Expert: Fr. Michael - 7/17/2009

Question
I was in a debate recently with my Father over transubstantiation,(I am a Convert to Traditional Catholicism). He recently sent me an email condemning the view here and it seems convincing. Can you help me to find a Bible based anwser to his question? Below is a copy of the email.

"Remember too that the "bread", of the Lord's Supper, if indeed it was the LITERAL body of Christ, would cause one to never have LITERAL hunger again.



"Jesus said t them: I am the bread of of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (6:35).

But of course, we know that those who partake of the bread in the Eucharest do indeed become hungry within a few short hours. So, we must conclude that we are dealing with symbols here, spiritual bread and spiritual hunger.



Dad"

Answer
You are confusing substance with species.  You might just as well say that this is cannabilism.  The Jews certainly seemed to interpret the teaching that way, as many of them left Christ when He taught it.  See chapter 6 of St. John's Gospel for further information.

You need to review the concepts of substance and species and the teaching of the Church from the Apostles.  Consult a traditional source that gives a more complete explanation of this basic tenet and also the very clear explanations of the dogmatic Council of Trent.

Remember, too, that not all answers are to be found in Sacred Scripture.  Much of what we know comes from Apostolic Tradition, the second font of Public Revelation, of which the Bible is only a part.  Without Tradition we would not even know what works make up the Bible.  Moreover, the Bible is not a theological text and is not intended to answer theological questions in detail.  For that we rely upon Apostolic Tradition, and particularly the Great Fathers of the post-Apostolic period who explain it to us.