What does the word “transubstantiation” communicate to us that makes it the best word to express Catholic belief? Nestled together in this one English word are two Latin words: trans and substantia. Trans means “across” in the sense of a change in location or movement of a thing and “substantia” means substance. So the idea that a literal translation of transubstantiation conveys is that of a substance moving or changing. This word means one substance crossing over or changing to become a different substance.
The Catholic Church’s teaching throughout the millenia is that at the words of consecration during Mass the substance of bread changes into the substance of the flesh of Jesus Christ, making Him present — body, blood, soul, and divinity — in the consecrated Host.
What Reason Tells Us
The idea of bread turning into flesh seems shocking at first until we reflect on the idea. People can do the same without thinking a thought or saying a word. Every time you eat a sandwich, your body automatically turns bread into your flesh. But you will never know where it went — to a muscle, to a fingernail, or to a bone — because it has been transformed from bread into a part of your body. Even animals can do this. Birds eat bread crumbs and voilá, feathers — or beaks or muscle — are created. In both humans and animals, the substance of bread turns into a substance that does not leave a noticeable trace of its precursor, bread. Now, what distinguishes this commonplace gastrointestinal/nutritional fact from the daily miracle that occurs on the altars during Catholic and Orthodox Masses?
Philosophy: Systematic Reason at Work
The answer lies in what philosophy calls “accidents.” The pre-eminent ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle observed change and, using the power of observation and deductive reasoning, realized that change occurs in nature on one of two levels: on the level of substance or on the level of accidents. A somewhat imperfect but nevertheless helpful way to begin to grasp what philosophers mean by these terms is to liken substances to nouns and accidents to adjectives. A “substance” is what a thing is. For example, a substance can be a picture or a carrot or a dog or a tree. An “accident” is like an adjective, for example, round, orange, German Shepherd, or oak. Since transubstantiation is the topic at hand, let’s take the example of bread. The substance is bread (not cake, not muffins, not pastries). Some of the accidents of the Eucharistic bread are “round,” “flat,” “white,” and “wheat.”
Accordingly, Aristotle identified four categories of change involving substances and accidents. He wrote that one of these categories of change occurs on the level of substance without a concommitant change in the accidents. What he just described — although he couldn’t think of an example — is transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is an example of a change in substance while the accidents remain the same. This means that there is an interior undetectable change that occurs while the exterior you see remains the same. Aristotle lived three centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ.
Faith
So long before the Catholic Church received from Christ the reality of the Blessed Sacrament, the Greek Aristotle was able to reason his way to an understanding of what — many centuries later — would be called transubstantiation. Because we can’t see Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament with our eyes, we need faith. We need faith to believe that what seems visibly to be only a white, round piece of bread is really in its essence our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And our faith needs to be grounded in a trustworthy source. Our Catholic faith is based on the words of Jesus Christ Himself. We trust Jesus is telling us the truth not only in John 6, but also in the institution narratives recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22. During the Last Supper, recorded in these three Gospel accounts, Christ’s gives thanks and blesses the bread and wine before stating the bread is his flesh and the wine is his blood. Additionally, there is the testimony of the once violent opponent of Christianity, the Apostle St. Paul. In 1 Corinthians chapters 10 and 11, St. Paul proclaims that the bread is the flesh and the wine the blood of Jesus Christ.
Faith on Display
There is a good reason why older pictures of the Blessed Sacrament frequently depicted the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P) in the center of the Host. The X (which in English corresponds to the letters, ch) and the P (in English, r) are the first letters of the Greek word “christos” referring to the Anointed or Messiah spoken of in the Hebrew Old Testament. It is clear that calling Jesus “Christ” means that Jesus is the Anointed or Messiah. Through Jesus’s revelation in the New Testament, we learn that the Christ is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Artistically, the chi and rho communicate the reality of Christ’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament and remind the worshipper that there is a Divine Person present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. When the words of consecration are spoken over the bread and wine, the Word becomes present on the altar.
“Transubstantiation” is the word that best conveys this truth, declared by Christ and handed down throughout the centuries, beginning with the Apostles and to the present day.
© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange
Sue Reilly owned and ran an editorial business outside Washington DC for approximately 15 years. She has a Master's Degree in Theology from Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College and is the Director of Religious Education at Queen of Apostles Church in Alexandria, Virginia, and Secretary of the Catechetical Leaders of the Diocese of Arlington.
