The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-09-24
WHAT is THE BLESSED EUCHARIST?


markabe and generous descriptions of the scenes,
spectacular professions and wonderful ceremonies
witnessed at the great Eucharistic Congress re-
Gently assembled in the historic city of Montreal.
Now what is the Blessed Eucharist and the philos-
ophy of the transcendent sacrifice of the Body and
Blood of Christ, for which the imposing Congress
was lately convened. The word Eucharist is of
the Greek tongue and means Good Grace or in
Catholic sense and, in an especial manner the Sac
rament of Greece that is of help, of good will, of
friendship even of love of God for His creature
man.
Again, what does the Catholic Church say of
this sacrament or mystery. The Church asserts
and teaches that after the Conservation in the Sac
rfce of the Mass, Christ is really, truly, and
substantially present. under the appearance of
bread and VINE That is to say, that the substances
Of the bread and wine are replaced by the sub
stance-the Body and Blood-of Jesus Christ, His
Soul and His Divinity.
This change is called Observation-Disclosures
mystery of the passing of one substance and yield
ing its place to another-which has been taught
by the unalterable Catholic Church from the dawn
of Christianity and, for these nineteen hundred
years, believed by the poor the illiterate by the
learned, by the greatest intellects and scholars of
all history.
1t has been the theme for thought, for study,
for discussion by learned doctors of theology and
by the councils of the Church. 1t has entered into
the warp and wool of history and tradition, of
science and virtue, of the martyrs heroism, the
confessor's faith and the Virgins vow.
But" objects the nationalist "this Transsub-
station is an impossibility, for where the sub
stance is there also must be its accidents, or
ternal appearance, that is, its taste, form, odor
touch and color so that if there be visible on the
altar the accidents of bread and wine, the bread
and wine must be there"
Let US repeat, that we all may understand. By
the accidents of bread and wine, of anything, |
is meant the external appearance of what we see
or touch that is its shape, form, color taste, odor
ETC. The substance is that under supporting, |
the accidents and to which these accidents adhere,
or on which they rest as for example, whiteness
or any color, to and on linen.
The heather philosopher, Aristotle, one among
the greatest ntellecs of all time, defined substance
as IAN entity Something which exists existing
in ITSELF but accidents he defined as entities
whose property it is to belong to something else,
or to adhere to something else Here we per-
dents Take for example piece of Carara mar
bic. The marble is white the marble was created
or formed self-existant, but the whiteness is not
it exists in and by the marble. The
marble is the substance the whiteness is the ac-
cident.
In the natural order, or the order of simple
nature, accidents, though distinct and, in some
cases seperable from their substance do not exist
separated from their own substances. In the SUI
pernatural order, however, in the order of Grace,
Dr. let us say in the higher world outside and above
own, it is not impossible for accidents to exist
Independent of, and separate from, their own nat
lral substances. Take the cases of the Angel
Gabriel, who appeared to the Blessed Virgin, and
he Angel Rafael, who conducted the young Tobit
o Ecbactana. Their bodies were but the simulacra
If human bodies yet to the human eye they had
III the appearances of corporal bodies.
Now the Blessed Eucharist, or, rather, let us
write the Mystery of Reconsideration, is of the
y subject to the VIII of God, "who can do all
hings" The Blessed Sacrament belongs to the
lomain of Miracle and Mystery, and is above the
peculation and understanding of natural
enses As substances, then and accidents are dis
met and seperable entities, they can, and by the
,ower of God are separated in the Mystery of
which, like the changing of
7ater into wine at the wedding feast, is miracle
bove the ordinary laws of nature. What, then, is
Reconsideration? 1t is the perfect change,
sappearance, to be vigorously correct, of the sub
lance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood
f Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. This is
he faith of all Catholics, the faith of the Eucharis
ic Congress, the faith of the Catholic world for
ineteen hundred years; of England, Scotland and
Wales, until lost in the political and social up
eaval of the sixteenth century; the faith of two
undred and fifty millions of Catholics today; the
aith of one hundred millions of Russian and
Ireek schismatics, and the faith that has given
+. n,,r rnnn n Christian civilization