Answering a Protestant about the Body and Blood

[moonfire]

How can I answer someone who asked me about why we can’t use grape juice or “regular” leavened bread as the Body and Blood of Christ? The issue was raised about alcoholics being able to drink the wine. I read in James Akin’s Mass Confusion book about the rare, special exception to offering wine to a parishoner (or priest) who is an alcoholic, but I personally have a belief (I could be wrong) that there is no way if I were an alcoholic that the Blood of Christ at communion would take me off the wagon so to speak. I also don’t believe I would catch someone else’s cold from drinking from the cup either. I don’t know how I ever came to that conclusion, but it’s what I believe for me. But as an answer to that question from a protestant, I don’t think that will work

I was trying to remember why we use unleavened bread as well… this person cited the fact that Jesus “broke bread” and I guess the bread that comes to mind is “normal” bread, with yeast. Is that right? Or did he use unleavened bread? And if there was some kind of change in the type of bread Jesus used and what we use, where and how did that come about? If it was tradition, was it passed down from the Apostles then? How do I answer the question about that being a “man made” rule/tradition? My understanding is that traditions in the Church are valid IF they descended from the teachings of the Apostles…

Can anyone help me provide a good answer? I’m feeling overloaded with an urgency to defend my faith intelligently and I’m embarrassed to realize I can’t! Help!

 

[Mjohn1453]

We use unleavened bread for the Eucharist because when Christ instituted the Eucharist at the last supper he was celebrating the sedar meal of passover. This is also called the feast of unleavened bread. The norm in the Roman Catholic Church is to use unleavened bread in the form of a host because it is the easiest way to dispense the sacrament. Some other Rites in the Catholic Church still use unleavened bread similar what Christ would have used. That is also why we use wine instead of grape juice, Christ instituted the Eucharist using unleavened bread and wine. Alcoholic priests still have to consume the Precious Blood, even though it has the accidents of wine. If it is the case where the priest is an alcoholic he only needs to consume a tiny amount of the Precious Blood.

Hope that answers your questions, and don’t feel embarassed. To ask questions about what you don’t know is to learn.

Additionally Traditions of the Church can be valid wherever they make their entrance. The Immaculate Conception was only defined with in the last 150 years. It is just a matter of when God chose to reveal more of the Truth to us.

 

[Marauder]

moonfire:

…but I personally have a belief (I could be wrong) that there is no way if I were an alcoholic that the Blood of Christ at communion would take me off the wagon so to speak. I also don’t believe I would catch someone else’s cold from drinking from the cup either.

Since most of the other points were already addressed I will address this issue. Wine when it becomes the Blood of Christ still has all the accidents of wine, it has become the Blood of Christ but it will still have the affects of wine. You can still become drunk off of it if you drink too much. An alcoholic that has an issue if they drink ANY alcohol will still have an issue if the drink the Precious Blood.

I’m putting on the flame-retarding underwear for this next sentence, and technically it is possible to get sick from the Precious Blood if it was contaminated by virus or other thing. Of course on that one, there are people that contend that God will protect against that, but the Church does not claim that the accidents couldn’t make you sick. Of course the alcohol in the wine may kill off some of the contamination and whether God will kill off the rest, only God knows.

An alcoholic priest is allowed to ask his Ordinary/Bishop for permission to use mustim (sp?) if he suffers from alcoholism. Mustim is wine in every sense except that the process that turns it into alcohol is stopped by methods that do not modify the wine in any way. There is a difference between this and grape juice that does this via additives. The use of mustim is only approved for the Priest since the Priest is required to drink the precious blood. If a Priest uses mustim and the Precious Blood is being served to the congregation, the Priest is to have another vessel with normal wine in it on the altar during the consecration. A alcoholic lay person or Deacon that has an issue with this is supposed to abstain from taking the Precious Blood.

P.S. One comment on the use of unleavened bread. Not all the rites of the Catholic church use unleavened bread. You are required to use unleavened bread as a Latin rite Catholic, but some of the other rites are allowed to use leavened bread.

 

[Marauder]

My above post was done from memory. Here was something I found on this online from a Catholic question and answer site.

Ordinaries may grant permission to use must or mustum (more about this below) to alcoholic priests who cannot ingest even the smallest quantity of alcohol. For this permission the priest must present a medical certificate. Those who receive permission to use mustum are ordinarily prohibited from presiding at concelebrated Masses. But the decree provides for some exceptions. In such a case the alcoholic who presides may use mustum for his own Communion but he is to provide another chalice in which normal wine has been consecrated for the other celebrants.

By extension of this directive, I would presume that an alcoholic priest offering Mass in a parish setting would consecrate regular altar wine for the Communion of the people if Communion is to be distributed under both forms.

…

Such grape juice whose fermentation has been suspended by freezing, or other methods which do not alter its nature, is called mustum. In the case of an alcoholic priest, Cardinal Ratzinger instructed, the preferred solution to his problem in celebrating would be for him to communicate himself by intinction (dipping the host in the consecrated wine).