Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-02-27
THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE

Discussed ny hts nov. DishoP mann w mo
Second Lenten Lecture.
The congregation at st. Joseph's Cathe-
dral yesterday afternoon, was very large,
and the closest attention was paid to the
second Of the series of Lenten Lectures de-
livered by Ri. Rev. Bishop John J. Kahn.
After summing up briefly the points
discussed the previous Sunday and COM
menting on the uncertainty introduced
into all religious questions by the new
rule of faith, viz: that the Bible is the
only teacher of revealed truth, the Bishop,
Yesterday, remarked that the doctrine con-
corning the nature of the Lords Supper or
the Holy Eucharist soon became a subject
about which men advanced the most con-
ficting opinions. But the Catholic doc
trine was first quite fully exposed.
The Catholic church has ever taught
that the words of conservation
effect a real change in the substance of the
bread which becomes the substance of the
flesh OF Christ, and in the substance of the
wine which becomes the substance Of the
blood of Christ. In virtue of the perma-
nent nature of the I~ucarhation, not in viz
ture of the conservation, Christ's human
soul aud his divinity are also present. This
change has been APPLY termed transubstan-
tiation, or the conversion of our substance
into another, of which the world of nature
furnishes So many illustrations.
But whilst the substance of the bread is
entirely changed, the outward appear
ances, which are the sacramental veil
hiding from human eyes, the Sacred HUI
mainly Of Christ, remain unchanged. 1t
is these alone the senses can take cog
nizauce of, and the senses testify truly
that the outward appearances or phenom-
ena are those Of bread and wine. 1t is
mans intelligence that penetrates behind
these exterior qualities and ~prOnOunces as
to the nature OF the underlying reality or
substance. In this instance, the authority
OF Christ, before which the en-
lightened reason OF the Christian
ever bows in lowly obedience, corrects the
Judgment he would otherwise pronounce,
and assures him that what is present is
His own most sacred body.
Tho objection, SO common among the
~uneducated, tia. no body can be present
in even two places at the same time, the
Bishop left for solution to philosophers,
physicists and metapbysicisns, who ell in
our day reject the theory On which alone
that objection is grounded, viz: That
extension is an essential element of
bodies or material substances. The very
reverse is now universally taught. Hence
reason can establish nc contradiction in the
superstition that a body may be in many
places at the same time. The impossibi,ity
does not assuredly follow from the fact
that the possibility cannot be conceived.
Then the Bishop gave an exposition Of
some Of the very many opinions invented
by the opponents of the Catholic doctrine.
Luther taught consubstantiation. He
argued that W. list the bread remained IN
changed, the body of Christ was also
present with il. This teaching,
Iuinglians as we'll as Catholics
refuted by the simple words of the Iusti-
tuition which are: This is my body" and
not: my body is with this bread" In
the opinion of Zuipglins, the bread and
wine were only signs or figures of the body
and blood of Chtist. But was the fgura-
tive word This, or is, or bOdg' All! here
came in the wrangle-a wrangle resulting
in over fifty different interpretations. A
beautiful specimen this, of that certainty
which the new rule Of faith the Bible
alone-is supposed TO establish! From
their works, you shall know them"
But what was Calvin's doctrine, not con-
corning the effects, but concerning the
nature of this sacrament? What did CAL
via himself believe? He wrote o work en-
titled: ION the Lords Supper" and in the
seventeenth chapter of the fourth book of
his Institutes, he discusses the subject
quite leugthily. He condemns alike Cath
olics, Lutherians, Zuinglians. But what
positive doctrine does he himself deliver?
None whatever. Under q multitude Of words
often an biguous, sometimes contradictory,
he very effsctuslly ccnceals his WI opin-
ion. How different from the positive,
clear e~nunciation Of the church, that it is
the Sacrament which contains truly, really
and substantially the Body and Blood to-
gether with the Soul and Divinity Of our
Lord Jesus Christ, under the forms or ap-
p~earances OF bread and wine. The proofs
of this, the chureh's teaching, will be COM
menced in the third lecture of this series,
to be delivered next Sunday afternoon.