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{
Would
you please explain transubstantiation and how Christ is present in the Eucharist? }
Mike replied:
Hi, Norma —
Thanks for the question.
Here is a definition from the Catholic Encyclopedia and teachings from Catechism of the Catholic Church quoting the Council of Trent.
Catholic Encyclopedia:
Transubstantiation
The change of substance of bread into
the Body of Christ and wine into the Blood of Christ at the Consecration
of the Mass. Although this fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church
was held by the faithful since Apostolic days, the term transubstantiation was
adopted by the Fourth
Lateran Council in 1215, to describe the Eucharistic Mystery. This
was reinforced by the Council
of Trent (1545-63), which spoke of the wonderful and singular conversion
of the whole substance of the Eucharistic
elements.
Only a validly ordained priest can confect the Eucharist. Because of
the reality of Transubstantiation, reference
to the Eucharistic Species as bread and wineis
wrong.
They are properly
called the Body and Blood of Christ.
"Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called Transubstantiation."
In Brief: Article 3: The Sacrament of the Eucharist.
.
.
1413 By the consecration the Transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about. Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity.
