St. Thomas Aquinas on the Eucharist: do the accidents of bread and wine deceive us?

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In honor of the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, I wanted to highlight a small part of the *Summa Theologica, *(III, 75, 5) which I found fascinating.

The question is whether or not the accidents of bread and wine remain after the substance of bread and wine are no longer present. The objection is that if the accidents of bread remain without the corresponding and underlying substance of bread then this is a deception:
There ought not to be any deception in a sacrament of truth. But we judge of substance by accidents. It seems, then, that human judgment is deceived, if, while the accidents remain, the substance of the bread does not. Consequently this is unbecoming to this sacrament.
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St. Thomas answers
There is no deception in this sacrament; for the accidents which are discerned by the senses are truly present. But the intellect, whose proper object is substance as is said in De Anima iii, is preserved by faith from deception.
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It is interesting to note that our senses are not ordered towards grasping substances, so in all cases (not just the Eucharist) our power of sense halts at the accidents of a thing. Through a process of abstraction from these sense perceptible accidents our intellect is able to grasp the underlying substance. We would be deceived if what we sensed would lead us, through abstraction, to a substance that doesn’t correspond to what we sense.

And this deception is what would happen in the Eucharist if the accidents of bread and wine existed without the corresponding and underlying substance – we would abstract from what we sense to the substance of bread – BUT FOR faith, which intercedes and tells us that the true substance is the Body of Christ. Thus our senses really and accurately perceive true accidents of bread, and our intellect really and accurately knows the substance that is present.

That’s my take, although not very detailed, and I’m sure it could be improved upon. Any thoughts? Interesting, isn’t it?

VC
 
Verbum_Caro said:
In honor of the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, I wanted to highlight a small part of the *Summa Theologica, *(III, 75, 5) which I found fascinating.

And this deception is what would happen in the Eucharist if the accidents of bread and wine existed without the corresponding and underlying substance – we would abstract from what we sense to the substance of bread – BUT FOR faith, which intercedes and tells us that the true substance is the Body of Christ. Thus our senses really and accurately perceive true accidents of bread, and our intellect really and accurately knows the substance that is present.

That’s my take, although not very detailed, and I’m sure it could be improved upon. Any thoughts? Interesting, isn’t it?

VC
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Short answer: The Church tells me that the Bread and Wine ARE truly becomes the Body and Blood of Christ. This is the Faith of the Church. I’ll take that as true.

Long answer: It is obvious from Science that our senses are very limited. We can’t see beyond the red and violet colors. Example, we can’t see heat signatures (IR) and dangerous rays from the sun and artificial sources (e.g. UV, X-Rays). Hence, we cannot fully sense the whole truth about things. According to a Greek philosopher, we only perceive the “shadows” of the truth about things.

While we sense that the Body and Blood of Christ (the Eucharist) still seem to be bread and wine, these are limited perception of truth about the Eucharist. This for me is a full impact of the fact that we should worship (original: offer Sacrifice and eat of It) in “Spirit and in Truth.” If I would not believe in the Transsubstantiation, then I would also not believe in the immortal soul of Man and other theological “things” that are not sensible (directly perceived through human senses).

While no one can ever create a perfect circle, the idea of a perfect circle exists. But beyond that, there is an even greater idea that there are such things as “shapes.” In everything we think, there is a hierarchy of “truths.” Hence, some truths are simply independent of the thinking object. Whether there were observers (thinkers) in the past, the universe existed.

Whether somebody realizes or not, God is. Whether one does not believe or not, the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ. I cannot imagine the consequences to the Catholic Faith if we remove the fact that Christ gave everything of Him – including His Body and Blood!
 
If the Lord did not leave access to Himself through the Eucharist, then I believe Thomas Acquinas says that the Church would be false and that this is the greatest of the Sacraments But then he also submits that Baptism and Reconciliation are the necessary sacraments for salvation - and of course, Holy Orders to administer it. Then the other sacraments are necessary to support and strengthen us. 🙂
 
Verbum_Caro said:
In honor of the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, I wanted to highlight a small part of the *Summa Theologica, *(III, 75, 5) which I found fascinating.

The question is whether or not the accidents of bread and wine remain after the substance of bread and wine are no longer present. The objection is that if the accidents of bread remain without the corresponding and underlying substance of bread then this is a deception:

VC
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Using the link (III, 75, 5) here is St. Thomas Aquinas’ answer.

I answer that, It is evident to sense that all the accidents of the bread and wine remain after the consecration. And this is reasonably done by Divine providence…

Reply to Objection 1. As is said in the book De Causis, an effect depends more on the first cause than on the second. And therefore by God’s power, which is the first cause of all things, it is possible for that which follows to remain, while that which is first is taken away.

Blessings,
granny

These two websites contain TV ads about Catholicism. The first is from one of the Dioceses which is using them. The second is general information.
 
grannymh,
Actually, I was focusing only Objection 2 and 3 and the subsequent reply.

VC
 
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