The Real Presence

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 itis 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.

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.

And the whole Christ is present under every part or quantity of each species. As a loaf of bread is bread, anda 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 crumbis 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).

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 areaccidentals 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 fullstature, but that stature is not externally measured ordimensioned.

Christ’s body is not in this sacrament as a body isin a place. For a body in a place is there according toits external dimensions, and these make the body commensurate withthe dimensions of the place it occupies. But Christ’s body isnot 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 tothe manner of substance, which is complete in any quantity, large or small, that exists.

Our Lord is not present in a movable way inthe 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 thought he sacramental species are so subject.

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.

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. Theapparition is an apparition, not a reality. The blood that is seen to flow from a consecrated host (as a miraculous manifestation) isnot 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.