Transubstantiation

The Roman Catholic Church believes in transubstantiation. This is the belief that the Eucharistic, the bread and wine offered during communion, transforms into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ upon consumption.

This belief stems from a 14^th century literal translation of a passage from the Book of John.

“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-56).

It also comes from a very interesting interpretation of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians.

“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25).

The crux of the Roman Catholic Church’s argument for transubstantiation hangs on the word “is”. It is their belief that when Jesus said “this IS my body” and “this cup IS the new testament in my blood”, that Jesus was speaking literally about the bread and wine.

But how do we live? By faith! How do we worship? In spirit!

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:23).

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

The “flesh profiteth us nothing”. True worship is in “spirit”, not in some temporal form or fashion. Communion or the Lord’s Supper is a remembrance of the fatal and voluntary self-sacrifice that Jesus Christ made. This opened the door for His children to walk through and unto everlasting life. The choice of eternal life for us, like the choice of temporal death by Christ, are both voluntary, a decision each individual must make on their own accord.

Christ is received by faith and in spirit, not physically or materially.

Bill Hitchcock