Joan
Voltmer
wrote:
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Hello,
My prayer group came upon a puzzling question and I hope
you can help.
As Catholics, we believe in transubstantiation.
A woman in our group has a niece who is allergic to gluten
and therefore cannot receive the host.
- If during the consecration, the host literally turns
into the Body of Christ, why isn't this child able to
receive the consecrated host without an allergic reaction?
If it truly is the Body of Christ:
- Wouldn't He spare her
from an allergic reaction, or
- Is it just the symbol of
Christ's transformation which we are taught not to believe.
I hope you can help,
J.V.
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Why
isn't this child able receive the Blessed Sacrament without
an allergic reaction? }
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Mary
Ann replied:
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Dear Joan,
The physical properties of the consecrated host
remain. It is the substance that is changed.
Substance
does not mean what it means in common English parlance,
which is stuff. Substance means a being's
individual whatness.
Just as the consecrated host tastes like bread,
it also has other physical properties that are like
bread, including its chemical reactivity.
Nevertheless,
the biochemistry and physics of the consecrated host
are now signs of a different reality than the reality
of bread. They are now signs of the reality that
is Christ.
Mary Ann
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Mike
replied:
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Hi Joan,
Along the lines of what my colleague has said, I
wanted to share with you one of the first postings
we had on this issue.
I hope it helps,
Mike
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Eric
replied:
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Hi, Joan —
Just to clarify what my colleagues have said, from
a perspective of chemistry and physics, that is,
of anything material, visible, measurable, and so
forth, the characteristics of bread and wine after
consecration remain just that — the characteristics
of bread and wine.
Just as you can get drunk on consecrated wine, so
you can have an allergic reaction to the gluten in
consecrated hosts, because what changes is not the
material properties but the unseen
philosophical reality.
This is hard for a 21st century
person, in a first world country, to understand because
we tend to only think in terms of material properties.
Eric
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