Question on Transubstantiation

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natrix

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I’m not suggestion this should be done, because it would be profoundly disrespectful, but if you were to perform a DNA test on the host after transubstantiation, would it find Jesus’s DNA?
 
No, because there is no appearance of flesh. What was once fully, completely bread is now fully, completely the Body of Our Lord. (In Aristotelian terms, its “substance,” or what it actually is, has changed.) However, it is under the appearance (in Aristotelian terms, “accidents,” or what it appears to be) of bread—even under a microscope, and even in a DNA test. As far as we can perceive (except after a Eucharistic miracle) with our senses, it is bread. However, it is not bread.
 
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I actually read a research paper once where some researchers did this. They were non-Catholics looking to disprove transubstantiation. (They went to a Catholic mass and took the communion.) Obviously when they tested it there was no human DNA in the communion. They thought they had just disproved transubstantiation.

They didn’t. Here is why.

The Catholic teaching of transubstantiation partialay comes from Aristoles teaching of the difference between substance and accidents.

I don’t entirely understand it yet. But the " accidents" are like the physical traits which is the bread. The substance is its essence.

During the eucharist the essence of the bread and wine change to the body and blood of Jesus. However the accidents stay the same. It still tastes, looks, feels, like bread or wine but it is essentially the body and blood of Christ.
  • There have been miracles that took place where the accidents have changed. The bread turned into flesh.
In these cases the Church had to confirm them as human in order to declare it as a miracle. It was in fact human however, they did not test it for anything else like DNA.
 
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Wingz said:
I actually read a research paper once where some researchers did this. They were non-Catholics looking to disprove transubstantiation. (They went to a Catholic mass and took the communion.) Obviously when they tested it there was no human DNA in the communion. They thought they had just disproved transubstantiation.
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People really did that? You would think that they would actually try to figure out what it is they’re trying to disprove before they try to disprove it.

“What do you think about Iceland?”
“I think—”
“You’re wrong.”
 
Wingz said:
But the " accidents" are like the physical traits which is the bread. The substance is its essence.
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Oh yeah, this is like a box can have the essence of a chair (ie you can sit on in) even though it doesn’t have the appearance of a chair (ie it has four legs).
 
Why would you think that.
So far as the senses are concerned it will always be bread and act like bread.
 
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