist to notorious public sinners, but not to occult sinners who ask to receive this sacrament.
7. What occurs in sleep is never perfectly voluntary, and hence is not gravely sinful. Yet sometimes a sense of propriety or becomingness suggests that one refrain from receiving the Holy Eucharist after an unfortunate occurrence during sleep.
8. Except in cases of persons sick or unable to fast, it is the practice of the Church to require a fast before the receiving of Holy Eucharist.
9. People who have always been devoid of the use of reason, or who have become insane, are not to be given the Holy Eucharist. If an insane person once was sane and had faith and reverence for God, he is not to be denied the Holy Eucharist at the hour of death, provided there is no danger of his ejecting the sacred host. Feeble-minded persons who have some knowledge of the Blessed Sacrament, and some degree of devotion, are to be admitted to Holy Communion.
10. St. Augustine says (De Verb. Dom. Serm. 28): "This is our daily Bread; take it daily that it may perfect thee daily." Those who are properly disposed should receive the Holy Eucharist as frequently as possible.
11. No one can lawfully abstain altogether from the Holy Eucharist. The Church demands a worthy Communion at least once yearly. And our Lord himself says (John 6:54): "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you."
12. It is a wise provision of the Church that this sacrament can be received under one form only. Reverence for the sacrament, added to the difficulty of reserving and distributing the sacred species, has suggested that the faithful receive our Lord under the form of bread alone. This is the practice of the Latin Church. The sacrament is confected in bread and wine in Holy Mass, and is received under both forms by the sacrificing priest.
81. Our Lord's Use of the Holy Eucharist
1. Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, the night before he died. He gave this sacrament to his apostles in Holy Communion. And he received this sacrament himself.
2. Some have thought that Christ did not give Holy Communion to Judas. But it seems that Judas received our Lord with the other apostles.
3. When our Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist, and gave himself to his apostles under the species of bread and wine, he had not yet endured his Passion, except in intention. His body was not yet glorified, as it was to be glorified in the Resurrection, but was a passible body, that is, a body that could endure pain and death. What Christ gave to his apostles in the Holy Eucharist was his body as it was then, that is, at the time of the Last Supper. And yet, that body, passible in itself, was not passible in the Holy Eucharist because pas-sibility depends on external extension, and even the passible body of Christ was unextended in the Eucharist, as this was given at the Last Supper. After the Resurrection of our Lord, his body in the Holy Eucharist is the glorified and impassible body.
4. If the Blessed Sacrament had been reserved in a tabernacle or had been consecrated by an apostle at the time of Christ's Crucifixion, our Lord would have died in the Blessed Sacrament as he died on the cross. For Christ is one and the same substantial being in his concrete bodily existence and in the Holy Eucharist.
82. The Minister of the Holy Eucharist
1. The Sacrament of Holy Eucharist is of such dignity that it is confected only in the Person and by the authority of Christ himself. Hence, a priest is one ordained and appointed to act as Christ's instrument, and to use Christ's own voice and authority in confecting the Holy Eucharist at Mass. Only a duly ordained priest can consecrate the elements of bread and wine and so confect the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. Only the priest can offer this sacrament as sacrifice, and he does this when he celebrates Holy Mass.
2. It is possible for several priests to consecrate one and the same host. And, at ordination, the newly ordained priests con-celebrate the Mass with the ordaining bishop. All say the words of consecration together, and jointly consecrate the host which is held in the bishop's hands.
3. Apart from cases of necessity (as, for example, when the sacred species is in danger from fire or flood or desecration), no one but the priest should touch the consecrated hosts. Therefore, the priest is not only the minister of consecration (that is, of confecting the sacrament of Holy Eucharist at Mass), but he is also the minister of distributing the Blessed Sacrament to all who receive it in Holy Communion. A deacon may distribute Holy Communion, with pastor's or bishop's permission, when there is a reasonable cause for having him do so.
4. The Holy Eucharist is both a sacrament and a sacrifice. Whoever offers a sacrifice must share in it. Hence, the priest who offers the Eucharistic Sacrifice (that is, the Mass), must receive the Eucharist as sacrament. Otherwise the sacrifice would not be complete.
5. The power of consecration, of confecting the Holy Eucharist, is given to the priest, and as often as he celebrates Mass he exercises this power. It is a power independent of the priest's own condition as virtuous or wicked. Even a priest in serious sin confects the Holy Eucharist when he offers Mass.
6. In itself, the Mass of a wicked priest is of equal value with the Mass of a good priest. In either case, it is the same sacrifice. And the prayers of a sinful priest during Mass and in all his ecclesiastical offices, are fruitful prayers inasmuch as they are offered by one set and qualified to speak officially for the Church. But the private prayers of a bad priest are not fruitful, for scripture says (Prov. 28:9): "He that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an abomination."
7. If a duly ordained priest should become a heretic, schismatic, or be excommunicated, he would still have the power to consecrate, although he would sin gravely in using that power. Even those who are validly ordained priests outside the Church (by heretical, schismatic, or excommunicated bishops) have the power to consecrate.
8. A priest degraded and deprived of the right to consecrate is not deprived of the power to consecrate.
9. One may not lawfully assist at Mass offered by a heretical, schismatic, or excommunicated priest, nor may one lawfully receive Holy Communion at his hands. However, this prohibition applies only when the official condemnation of the Church has been pronounced, and the priest in question has been declared heretical, schismatical, or excommunicated.
10. A priest, even if he have not the care of souls, is under obligation of offering the Mass on some occasions, as for example, on the major feast days. Such obligation is in the priesthood itself, which calls for sacrifice, not only in the service of the people, but for the glory of God. If the priest never consecrated the Holy Eucharist in Mass, he would be a priest in vain. Scripture says (II Cor. 6:1): "We exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain."
83. The Rite of the Holy Eucharist
1. Christ is truly sacrificed in the Holy Eucharist at Mass, but not in a bloody manner, that is, not with the shedding of his blood and his death in consequence. St. Augustine says: "Christ was sacrificed once in himself, and yet he is sacrificed daily in the Sacrament."
2. The time of celebrating the Eucharistic Sacrifice is set by the Church.
3. Mass is to be celebrated in a suitable place, usually indoors, and with vessels that are blessed or consecrated to their sacred use.
4. Surrounding the words of Christ which are the form of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, the Church, through the ages, has reverently arranged pertinent prayers of praise and adoration, of penance, of thanksgiving, of petition.
5. The action of the Mass in which the matter (bread and wine) of the Eucharist is offered to God, then consecrated by use of the form, and then received in Holy Communion, is filled with suitable ceremonies prescribed by the Church.
6. If the priest who is celebrating Mass is unable to continue because of a sudden illness, or if he dies at the altar, his Mass is not completed unless he has already consecrated the host or the host and the chalice. In this case, another priest finishes the Mass and thus completes the sacrifice.