The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction.
• The Truth of Faith Manifested By the Triumph of the Cross.
• Book I.
• Prologue.
• Chapter I.: How By Means of Visible Things We Arrive At the Knowledge of Such As Are Invisible.
• Chapter II.: How the Triumph of Christ Testifies to the Truth of Our Faith.
• Chapter III.: Containing Certain Fundamental and Irrefragable Principles.
• Chapter IV.: Answers to the Objections Which May Be Brought Against the Foregoing Propositions.
• Chapter V.: The Mode In Which Our Argument Must Be Conducted.
• Chapter VI.: The Existence of God.
• Chapter VII.: God Is Not a Body, Nor the Form of a Body, Nor Is He a Complex Substance.
• Chapter VIII.: God Is the Perfect and Supreme Good, and Is of Infinite Power; He Is In Every Place; and He Is Immutable and Eternal.
• Chapter IX.: God Is One.
• Chapter X.: God Knows All Things Perfectly, and Acts of His Own Will, and Not From Natural Necessity.
• Chapter XI.: The Providence of God Extends Over All Things.
• Chapter XII.: The End to Which Man Is Guided By Divine Providence.
• Chapter XIII.: Man’s Last End Cannot Be Attained In This Present Life.
• Chapter XIV.: The Soul of Man Is Immortal.
• Book II.
• Method Observed Throughout This Book.
• Chapter I.: Some True Religion Exists In the World.
• Chapter II.: Religion Is Both Interior and Exterior.
• Chapter III.: No Better Life Can Be Found Than the Christian Life.
• Chapter IV.: The End Presented to Us By the Christian Religion Is the Best Which Can Possibly Be Conceived.
• Chapter V.: A Christian Life Is the Best Possible Means For Attaining to Happiness.
• Chapter VI.: The Christian Life Is a Most Sure Means of Attaining to Beatitude.
• Chapter VII.: The Faith of Christ Is True, Because It Causes Men to Lead a Perfect Life.
• Chapter VIII.: The Doctrines Taught By Christianity Are True, and Come From God.
• Chapter IX.: The Truth of the Faith Proved By Arguments Founded On the Prayer and Contemplation of Christians.
• Chapter X.: Proofs of the Truth of the Christian Religion Founded On Its External Forms of Worship.
• Chapter XI.: The Truth of Christianity Evidenced By Its Effects On the Interior Life of Christians.
• Chapter XII.: The Truth of Christianity Manifested By Its Visible Effects On the Lives of Christians.
• Chapter XIII.: The Truth of the Faith Demonstrated By the Wonderful Works of Christ, Especially Those Which Pertain to His Power.
• Chapter XIV.: The Truth of Christianity Shown By Arguments Based On the Wisdom of Christ.
• Chapter XV.: The Truth of Christ’s Teaching Is Proved By His Goodness.
• Chapter XVI.: The Truth of Christianity Is Proved By the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of Christ, Considered Collectively.
• Book III.
• Method Observed Throughout This Book.
• Chapter I.: God Contains Within Himself, and Can Perform, an Infinite Number of Things Surpassing Human Understanding.
• Chapter II.: An Examination of Certain Articles of the Christian Creed Which Exceed the Limits of Human Understanding.
• Chapter III.: The Mystery of the Trinity Is Neither Unreasonable Nor Incredible.
• Chapter IV.: The Christian Doctrine of Creation Is Neither Incredible Nor Unreasonable.
• Chapter V.: The Christian Teaching Concerning the Sanctification, Glory, and Resurrection of Rational Creatures Contains No Article Which Is Either Impossible, Or Unreasonable.
• Chapter VI.: The Doctrine of the Damnation of the Wicked Is One Befitting Christianity.
• Chapter VII.: The Doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God Is, In No Sense, Incredible, Unseemly, Or Unreasonable.
• Chapter VIII.: The Belief In the Virginal Birth of Christ Is Consistent With Reason, and His Life Befitted, In All Respects, His Dignity.
• Chapter IX.: The Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Is Neither Unreasonable Nor Incredible.
• Chapter X.: Our Belief In the Passion of Christ, In the Other Mysteries of His Humanity, and In All the Articles Defined By the Church, Is Strictly Consistent With Reason.
• Chapter XI.: The Christian Religion Most Prudently Establishes the Two Precepts of Charity, As the Foundation of Our Whole Moral Life.
• Chapter XII.: The Excellence of the Moral Teaching of the Church.
• Chapter XIII.: The Perfect Reasonableness of the Christian Constitution and Code of Judicial Law.
• Chapter XIV.: The Sacraments of the Church Have Been Instituted By Christ, and Are Admirably Adapted to the Needs of Mankind.
• Chapter XV.: The Number of the Sacraments Is Reasonable.
• Chapter XVI.: The Rites Used In the Administration of the Sacraments Are Both Reasonable and Seemly.
• Chapter XVII.: Answers to Certain Objections Brought Against the Doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist.
• Chapter XVIII.: The Reasonableness of the Ceremonies of the Church.
• Book IV.
• Introduction. Method Observed Throughout This Book.
• Chapter I.: No Religion Except Christianity Can Be True.
• Chapter II.: The Defective and Erroneous Religions Taught By Heathen Philosophers.
• Chapter III.: The Futility and Superstition of the Traditions of Astrology.
• Chapter IV.: Idolatry Is of All Things the Most Vain.
• Chapter V.: A Refutation of the Jewish Perfidy and Superstition.
• Chapter VI.: The Malicious Untruthfulness of Heretics.
• Chapter VII.: The Utter Irrationality of the Mahometan Religion.
• Chapter VIII.: The Christian Religion Will Remain True and Unwavering Unto the End.
• Chapter IX.: Epilogue.

