Question Three: On the Species Under Which Christ Is Present

S. Th. III, q. 77.

255. Principle I. In the sacrament of the Eucharist the accidents of bread and wine, taken collectively, remain without a subject. - For they are not in bread or wine, because it ceases; - nor in Christ, for such accidents do not befit a man, and the glorious Christ is not changed or altered; - nor in those standing around, for accidents do not pass from subject to subject.

But if they are compared with one another, dimensive quantity alone, or extension, properly subsists without a subject, and the others remain in it as in a subject; for it is established by experience that all accidents of a body are extended, which cannot be unless they reside in extensive quantity.

256. Principle II. God supplies the causality of the subject or substance with respect to the accidents: not indeed as a material cause in which the accidents inhere, but as an efficient cause, insofar as, the influx of the subject which is substance being removed, He nevertheless conserves the accidents under their own proper being.

This is not impossible, because the essence of an accident is not that which is in another or which inheres in substance, but that to which it belongs by its nature to be in another, or which has an aptitude and exigency of inhering in another. But just as substance, which by its nature requires that it be by itself, can supernaturally not be by itself, as is evident from the mystery of the incarnation; so supernaturally some accident can not be in another. Yet this is impossible for those accidents which essentially are modifications or modes of being of some subject, such as habit, grace, health, action, motion, relation, etc.

257. Principle III. Consequently upon their miraculous conservation, the accidents can exercise every action which they would exercise if bread and wine existed. - For action follows being; whence if being is given to them without substance, action also is given. Likewise they can undergo whatever they would undergo if bread or wine existed; whence by the powers of nature they can be corrupted by a natural agent.

When the species have been corrupted, the same thing is generated from them as would be produced from their substance; this is established by experience, for example by the phenomenon of nutrition. This does not happen from substance through the conversion of the body of Christ, which is impassible and cannot be reached by a natural agent; and if it were converted into something else, it would no longer be. But it happens by the action of divine omnipotence, supplying the absent matter, not indeed through a new miracle but by force of the preceding miracle: for since the accidents of bread and wine can undergo as substance would, if dispositions are produced in them which require another substance, the matter of this substance, which is lacking, must be made by God: either by creating it, as some say, or better, as others say, by converting the remaining quantity of the species into this matter.

258. Principle IV. When the species have been corrupted in such a way that the very substance of bread and wine would be corrupted according to common estimation, the presence of Christ ceases. - For then the word this does not retain its signification, nor do the species remain which are the sensible sign instituted by Christ.

The presence of Christ does not cease by conversion, as was said in the preceding number; nor by removal or annihilation; but it ceases because the relation of His body and blood to the species ceases: for when the containing thing ceases, the contained thing also ceases to be contained. Yet it ceases without any change of Himself, just as God ceases to be lord of a creature which ceases.

259. Corollaries. - Christ ceases to be present not only if the species are corrupted in the strict sense; but also

a) if the species are divided into parts so small that they are no longer sensible;

b) or are no longer bread and wine;

c) likewise if another liquid is poured into consecrated wine by which the wine is chemically and substantially changed, for which sometimes a small quantity can suffice;

d) similarly if another liquid is mixed with wine in so notable a quantity that it is diffused through the whole and is no longer judged to be wine;

e) indeed, more probably, if wine is added in such quantity to consecrated wine. Many in this case, with a certain probability, judge that it remains consecrated, especially if wine of the same species is added, because the species remain which are the sensible sign of the sacrament, whence it is counseled that priests in the second ablution take more water than wine; - yet St. Thomas more truly denies it: for although the species of wine remain, nevertheless this is not the same wine numerically, at least according to common estimation.

Let it be noted that under the added liquid or wine Christ most certainly does not become present, because that was not consecrated.

260. Practical observations. - The permanence of the species in man depends upon the digestive power of each one, which is very diverse. Whence among the sick they remain even after several hours, or perhaps even after a day. For the healthy, certain men have said that they are very quickly corrupted, unless perhaps the stomach is full of foods; more commonly they estimate that after a quarter of an hour they are corrupted; others, however, require half an hour for full corruption, who speak more scientifically than according to the estimation of men.¹ Hence in practice:

¹ It is said that chemical qualities remain longer. But perhaps something can chemically be bread, although it is no longer so according to the estimation of men, because the physical sensible qualities are now lacking.

1. Hosts should not be too thin, lest they be corrupted more quickly.

2. It is fitting, on account of reverence toward the sacrament, that those communicating make thanksgiving for at least a quarter of an hour and abstain from secular affairs.

3. Likewise that they not eat; but if this were done without any reason, there will easily be present a certain slight irreverence.

4. One who has received holy communion, within some hours after the sacrament has been received, cannot, on account of some infirmity of the stomach, provoke himself to vomiting or wash out the stomach, because on account of the infirmity there is danger that the species have not yet been corrupted. Thus as long as the permanence of the species is probable.

5. In the case of vomiting, the prescription of the Roman Missal, tit. 10, de def., n. 14, has force: "If the species appear whole, let them be reverently consumed, unless nausea occurs; for then the consecrated species should be carefully separated and placed in some sacred place, until they are corrupted, and afterwards they should be thrown into the sacrarium. But if the species do not appear, let the vomit be burned, and the ashes sent into the sacrarium."

6. In the act of spitting, however, there is no danger of irreverence, because saliva comes from the respiratory passage, not from the stomach; yet it is cautious to abstain from this for some time, lest perhaps some fragment has adhered to the teeth or throat and be rejected.

7. A cough, even if it be rather frequent and much saliva at once be expectorated, does not impede communion, because the saliva which is expelled by coughing does not come from the stomach and esophagus, but from the lungs and bronchi. Only then, if the sick person should suddenly be tried by a very violent cough, would there be danger lest, by the very impulse of the cough, or by vomiting which would be excited by coughing, the sacred host be rejected.