Question — Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis
Question Two: On the Mode by Which Christ Is Present
S. Th. III, q. 76 and q. 81, a. 3 and 4.
It is proved: 1. From the Scriptures. John VI, 58, Christ said: He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. The word Me signifies the whole Christ; therefore the whole is received and consequently is present under the species of bread, under which alone He is eaten. Whence the Apostle to the Corinthians, XI, 27, says that he is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord who shall have eaten the consecrated bread or drunk the chalice of the Lord.
- From Tradition, which is established from the Liturgies, the Fathers, and the Councils Florence, Constance, sess. 8, art. 17, and Trent, l.c.
The Liturgies and Fathers say that in the sacrament Christ is living, whole, as He is in heaven, God. The practice is to adore even one species, in which therefore at least the divinity also is present; likewise the practice is to communicate under one species, in which therefore Christ is whole, for Christ is said to be eaten.
- By reason: a) That which is contained somewhere, is there totally with all things which, as parts here and now inseparable, are united to it in the unity of the individual; otherwise it would be divided from itself; therefore the whole Christ is present under each species.
b) It would be absurd that the glorious body of Christ should be somewhere mutilated or without blood or soul; for "Christ rising from the dead now dies no more" (Rom. VI, 9).
250. Thesis II. In the Eucharist under the species, one thing is contained per se, i.e., by force of the sacrament or by force of the words of consecration, another per accidens or through real concomitance. - It is the common and certain doctrine, also consecrated by the Councils, Florence, and Trent, sess. 13, c. 3.
It is proved: The words per se effect what they formally signify: for they effect insofar as they signify; therefore by force of the sacrament or by force of the words that becomes present which they signify, namely, the body and blood of Christ. On the contrary, through concomitance there is present that which in fact is really united to another; therefore through natural or supernatural concomitance in the sacrament there is present whatever is naturally or supernaturally united to the body or blood of Christ.
And so: 1. By force of the words and per se there is contained that at which directly and per se the conversion which happens by force of the words is terminated, or that into which bread and wine are converted, namely, only the substance of the body under the species of bread, and only the substance of the blood under the species of wine. For what is signified to be contained under the species of bread through the words: This is My body, is the substance of the body of Christ, prescinding from its own connatural species and from accidents, from blood, from soul, and from divinity.
For My body signifies only the substance which has the being of body, abstracting from every other added substantial or accidental being, abstracting whether it receives that being from the soul or from another form, abstracting from this, whether it is still united to the Son of God and to divinity or not; since it is not essential to a body that it have itself in this way or that way. - In a similar way one can argue for the species of wine.
- Per accidens and by natural concomitance there is present that which in fact is naturally united with the term of conversion; but blood is naturally united with the body, and body with the blood, and with each soul and all proper accidents.
By circuminsession the Father and the Holy Spirit also are present there, where the Son is; but because they are not united to the body and blood, they are not properly there by concomitance.
Hence a) now the body, blood, soul, and indeed in the glorious state, are present under each species: for in the immortal Christ all these things are inseparably united;
b) in the Last Supper the blood and soul were not separated from the body: for a living body was present, but still passible, mortal, not glorious;
c) if in the three days of Christ's death consecration had been made, only the body would have been under the species of bread, only the blood under the species of wine, the soul nowhere, the divinity under each species, because what the Word assumed, He never dismissed;
d) but if the sacrament had been conserved, when Christ was dead, the presence of the blood and soul under the species of bread, of the body and soul under the species of wine, would have ceased, because they would no longer have been truly united; when Christ had risen, they would again have acceded in the glorious state.
251. Thesis III. The whole Christ exists under the whole species, and the whole under each of its parts after their separation; - indeed also already before separation. - The first is of faith from the Council of Trent, sess. 13, can. 3; the other is theologically certain from the same Council, sess. 13, c. 3, and from the universal consensus of theologians.
The first part is proved: a) From the universal practice of the Church, of breaking the consecrated host and distributing the particles both of consecrated bread and wine.
b) The apostles drank from one chalice (Mark XIV, 23). But each one by drinking received the whole Christ. Therefore the whole Christ is present under each part, once separation has been made.
The second part is proved: The presence of Christ is not effected by the division of parts but by consecration. Therefore if the whole Christ is present under each divided part, He is already present whole before division.
Each part is also established from the mode by which Christ is present, which is presence by mode of substance, as will be declared in the following number.
Nevertheless in one host He does not exist several times before division, but only once. For Christ is not in the sacrament several times because He Himself is multiplied, but because, since He is one, He is contained by several species. But as long as the host is undivided, there is one containing thing. Whence before division Christ is present only once; after division there are as many presences as there are parts of the sacrament.
