The Real Presence

1. Case 3.3: The Real
Presence
By: Simon, Rachael, and Anissa

2. Question
Do the bread and wine change during consecration, if so,
how?
Is Christ present in the eucharist and the wine?

3. Position A: Transubstantiation
• Transubstantiation is the Catholic-based ideology in which the eucharist and the wine is the
…...actual blood and body of Christ.
• Thomas Aquinas stated that if the blood and body of Christ isn’t actually present in the
…...eucharist and the wine, “it destroys the reality of this sacrament, which demands that in the
…...sacrament there should be the true body of Christ, which was not there before
consecration.”
• “Take and eat; this is my body...Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” -Matthew 26:26-28

4. Transubstantiation (cont’d)
The Council of Trent
On October 11, 1551, the Council of Trent set out a definitive statement on its understanding of the nature of
the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, affirming that the term “transubstantiation” was appropriate to
refer to the change in the substance of the bread and wine resulting from their consecration.
This idea is founded on the Aristotle-based distinction between “substance” and “accident.” The substance of
something is its essential nature, whereas its accidents are its outward appearances (for example, its color,
shape, smell).
The theory of transubstantiation affirms that the accidents of the bread and wine remain unchanged at the
moment of consecration, while their substance changes from that of bread and wine to that of the body and
blood of Christ.

5. Position B: Consubstantiation
● Martin Luther/Lutheran view
● During sacrament, the substance of body
and blood of Christ are present next to the
bread and wine
● Didn’t agree with the doctrine of
transubstantiation
○ Said it was the attempt to rationalize a
mystery
○ He believed that Christ was really
present at the eucharist.

6. Consubstantiation continued
● He deploys this image - “if iron is placed in a fire and heated, it
glows - and in that glowing iron, both the iron and heat are
present.”
● The book states multiple times - the body of Christ is in the bread,
but that the bread is the body of Christ.
○ Luther believed Christ simply must have been physically
present.
○ “He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it
and said, take, eat, this [that is, this bread, which he had
taken and broken] is my body”
● 1520 treatise by Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
○ Criticized the medieval church about the sacraments

7. Position C: Memorialism
The events leading up to Zwingli’s view
Zwingli receives
Hoen’s letter
1523
Luther
receives
Hoen’s letter
1521
Hoen writes a
radical critique on
the doctrine of
transubstantiation
in the form of a
letter
Hoen discovers
the writing On
the Sacrament
of the
Eucharist
1509

8. Memorialism Continued: Cornelius Hoen’s Radical Critique of
the Doctrine of Transubstantiation
● “Hoc est corpus meum” “This is my body”
○ Hoen believed that “est” should translate to
“signifies”
○ “This signifies my body”
● The commemoration of christ
○ “Do this in remembrance of me”
○ Humans do this while christ is physically absent
on earth

9. Memorialism Continued: Zwingli
● Zwingli received Hoen’s letter in 1523, and had positive
remarks
● Believed that scripture has many figures of speech that
may have different meanings at certain times
● Christ’s body could have literally been the bread at the
last supper, but is now used as a representation of Christ
● Christ used figures of speech to describe himself in world-
like terms
○ “I am the Vine” -John 15
● Christ is seated at the right hand of God; therefore, he is
not in the eucharist.

10. So what?
The importance of whether the bread (or eucharist) and the wine represent the body and
blood of Christ, or if the presence of the body and blood of Christ is actually there is
extremely important for the interpretation of Mass as well as the general practice of the
Christian religion.

11. Questions?