Transubstantiation0

TRANSUBSTANTIATION

BASIC R.C. BELIEF A Roman Catholic dogma that at the moment the priest says the words of consecration (hoc est corpus meum: this is my Body) in the Mass, the substance of the Host becomes the substance of the Lord Jesus Christ – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The same occurs to the wine. This was hotly debated for centuries by theologians; St. Thomas Aquinas provided the key to its acceptance by his logic of substance and accidents.

Accidents is the term used to denote the outward manifestations (taste, smell, etc.) of the Host in the Roman Catholic Mass. St. Thomas Aquinas first took this term from Greek philosophy to explain transubstantiation in the Mass. The Host retains its accidents, but becomes a different substance (the Body of Christ).

Natural parallels between the substance (essence) and accidents (appearance) are put forth in the transformation of water to solid, liquid and gaseous states, and the alteration of man’s physical appearance while he remains the same being.

A Scripture used is Matthew 26:26 (see verse 29; it disproves their interpretation).