CHAPTER XVII.

ANSWERS TO CERTAIN OBJECTIONS BROUGHT AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF THE BLESSED EUCHARIST.

Many and great difficulties are wont to arise in man’s mind concerning the dogma of the Blessed Eucharist. We, therefore, deem it expedient, to devote some space to their consideration. When we declare that the whole Body of Christ is contained in a little bread, and all His Blood in a little wine; and that, at the same time, the whole Christ is in Heaven; it seems as if we were affirming an impossibility. For Christ can only be present in this Sacrament in one of two ways. Either, the bread is changed into the Body of Christ; and this appears to be out of the question. For a thing into which another thing is changed, has no existence before this change; it only begins to exist when this change has taken place. If, then, the bread be changed into the Body of Christ, His Body cannot have existed before the bread was changed into It; just as the serpent into which the rod of Aaron was changed had no existence previous to this miracle. Thus, the Body of Christ which is in the Blessed Eucharist, is not the Body which is in Heaven, but another Body newly produced. Or else, we may say that the Body of Christ which is in Heaven, comes by local movement into the Blessed Sacrament. But this seems, likewise, impossible. Firstly, because, unless His Body left Heaven altogether, it would have to be in two places at once. Secondly, because local movement cannot terminate in more than one place at the same time; and we know that many Hosts are consecrated at once. Thirdly, because one Body cannot be in more than one place at the same moment. How, also, can a full-grown Body be contained in a little Host, and all Its Blood in a small chalice? Again, it seems impossible that accidents can exist without their substance; the more so as we know, by experience, that the consecrated bread and wine do what accidents alone could not do—(e.g., nourish, warm, and strengthen the body)—and that the consecrated wine, if consumed to excess, would produce intoxication. Furthermore, the consecrated elements are subject to vicissitudes, such as burning, putrefaction, etc., which could not affect mere accidents. And, again, if the elements be divided into small particles, how can the Body of Christ be present in each fraction? Our answer to these objections is that which we have made before, viz., that the infinite power of God can do more than we can conceive; and that, what is impossible to nature and to man, is possible to Him. In the Blessed Eucharist there is nothing beyond the power of God. For we say that the Body and Blood of Christ are present in this Sacrament by conversion. And this is not impossible to God, although it is impossible to nature, which cannot change one thing into another thing already in existence. If the infinite power of God can create something out of nothing, can it not, much more, cause one substance to be transformed into another, and therefore the substance of bread and wine to become the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ?

Since, then, the Body of Christ is not present in the Blessed Eucharist by local movement, i.e., by descent from Heaven into the Host, but solely by conversion, we must admit that His presence in Heaven differs modally from His sacramental presence. In Heaven His Body, like other bodies, occupies space and is extended; but He is present in the Host, not by mode of extension, but in an indivisible manner, and in a mode so wonderful, that this whole Body is present in every fragment of the Host. This mode of existence is possible only to God, whose power exceeds the bounds of our intelligence. But, observe, that in the Blessed Eucharist the Body of Christ is present under the appearance of bread, and His Blood under that of wine; but as His Blood, His Soul, and his Divinity never leave His Body, and His Body never leaves His Blood, the whole Christ is, by natural concomitance, present in every particle and drop of both species. Christ, furthermore, is not present in this Sacrament as in a place. Therefore, although there are many Hosts on many altars, He is not in many places but in many Sacraments. We see this in our own case, for we know that our whole soul is in every part of our body, and yet we do not say that it is in different places; because the soul is not in the body as in a place, but as the form in its matter.

As God has created all things out of nothing by His own Power, without the aid of other causes, He can produce all natural effects without using secondary causes. Therefore, although, naturally speaking, substance upholds accidents, God can preserve accidents without the help of substance. Many philosophers have maintained that quantity can exist without substance; and we say that in the Blessed Eucharist, not quantity only, but all other accidents, do, by the power of God, exist without substance. Not only does God enable accidents to exist without substance; but He enables them to do, and to suffer, that which substance would do and suffer, were the accidents joined to substance, e.g., to nourish, to intoxicate, to putrefy, to burn, etc. These actions and sufferings do not extend to the Body of Christ, but only to the accidents. Thus when the Host is broken, the fracture does not affect the Body of Christ, which remains entire in each particle.1 Many other difficulties may be urged against the dogma of the Eucharist, but the solution we have given to the difficulties enumerated, will pave the way to the solution of all others. And it will be manifest that the Catholic Faith does not, in this doctrine, propose to our belief anything impossible to God.

[1 ] The reader will, naturally, recall the words of St. Thomas, in the Lauda Sion:—

of which the late Father Aylward, O.P., has left the following translation:—