The Holy Eucharist

Proves the Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist from the two classic New Testament texts: Christ's promise in John 6 ("eat my flesh and drink my blood") and the words of institution at the Last Supper recorded by the Synoptics and St. Paul ("This is my body... this is my blood"). Argues at length for the strictly literal interpretation of both texts against the figurative readings of the Reformers — Zwingli, Oecolampadius, and others — and answers their principal objections.

Traces the three great Eucharistic controversies — Paschasius Radbertus in the ninth century, Berengarius of Tours in the eleventh, and the Protestant Reformers (Luther's Consubstantiation, Zwingli's mere symbol, Calvin's 'dynamic' presence) in the sixteenth — and the Church's condemnation of each. Presents the Council of Trent's threefold profession that Christ is truly, really, and substantially present, chosen precisely to exclude the three Reformation errors, then surveys the abundant patristic testimony to the Real Presence in the first five centuries.

Demonstrates in four theses that Christ is present in the Eucharist whole and entire — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity — by virtue of natural concomitance rather than the words of consecration alone; that He is present whole under each species separately, justifying Communion under one kind; that He remains whole in every particle of the Host and every drop of the Chalice however divided; and, as a theological conclusion, that this totality holds even before any actual division of the sacred species, on analogy with how the soul is wholly present in every part of the body.

Defines Transubstantiation as the total conversion of the whole substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, the accidents alone remaining — a conversion unique among all others because it affects the entire substance (matter and form together), leaves the accidents without a subject of inherence, and occurs instantaneously. Proves the dogma from the words of institution and from patristic and liturgical testimony against Berengarius, Luther's Consubstantiation, and the Jansenist Synod of Pistoia, then reviews the Thomist, Scotist, and combined theories of how Christ's Body comes to be present in the sacramental species.

Draws two corollaries from the preceding chapters. Against Luther's later restriction of the Real Presence to the moment of reception, proves from Scripture, Tradition, and the nature of the Eucharist as a 'permanent Sacrament' that Christ remains present before and after Communion, ceasing only when the corruption of the species sets in. Then demonstrates the adorableness of the Blessed Sacrament from the identity of the Eucharistic Christ with the Christ enthroned in Heaven, traces the historical development of Eucharistic devotion from the early Church through Corpus Christi and perpetual adoration, and clarifies that the object of worship is Christ Himself, not the sacramental species as such.

Concludes Part I by answering three apparent philosophical contradictions in the dogma of the Real Presence: that the accidents of bread and wine continue to exist without their natural substance as subject; that Christ's Body exists in a spirit-like, unextended manner under the species, retaining internal but not external quantity; and that Christ's Body is simultaneously present, whole and entire, in Heaven and on countless altars on earth (multilocation), a mode of presence which, while beyond nature, involves no intrinsic contradiction.

Opens Part II (the Eucharist as a Sacrament) with its matter — wheaten bread (unleavened in the Latin rite, leavened among the Greeks, both valid) and wine of grapes mixed with a little water — and its form, the words of institution. Establishes against the schismatic Greek Church that Christ consecrated by pronouncing 'This is my Body... this is my Blood,' that these words alone constitute the sole and wholly adequate sacramental form, and that the Epiklesis which follows them in the Oriental liturgies, though venerable and theologically rich, possesses no consecratory value of its own.

Groups the effects of Holy Communion around two ideas — union with Christ by love and the spiritual nourishment of the soul — and treats them as four distinct effects: the mystical union of the soul with Christ that also binds the faithful into His mystical Body; an increase of sanctifying grace together with a special sacramental grace of charity and spiritual delight; the blotting out of venial sins and a preservative effect against mortal sin by allaying concupiscence; and a pledge, extending even to the body, of the resurrection and eternal happiness to come.

Concludes Part II. Establishes that the Eucharist is not necessary for salvation for infants but is necessary as a matter of precept for adults, though not as an absolute means; defends Communion under one kind against the Utraquists and Reformers, showing the totality of the Real Presence under either species alone; and treats the minister of consecration (validly ordained bishops and priests only) and of distribution (the priest ordinarily, the deacon as an extraordinary minister), and finally the recipient — the objective capacity required (a baptized human being in the wayfaring state) and the subjective worthiness required (the state of grace, the eucharistic fast, and due preparation).

Opens Part III (the Eucharist as a Sacrifice, distinct from the Eucharist as a Sacrament) by defining sacrifice in the strict sense — a sacrificial gift, a legitimate minister, a sacrificial action, and a sacrificial end — against the merely figurative sense the Reformers exploited to deny the Mass. Analyzes the four constituent elements in turn, including the disputed question of whether destruction of the victim belongs to the essence of sacrifice, and surveys the fourfold division of sacrifice by object, origin, material, and historical period from the Patriarchal age through the Mosaic Law to the one Christian sacrifice perpetuated unbloodily in the Mass.

Proves the existence of the Mass as a true sacrifice from the Old Testament (Malachias's prophecy of a clean oblation offered in every place, and the sacrifice of Melchisedech as type of Christ's priesthood), from the New Testament (the present-tense 'shedding' of Christ's Blood and 'giving' of His Body at the Last Supper, and the perpetuating command 'Do this in commemoration of me'), from the argument of prescription tracing an unbroken practice back through the Fathers, the ancient liturgies, and the Didache to the Apostolic age, and from an extensive selection of Patristic testimony across the first five centuries.

Locates the physical essence of the Mass in the double Consecration of bread and wine, after showing it cannot consist in the Offertory (which merely presents the still-unconsecrated elements) or in the priest's Communion (which presupposes the sacrifice already completed). Establishes the Mass as essentially identical with the Sacrifice of the Cross — same Priest, same Victim, differing only in manner of offering — a representation, commemoration, application, and renewal of Calvary, deriving its entire efficacy from it rather than adding to it, while enumerating the several ways the two sacrifices nonetheless differ.

Examines how the scientific concept of sacrifice — requiring not just an oblation but some real transformation of the victim — is realized in the double Consecration, given that Christ's glorified Body cannot be truly destroyed. Reviews and critiques the theories of Vasquez (mere commemorative representation), Suarez (transformation into a higher state), Cienfuegos (voluntary suspension of the senses), and Thalhofer (a supposed 'heavenly sacrifice'), then presents the more satisfactory theories of Billot (mystical slaying via the sacramental separation of Body and Blood), Lessius (a real though impeded separation), and Cardinal De Lugo (the reduction of Christ to the state of food as a true kenosis), proposing a synthesis of the last three.

Concludes the treatise on the Holy Eucharist and Volume IX. The Mass is a true sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving, impetration, and propitiation, offered for the living and the dead and licitly celebrated in honor of the saints. Its efficacy is partly ex opere operato (through Christ the Priest and Victim, and through the Church offering with Him) and partly ex opere operantis (through the personal holiness of celebrant and faithful), yielding a threefold fruit — general, special, and most special — while its power to remit mortal sin operates only mediately, through obtaining the grace of contrition, whereas its satisfactory effect upon temporal punishment operates immediately.