Question on Eucharist

[NonDenom]

Hi All
hope to find you well. I have a question for you about the Eucharist. I think that Catholics believe that the bread and wine turn into the actual blood and body of Christ during the Eucharist, correct me if I’m wrong. My question is, if a priest was expecting a large amount of people at mass and were to prepare enough bread and wine for that mass but for some reason only a third of the people showed up. I think that the priest is supposed to drink the remaining wine, would he get drunk?
If the wine is no longer wine, but rather blood he should not get drunk, or is it still wine but Jesus is present in the wine in a spiritual sense? Thanks for your answers.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Hi All
hope to find you well. I have a question for you about the Eucharist. I think that Catholics believe that the bread and wine turn into the actual blood and body of Christ during the Eucharist, correct me if I’m wrong. My question is, if a priest was expecting a large amount of people at mass and were to prepare enough bread and wine for that mass but for some reason only a third of the people showed up. I think that the priest is supposed to drink the remaining wine, would he get drunk?
If the wine is no longer wine, but rather blood he should not get drunk, or is it still wine but Jesus is present in the wine in a spiritual sense? Thanks for your answers.

The Eucharistic presence is a *substantial *change – The *accidents *of the bread and wine remain unchanged.

Do you suppose that an occasion of becoming drunk results from the *substance *of wine or from the *accidents *of wine?

tee

 

[Jabronie]

Hi there.

The priest keeps plenty of consecrated bread (The Body of Christ) in the tabernacle. He can go get more during Mass if more is needed. Also, any remaining hosts are place in the tabernacle after communion.

This is why Catholics genuflect to the tabernacle when we enter a church or spend time kneeling before the Tabernacle in prayer when Mass is not being said. We believe that Christ is physically present in the tabernacle, waiting to share Himself with us during communion.

As for the precious blood, the priest and a few people at the altar are generally the only ones receiving Jesus’s blood in the form of wine during Mass, so having “too much” isn’t a problem. The priest would be able to make a pretty good estimate of how much to consecrate before hand.

 

[Church_Militant]

There is never any wine left over. Whatever is is shared out between the priest and the EEMs who have served the Mass. Also, I personally try to gauge how many people are at Mass, just as the priest does, so that if attendance is low I will take more of the Precious Blood. I have never heard of a priest getting drunk from Eucharistic service.

 

[lizaanne]

As for the precious blood, the priest and a few people at the altar are generally the only ones receiving Jesus’s blood in the form of wine during Mass, so having “too much” isn’t a problem. The priest would be able to make a pretty good estimate of how much to consecrate before hand.

This is not entirely true. In some parishes the Precious Blood is made available to all who are in the proper state for receiving Holy Communion.

In most cases I have seen that the priest will err on the side of not having enough, so that some will not be able to receive from the cup. They are still receiving the fullness of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist by only receiving the consecrated host, so to not get to receive the Precious Blood does not mean that they are “missing out” in anyway.

~Liza

 

[GandalfTheWhite]

Hi All
hope to find you well.

Hi

I have a question for you about the Eucharist. I think that Catholics believe that the bread and wine turn into the actual blood and body of Christ during the Eucharist, correct me if I’m wrong.

Absolutely correct. The bread and wine are actually Jesus Christ - body and blood, soul and divinity.

My question is, if a priest was expecting a large amount of people at mass and were to prepare enough bread and wine for that mass but for some reason only a third of the people showed up. I think that the priest is supposed to drink the remaining wine, would he get drunk?

If you drink too much of the consecrated wine then you will definitely get drunk. Whether it is likely to happen during the mass is a different question. In many countries the Church practices the traditional communion under one kind. However if communion under both kinds is practiced I think that would be very very unlikely. Mostly the cup doesn’t hold that much of the Precious Blood because people drink only a little bit of it. In any case I think an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion may be there finish the wine (correct me if I’m wrong) as it is in the case when the priest has problems with drinking alcohol and may drink only a little bit of it (because priests must drink at least a bit).

If the wine is no longer wine, but rather blood he should not get drunk, or is it still wine but Jesus is present in the wine in a spiritual sense? Thanks for your answers.

Neither. It is what it is - truly Jesus himself - under the the appearance of wine. The consecrated wine still keeps all the properties of wine (it tastes, spells like wine and it still contains alcohol). The word Transubstantiation explains this matter. It is the substance that changes and accidents remain the same (understood in line with Aristotelian metaphysics).

chnetwork.org/journals/eucharist/eucharist_5.htm

 

[tee_eff_em]

The consecrated wine still keeps all the properties of wine (it tastes, spells like wine and it still contains alcohol).

I would say this is not quite correct. Alcohol is a neccessary constituent of wine (at least as far as my understanding of sacramental wine goes), and as such I presume it is obliterated in the process transubstantiation. The consecrated wine still retains the properties of alcohol, however.

:twocents:
tee
who welcomes correction if he is mistaken

 

[GandalfTheWhite]

I would say this is not quite correct. Alcohol is a neccessary constituent of wine (at least as far as my understanding of sacramental wine goes), and as such I presume it is obliterated in the process transubstantiation. The consecrated wine still retains the properties of alcohol, however.

:twocents:
tee
who welcomes correction if he is mistaken

You are correct. Thank you! Properties of alcohol, not alcohol itself.