The transsubstantiation is, literally, the transformation of a Substance into another. The term indicates, for certain Christians (in particular catholics), the transformation of the bread and the wine into flesh and blood of the Christ at the time of the Eucharistie.

On the religious level, the catholic Christians Latin, Armenian S and Maronite S employ the term of “transsubstantiation” to explain that, in the Eucharistie, the Pain and the Vin, by the Consécration of the mass, “really” are transformed or converted into body and blood of the Christ, while preserving their physical characteristics or species (texture, taste, odor: the appearances ) initial.

Theology of the transsubstantiation

The Substance is what exists by oneself (ipsum ess subsistens). Thus, the shape of a hat is the hat itself, not more than its color, its size, its texture nor no other significant property. It is the hat itself (its “Substance”) which has a form, a color, a size, a texture while being distinct from these properties. Contrary to these appearances or Accidents, the Substance cannot be perceived by the directions. The Substance is one of the ten categories to be it defined by Aristote (a substance and nine Accidents).

When Jesus called during the Cène: “This is my body”, which it holds in its hands with the appearance of a bread but, according to the catholic Roman doctrines, the substance of this bread was converted into flesh of Christ. It is thus really its body, even if appearances accessible to the directions or the scientific studies remain those of the bread. Same conversion occurs at the time of each celebration of the Eucharistie.

“By the dedication of the bread and the wine takes place the change of all the Substance of the bread in the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and all the substance of the wine in the substance of its blood; this change, the Catholic church precisely and exactly called it transsubstantiation. ” (Council of Thirty, quoted in the Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia , 2003, chap.1 §15)

One speaks about “real presence”. Within this framework, the eucharistic presence of the Christ starts at the time of the dedication and lasts as a long time as the holy species (bread and wine) remain. From where the worship of the the Blessed Sacrament, which will experience a great development at the time baroque. It is considered that Christ is really present in the Blessed Sacrament.

In the writings of Hippolyte of Rome, it is asked to show a particular veneration for the Sacrament. The belief in the transsubtantiation was shared by several apostles of the first centuries of Christendom. The dedication of moniales to Jesus-Eucharistie at the time of Cyprien de Carthage attests the antiquity of these doctrines. Augustin known as: That nobody eats this flesh without initially adoring it; … we would sin if we do not adore it .

History

Inaugurated with the IV {{E}} council of Lateran in 1215, the doctrines takes the name of “transsubstantiation” at the time of the Concile of Thirty (1551) where she is officially proclaimed and thus becomes a Dogme of the Catholic church, by being opposed to the doctrines Consubstantiation defended by some Protestant. Thus, gun 1 of the 13th session of the council declares:

“If somebody denies that the Body and the Blood of Our Lord Jesus-Christ, with his Heart, and the Divinity, and consequently Jesus-Christ entire, is contained truly, really, and substantially with the Sacrament of Very-Holy Eucharistie; but known as that they are there only as in a sign, either appears about it, or in virtue: that it is Anathème. ”

The transsubstantiation for the other Churches

Eastern churches

The orthodoxe Church and the Churches of the three councils, as well as the Assyrian apostolic Church of the East, admit that the bread and the wine become really the body and the blood of Christ. However they generally do not go also far in the philosophical speculation relating to the theory of the transsubstantiation and speak rather about “mystery”. Fearing to deviate of the truth while wanting to guess too many details, they prefer speech of “change” (in Greek μεταβολή) of the bread and the wine. The orthodoxe theologists use usually the term of metousiosis which indicates a mystical gasoline change, not only of the bread and wine, but also at those which divide Eucharistie.

Anglicanism

During the reign of Henry VIII, the official teaching of the Église Anglican was the same one as that of the catholic Roman Church. With his/her son, Edward VI, the Church Anglican approached Protestant theology and was opposed to the transsubstantiation. Elizabeth I approved the Thirty-nine Articles of the Religion which marked the difference between the doctrines Anglican and Roman: “The transsubstantiation (or change of the substance of the bread and the wine) at the time of the last meal of Christ, cannot be proven by the Holy Scriptures; but it is incompatible with the terms even of the Gospel, it reduces to nothing nature Sacrament and gave place to many superstitions. ”

The Anglicans do not feel in general dependant by doctrines which, according to the Articles, “cannot be found in the Holy Scriptures or proven by them”. Consequently, certain Anglicans (in particuler of the Anglo-Catholics) accept the transsubstantiation while others reject it. The archbishop John Tillotson denounced his character “barbarian”, considering impious to believe that the faithful ones which takes part in the communion “and really the natural flesh and the blood of Christ drink eat”. Certain recent Anglicans authors accept however the doctrines of the transsubstantiation or, avoiding the term itself, speak about a “objective presence” of Christ in Eucharistie. Others support ideas close to the Consubstantiation, position held by the reformed Protestant Churches.

Lutheranism

The Lutherans believe that, at the time of the eucharistic celebration, the body and the blood of Jesus Christ are objectively present “in, in and with the shape” of the bread and the wine: in breads, sub breads, cum breads (Formule of Harmony of 1577). Luther explicitly rejected the transsubstantiation by affirming that the bread and the wine remained fully bread and wine while being fully flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. He insisted on the presence real (and not symbolic system or figurative) of Christ in the eucharistie. Its doctrines must however be distinguished from the Consubstantiation in a strict sense: the body and the blood of Christ, according to Luther and its successors, are not contained in a local way in the bread and the wine. The substances are not plain in a permanent way, but only within the framework of the sacrament, from where the term of “sacramental union”.

Other Protestants

Many Protestant Churches estimate that the communion commemorates in manner symbolic system the last meal of Christ with her disciples (Ulrich Zwingli) or that its celebration takes its importance in the significance which it takes with the eyes of believer (“transsignification”). Certain Protestants consider that any doctrines of the real presence raise of the Idolâtrie, because it would amount venerating bread and wine as if it were God.

Others, like Churches presbytériennes, believe in the real presence but explain it without having recourse to the transsubstantiation. The traditional presbyterianism retained the doctrines calvinist of the “pneumatic” presence: the bread and the wine nourish the body of the communicant while the body of Christ nourishes her heart spiritually. However, when the Church presbytérienne of the United States, signed an agreement with the Church Évangélique Luthérienne of America, both affirmed their belief the real involved.

Mormonism

The Saints of the last days celebrate Cène by taking the bread and water in remembering the expiatory sacrifice of Christ. The broken bread represents its broken flesh; water represents the blood which it poured for expier the sins of humanity (1 Co 11:23 - 25; D&A 27:2). The wine was replaced by water, but the significance remains the same one (D&A 27:2). The Traduction of Joseph Smith of Matthieu 26:26,28 gives this: “… This is in remembering my body… This is in remembering my blood” (Italic additions).

See too

  • Urbain VIII and an assumption on the question of the transsubstantiation in the business Galileo

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