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Ed Rothacker wrote:

Hi guys,

I was recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I've read Catholics with the disease cannot receive Communion because the wafer is made of wheat (gluten).

  • If, as we were taught, the wafer is transformed into Christ's body, it should no longer contain wheat so what's the problem?

Ed Rothacker
Columbus, Ohio

  { If the consecrated host is transformed into Christ's Body, why does it still contain wheat? }

Mike replied:

Hi Ed,

This can get a little heavy on the mind but we have to differentiate between the accidents of the consecrated Host and the substance of the consecrated Host. These defined terms are defined on Wikipedia:

Substance theory, or substance attribute theory, is an ontological theory about objecthood, positing that a substance is distinct from its properties, the accidents. A thing-in-itself is a property-bearer that must be distinguished from the properties it bears.

Read these two posting and follow-up if our answers missed anything.

Mike

Ed replied:

Thanks!

I'm sorry, but that sounds like double talk. If the substance changes, so should everything else.

It either is or is not the Body of Christ.

My current belief is that the Eucharistic is symbolic to help us remember the price Jesus paid on the Cross for my sins.

Ed

Mary Ann replied:

Ed,

The physics of the bread and wine remain. What in the old days they called the accidents because they had philosophic minds that saw beyond what we think is reality.

The host retains the chemical properties of wheat, but the what it is of the wheat has changed to Christ, Our Blessed Lord, sacramentally.

Mary Ann

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