{"id":61881,"date":"2023-06-06T08:07:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T13:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=61881"},"modified":"2023-06-26T15:24:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T20:24:19","slug":"transubstantiation-what-vs-how-vs-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/06\/transubstantiation-what-vs-how-vs-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Transubstantiation: What vs. How vs. Why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This past February, I was invited by the Southwest Liturgical Conference Study Week to give a virtual workshop presentation on classic eucharistic hymns. Thanks to SWLC and to GIA Publications, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SP3REr9pdaE\">the video of that session<\/a> \u201cSinging on the Shoulders\u201d is now available through GIA\u2019s YouTube&#x2122; channel. In this post, I share a few items that came to the forefront as I researched and prepared for the workshop.<\/p>\n<p>One of the initial things I noticed was how often, in Roman Catholic circles, the terms \u201ctransubstantiation\u201d and \u201creal presence\u201d seem to be understood\u2014perhaps understandably, though imprecisely\u2014as interchangeable. An occasional (sometimes unintentional, sometimes not) consequence of this is the misperception on the part of Roman Catholics that they are the only ones who believe in Christ\u2019s real presence in the communion elements and\/or that transubstantiation is the sole way within broader Christian doctrine that this presence is expressed.<\/p>\n<p>To presume that other Christians\u2014one thinks particularly of our Orthodox sisters and brothers\u2014do not believe Christ to be truly present is an extremely limited view of those other rich faith traditions. There are many Christians who believe Christ to be truly and fully present in the eucharist, even though they do not use the particular term \u201ctransubstantiation\u201d to convey how this occurs. Among the Protestant reformers there was a range of approaches, from using a different term (consubstantiation\/Luther) to proposing that the presence of Christ, while real, is spiritual in nature (Calvin). The fact remains\u2014then, as now\u2014that various Christians do believe in the real eucharistic presence of Christ in varying ways.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.6.23-2-last-supper-300x164.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-61882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.6.23-2-last-supper-300x164.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.6.23-2-last-supper-600x328.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.6.23-2-last-supper-768x420.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.6.23-2-last-supper.jpeg 1300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>How<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All of this led me to toy briefly with including a Protestant eucharistic hymn in the workshop; I am admittedly lacking in knowledge of these hymns, so I received recommendations from Protestant liturgical music colleagues. (Since no hymns from these sources have entered common Roman Catholic repertoire, I decided not to.) One of the primary realities that emerged was that many texts had a rather studied avoidance of saying humans could know how the communion elements are changed into Christ\u2019s Body and Blood. Their focus often is on the mortal inability to bridge the gap between us and infinite mystery, and so they turn instead to expressions of an adoration beyond human knowledge or language, in a posture of reverence and awe before the mystery of Christ present in the sacrament. (Yes, other Christians refer to eucharist as a sacrament too.)<\/p>\n<p>Though Roman Catholicism uses the term \u201ctransubstantiation\u201d confidently, it has never claimed that the term exhaustively communicates the wondrous mystery. From Trent\u2019s use of <em>aptissime<\/em> (it is the \u201cmost apt\u201d term) to the current Catechism (\u201cThis change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.\u201d [1376, quoting Trent]), the language around transubstantiation and the real presence of Christ is consistently and humbly aware of our mortal limitations.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes the current Roman Catholic discourse surrounding these matters can seem a bit smug, if not outright condescending. I can\u2019t help but speculate that we might benefit a bit from a healthy dose of the humility and awe present in eucharistic hymns\u2019 language outside our own heritage (those of the Wesley brothers come to mind). If our earthly eucharistic banquet is truly a foretaste of the celestial banquet to come, perhaps it would be to our benefit to apply Charles Wesley\u2019s \u201clost in wonder, love, and praise\u201d of eternity to the here and now.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.623-3-last-supper-300x188.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-61884\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.623-3-last-supper-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.623-3-last-supper-600x375.jpg 600w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.623-3-last-supper-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/6.623-3-last-supper.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The \u201chere and now\u201d purpose of the eucharist always takes me back to Alexander Schmemann\u2019s Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe purpose of the Eucharist lies not in the change of the bread and wine, but in the partaking of Christ, who has become our food, our life, the manifestation of the Church as the body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schmemann also explains that the focus on partaking is largely why the churches of the orthodox East\u2014for all the liturgical reverence the communion elements are shown\u2014didn\u2019t really turn them into their own topic of theological discourse, much less attempt to go into the mechanics of the mystery, as happened in the West.<\/p>\n<p>The same way that Roman Catholicism hasn\u2019t been a <em>sola scriptura<\/em> denomination, the Eucharist shouldn\u2019t be turned into a <em>solum transsubstantiationem<\/em> event. Transubstantiation, of course, is at the heart of the mystery, but any kind of co-identification unnecessarily impoverishes the many other facets of the sacrament and can even set our faces in the direction of idolatry, in which the <em>event<\/em> of transubstantiation itself is worshiped, and not the Christ made present.<\/p>\n<p>Augustine\u2019s insight is relevant here: at the eucharistic celebration, we receive what we already are\u2014the Body of Christ\u2014so that we might become what we receive\u2014Christ present in and for the life of the world. At the end of the SWLC workshop I offered my own view that the next major frontier for eucharistic hymns might be a more regular and explicit connection made between the eucharist and the Church\u2019s mission for peace and justice. As Godfrey Diekmann stated: \u201cWhat difference does it make if the bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Christ and we don\u2019t?\u201d We could likewise ask what difference it makes how we express the manner in which that change is described, if it does not also help us to be changed.<\/p>\n<p>Take and eat the Body of Christ broken for you.<br \/>\nTake and drink the Blood of Christ shed for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take and eat the Body of Christ broken for you.<br \/>\nTake and drink the Blood of Christ shed for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":61883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3117],"tags":[3009,241,242],"class_list":["post-61881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-scholarship-new-ws","tag-mass","tag-real-presence","tag-transubstantiation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Transubstantiation: What vs. How vs. Why - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/06\/transubstantiation-what-vs-how-vs-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transubstantiation: What vs. How vs. Why - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Take and eat the Body of Christ broken for you. 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