A 2019 Pew Research Center survey of 1,835 Catholics located in the United States of America revealed that 31% of those surveyed knew about the Church’s teachings on Transubstantiation and that 28% of this 31% actually believed in the Church’s teaching of Transubstantiation, while the remaining 69% comprised of people who have heard of Transubstantiation, but believe that the bread and wine used in the Eucharistic Celebration are merely symbols, or believe in error that the Church teaches that the bread and wine are mere symbols, or are completely unsure about Church teaching at all. This means that 1 in 5 Catholics reject the Church’s teaching of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist despite knowing about the Church’s teachings, and about 3 in 5 Catholics, believe some sort of fallacious version of the teachings (Pew Research Center, 2019)

A second more recent survey commissioned by the McGrath Institute for Church Life and led by Mark Gray (2023) of 1031 respondents discovered that 49% of the adult Catholics surveyed always receive Communion when attending Mass and 18% do so frequently or usually. 18% seldom receive the Eucharist at Mass. 15% never receive Communion at Mass. Of this same number surveyed, 49% correctly believe that the Church teaches, “Jesus Christ is truly present under the appearance of bread and wine,” while 51% of the respondents incorrectly believe that the Church’s teaching is that, the “Bread and wine are symbols of Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper, meaning that Jesus is only symbolically present in the consecrated bread and wine.” (2023, p.1)

Fascinatingly, of the respondents, those who entered the Church as adults or who have served in parish ministry were especially likely to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus and those who have attended Catholic schools at any level were more likely than those who have not to believe in the Real presence (Gray, 2023, p.3).

The implications of these survey results reveal a flabbergasting failure on the part of Catechists, Evangelists, Preachers, and Educators from all levels within the Church to carry on the traditions and teachings found in our Deposit of Faith. As Bishop Robert Barron has pointed out, we are now facing the consequences of compartmentalising and separating Apologetics (the defending of the doctrines and the teachings of the Church), Pastoral welcome (being nice), Doctrinal Truths (Core Beliefs), and Social Work (Justice in Action) (Dailey, 2019).

While one of the earliest teachings about the Real Presence can be traced back to St Paul in First Epistle to the Corinthians, “For this is what I received from the Lord and in turn passed on to you: That on the same night as he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it, and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same way he took the cup after supper and said, ‘This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death. And so anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be behaving unworthily toward the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone is to recollect himself before eating this bread and drinking this cup, because a person who eats and drinks without recognising the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation” (1 Corinthians11:23-29);

The teachings of the Eucharist as the real presence of the Lord come from the words of Jesus Himself: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (John 6:51). The words that Jesus use in this case are clearly not symbolic. The people hearing this began to complain and grumble. They were shocked because they thought that following Christ meant cannibalism: “The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” (John 6:52)

At this Jesus does not say, ‘Oh actually this is a metaphor’ or ‘I am using an allegory or parable to describe this,’ but Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6: 53-58) To this end, the sentiment of many followers was, “This saying is intolerable; who can accept it?” (John 6: 60), and the aftermath was that: “As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” (John 6:68)

The teaching of the Real Presence of Christ remained relatively intact until the 9th century AD when some Eucharistic controversies began to rear their fangs. In that 9th century, a person Paschasius Radbertus stirred trouble by casting doubt among the community by asking whether the Eucharistic body of Christ was the same body that he had in Palestine and that which was now glorified in Heaven, but his audience was fortunately contained within a very small community.

The next controversy came about from Berengarius who denied the mystery of the Transubstantiation in the 11th century, but made amends for the public scandal he caused and died reconciled to the Church.

The third controversy, came with the Protestant Reformation in the 15th century. Martin Luther, surprisingly clung on to Catholic Tradition, although he subjected it to immense mis-representation. Nonetheless he did defend the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Zwingli, however corrupted the teachings completely by stating that the bread and wine were mere empty symbols, and Calvin stood somewhere in the middle, by teaching that while the bread and wine were symbolic, the faithful upon receiving this symbol of communion, would receive the efficacy of the Body and Blood of Christ that is communicated from heaven to the souls of those who were predestined.

It is of significance that with the Eastern Schism, started in the year 869 by Photius, the Eastern Church continued to firmly believe the teachings of the Real Presence. This was further reiterated in the Reunion Councils of Lyons in 1274, and at Florence in 1439. (Ripley, 1993)

These Eucharistic controversies were providential in how they led to the Council of Trent (1545 to 1563) where the Council convened to refute the errors of the Protestant Reformation: After affirming the Real Presence of Christ, the reason for it, and the preeminence of the Eucharist over other sacraments, the council defined the following on October 11, 1551: “Because Christ our Redeemer said it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church, and this holy council now declares that, by the consecration of the bread and wine a change takes place in which the whole substance of bread is changed into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the Holy Catholic Church fittingly and properly names transubstantiation.”

The following canon also was promulgated by the Council: “If anyone says that the substance of bread and wine remain in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denies that wonderful and extraordinary change of the whole substance of the bread into Christ’s body and the whole substance of the wine into his blood while only the species of bread and wine remain, a change which the Catholic Church has most fittingly called transubstantiation, let him be anathema.” (Papal Encyclicals Online, 2020)

The mystery of Transubstantiation is this: The accidents, the outward appearance and form of bread and wine retain their look and feel of bread and wine, but the substance would have been transformed at the Consecration by the Priest, to that of Body and Blood and Real Presence of Jesus.

St. Thomas Aquinas (1955-57) speaks of how for human beings the accidents may change, for example I may grow older, or how I may get a tan, but the substance of me remain the same. I am still the same person, even if my form has changed. In transubstantiation, the reverse is true. The form remains, while the substance is completely changed to the true Body and Blood of Christ.

I recently had a conversation with a colleague who worships at a Church of another denomination, and he shared that at their services they serve wafers and Ribena, and my heart ached with the thought – “If you knew the gift of God…” (cf. John 4:10). I wonder how many of us Catholics are like this colleague of mine munching on “wafers and Ribena” at the celebration of the Eucharist without even knowing the profound gift of Himself the Lord has given to us.

 

By the Grace of God,

Brian Bartholomew Tan

 

References

 

Dailey, T. (2019). How Accurate is the Pew Survey on the Eucharist? Ascension Press. Retrieved June 2, 2024 from https://media.ascensionpress.com/2019/08/16/how-accurate-is-the-pew-survey-on-the-eucharist/

Gray, M. (2023). Eucharistic Beliefs: A National Survey of Adult Catholics. [Dataset] CARA. Retrieved June 2, 2024, from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/629c7d00b33f845b6435b6ab/t/6513358329f868492a786ea6/1695757700925/EucharistPollSeptember23.pdf

Papal Encyclicals Online. (2020). General Council of Trent, 1545-63 A.D. Retrieved from https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/trent.htm

Pew Research Center. (2019). What Americans Know About Religion. [Dataset] Pew Research Center. Retrieved June 2, 2024 from https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/what-americans-know-about-religion/

Ripley, F. J. (1993). Transubstantiation for Beginners. Catholic Answers. Retrieved June 6, 2024 from https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/transubstantiation-for-beginners

St. Thomas Aquinas. (1955-57). Contra Gentiles. New York: Hanover House. Retrieved from https://isidore.co/misc/Res%20pro%20Deo/Logic/Logic%20Course%20Material/Aquinas%20Texts/Aquinas%20(Newer%20PDFs)/Contra%20Gentiles%20ENGLISH.pdf