Lesson 20 – How is Jesus Present in the Eucharist?

The Catholic Church takes Jesus at his word, when he says at the last supper: "This is my body. Do this in memory of me." The Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Jesus, present under the appearances of bread and wine.

But, how can this be? We continue to see what looks like bread and wine, and it continues to taste like bread and wine, and to behave like bread and wine. How could the body of Christ be there?

Course Reading

Summa Theologiae III, q. 75, a. 1 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae III, q. 76, a. 1 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Stephen Brock, "St. Thomas and the Eucharistic Conversion"

Excerpt from the Summa Theologiae III, q. 76, a. 1

It is absolutely necessary to confess according to Catholic faith that the entire Christ is in this sacrament. Yet we must know that there is something of Christ in this sacrament in a twofold manner: first, as it were, by the power of the sacrament; secondly, from natural concomitance. By the power of the sacrament, there is under the species of this sacrament that into which the pre-existing substance of the bread and wine is changed, as expressed by the words of the form, which are effective in this as in the other sacraments; for instance, by the words: "This is My body," or, "This is My blood."

Course Listening

The Eucharist: How Could Christ be Present in Many Places at Once? | Prof. Alexander Pruss

The Presence of Christ: Aquinas on Eucharistic Transubstantiation | Prof. Reinhard Huetter