252. Christ under the species is not present by mode of quantity but by mode of substance. - Since the whole Christ is present in the sacrament, it follows that He is present with His whole quantity or extension, with His organism and all powers of the body, indeed with the perceptions, operations, and passions which He has in heaven; otherwise He would be divided from Himself. Nevertheless He is not present in an extended mode or by mode of quantity, as He is in heaven, for He does not extend His parts to the parts of space so that one part of the body corresponds to one part of space, and another to another. For:
- He is not extended through the extension of the species of bread and wine. By transubstantiation indeed the species contain the body and blood of Christ, but they are not in Him, do not reside in Him, nor affect Him; whence they do not communicate their extension to Him. Moreover it is impossible that Christ, a man of adult age, have an extension no greater than a small host.
- Nor is He extended to space by His own extension. For every substance, even corporeal, through itself is not extended, but indivisible; it has dimensions, i.e., several parts, and one outside another, and it becomes extended by dimensive quantity. The whole substance is present in each of its parts, but by reason of its quantity or extension it is contained in one place where its dimensions are extended: for these are by nature apt to occupy place and a determinate position.
But in the Eucharist there is per se only the substance of the body and blood of Christ, at which the conversion is terminated; whence Christ is not present by reason of extension or quantity; but on the contrary, the extension and other accidents of Christ are present by concomitance and by reason of the substance, whence they are present by mode of substance, i.e., in that mode in which substance is present. Therefore Christ is whole in the whole species of bread and wine and whole in each part of it.
And so: while ordinarily corporeal substance is somewhere in a place by reason of its extension, here on the contrary extension is somewhere by reason of substance.
253. Corollaries. - From the aforesaid it follows:
- That Christ does not suffer anything from surrounding things nor operate corporeally upon them, because He is not present in an extended mode, which mode is a condition without which not for motion or corporeal action.1
1 Hence the singular opinion of Cienfuegos is by no means to be admitted, who holds that Christ from the sacrament exercises actions of sensitive life, and sees and hears those standing by. This is against the mode of sacramental presence.
- That the body of Christ in the sacrament is not moved per se, because it can receive no action or motion; but merely per accidens insofar as, the species to which it is united being moved, it ceases to be where they were and begins to be where they now are.
- That a corporeal eye cannot see Christ in the Eucharist, because He is not present in an extended mode. Whence neither does Christ Himself see the others standing around nor hear those speaking, although He knows all these things both by the beatific vision and by His infused knowledge, by the special title of His sacramental presence in the Eucharist.
But neither can a created intellect by its own powers know the presence of Christ, because supernatural things exceed its capacity; nevertheless it can know it well by the beatific vision.
- That the body of Christ is not in a small host through a certain condensation or compenetration of parts.
- That the body of Christ in the sacrament is not locally, i.e., by extending His parts to space, or circumscriptively insofar as He would be circumscribed and measured by the limits of the containing place; nor definitively, because His presence is not limited to one place, since He can be in others; nor by mode of spirit, which is in a place because it operates upon bodies: for although the body of Christ is whole in each part of the species, nevertheless He operates nothing upon them.
254. Notice. - Concerning apparitions of Christ in the sacrament, St. Thomas says, q. 76, a. 8: "Such an apparition happens in two ways, whereby sometimes in this sacrament flesh, or blood, or even some child, is miraculously seen. For sometimes this happens on the part of those seeing, whose eyes are changed by such a change as if they expressly saw outwardly flesh, or blood, or a child, nevertheless no change having been made on the part of the sacrament. And this indeed seems to happen when to one it is seen under the species of flesh or a child, yet to others it is seen, as before, under the species of bread; or when to the same person for a time it is seen under the species of flesh or a child, and afterwards under the species of bread... And because through this mode no change is made on the part of the sacrament, it is manifest that Christ does not cease to be under this sacrament, such an apparition having been made.
"But sometimes such an apparition happens not through the change of those seeing alone, but with the species which is seen really existing outwardly; and this indeed seems to be when under such a species it is seen by all, and not for a time, but remains thus for a long time; in this case certain men say that it is the proper species of the body of Christ... But this seems to be unfitting..., because the body of Christ cannot be seen in its proper species except in one place, in which it is definitively contained. Whence, since He is seen in His proper species, and adored in heaven, He is not seen under His proper species in this sacrament... And therefore it must be said that, the dimensions which were there before remaining, there is miraculously made a certain change concerning the other accidents, for example figure and color, and other things of this kind, so that flesh, or blood, or even a child is seen... And thus it is clear that, the dimensions remaining, which are the foundations of the other accidents..., the body of Christ truly remains."