Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise IV. On the Most Holy Eucharist › Dissertation II. On the Most Holy Eucharist as It Is a Sacrament › Part I. On the Most Holy Sacrament Considered in Itself

Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Section II. On the Essence of the Sacrament of the Eucharist

139.

The Most Holy Eucharist, like the other sacraments, consists of proximate matter and form. But for the sake of completeness, a discussion must also be made about remote matter. Now the remote matter, that is, that from which the sacrament is confected, is bread and wine; the proximate matter is the species together with the body and blood of Christ; but the form is the words of consecration, insofar as they virtually persevere. Namely, the aforesaid words, insofar as they were sensibly uttered, effected or confected the sacrament; but insofar as they virtually persevere, they constitute the sacrament as confected and remaining. Hence the words of consecration, insofar as they are sensibly uttered, are called the form of the sacrament in fieri; insofar as they virtually endure, they are the form of the sacrament in facto esse. Thus commonly the Thomists and others, while others teach that the form is not the words of consecration, since these have passed away, but the sacramental signification, that is, the refreshment of the soul through the increase of grace.

With respect to the proximate matter it is disputed in what way each element concurs in constituting the proximate matter, that is, whether the proximate matter is the body and blood connoting the species, or the species connoting the body and blood, or whether each element equally must be called the proximate matter. According to St. Thomas (III, q. 77, a. 7), the proximate matter is the species alone in the direct order, connoting the body and blood in the oblique order. The principal reason for this doctrine is taken from the fact that the sacraments are in the direct order sensible signs. But in the Most Holy Sacrament the sensible sign is had only in the species, connoting the body and blood of the Lord. Thus also teaches the Catechism of Trent.1

With these things noted about the essence of the sacrament in general, we shall speak specifically about the remote matter and form.

1 Part 2, chapter 4, question 8.

The matter and form of the Eucharist

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