Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation
Coining of certain terms, words, phrases may not contain the depth of the whole meaning of what it ought to be. We say that the Word became flesh, but we don’t know how the Word that came through the ear came into being as flesh. The Incarnation of the Word is a fact, yet not able to comprehend the mysteriousness of the process that became transparent. The world was created through the Word, an utterance that translated into action which impregnated as visible forms. So also the Resurrection of the Lord is a mystery and nobody knows what triggered into translating the dead body into an enlivened state/life. Great things happen without our knowledge, for we are only insignificant creatures only. Creation of anything is not within our limit; that which is created is revealed to man by different body senses.Though the material effect is revealed, the process of the same is unknown to man. In other words man has no right to create or destroy. In this universe, nothing can be created or destroyed by man, but translating the material from one stage to another is only within our perimeter.
Similarly, translation of the bread into the living Body and Blood of Jesus is a process that man has no authority to penetrate into it. Bread turns as Body by the utterance of the celebrant, the ambassador of God, but how it is becoming is a big unanswerable answer to the earthling. The celebrant becomes a medium or a catalyst, but the catalytic process is a dead end for the celebrant also. The bread doesn’t change into the Body of Christ but the receiver get the effect of the vibrant Body. It is the Word that comes through the tongue of the authorized celebrant plays the role of the conversion. But how? A big mystery. Here is the limitation of man who is only an agent of God in everything. In the procreation process also, man gives and woman receives the raw material; the totality of the process of the embryo is a mystery. The celebrant’s tongue that utters the forgiveness of sins open the narrow gate to Heaven, so also the bread does the work of the Body within the body of the receiver. We can’t call it as transubstantiation or consubstantiation, but the apt one seems to be consubstantiation, occurring simultaneously. All such hidden work is done by the Spirit of God who works in everything because He broods in everything.” It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and Life”, Jn.6: 63. So the words are spirit and life. Now brood over the meaning of the tongue of the priest that has the authority of opening the gates of Heaven. Let my Protestant readers understand the Body and Blood of Christ that work in our body for our salvation, and the heavenly roles played by the tongue and the hands of priests that carve out our salvation.
The Kingdom of God starts for our salvation at this moment when our sins are forgiven by the tongue, key to the door of Heaven, of the priest. Thus it is a continuous process of gathering as many gold coins for our journey. This life is a pilgrimage to the Heavenly Canaan,as explained in John Banyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. The Kingdom of Heaven doesn’t start at the narrow gate of Heaven after the death because the narrow gate and its opening now, sins and its opening by priestly absolution; it starts straight from the door of baptism. Sin is the narrow gate and its opening by the priestly absolution is the continuous process of salvation. Forgive others and help others are the gold coins that are accumulated in the accompanying angel’s, guardian angel’s bags. Forgiving and taking part in sharing the Blood and Body of Christ and loving others is the process of salvation. ‘Jesus has no hands, but ours; Jesus has no tongue, but ours’. Our tongues and hands must work together to get our salvation that is the product of the priest’s tongue and his hands to provide us with the Bread of Life. Bread is the symbolic body of Christ, ‘aharam’ is anything that we eat. “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son Of Man will give you; for on him has God the father set his seal”, Jn.6: 27. The Father has set his mark on the Bread that came from Heaven, not the ordinary ‘aharam’ that includes, curry rice, tapioca, though the word ‘lahamo’ in Syriac means bread and food. What the angels sow were the grains of wheat, not the seeds of tapioca or jack fruit. Therefore, ‘appam’ is the correct word that is used in the Lord’s prayer. This metamorphosised wheat is the Body of the Son of Man. The process of the metamorphosis is the monopoly, kuthaaka, of the Spirit of God, not of the celebrant or the receiver.
By:
Prof E.S.John, Australia
(Contributing Editor- OBL)
