Transubstantiation: Catholic? Or more than that?

Transubstantiation:  Catholic?  Or more than that?

Of course no one, especially myself, can give to anyone else the actual truth alone as to the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ that becomes the real presence in the Holy Eucharist through the hands of a priest when he says; “This is my Body” when he raises the bread which now is the very Essence of the Crucified Son of God.  We might say this is the only Church that believes and teaches the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist once the Transubstantiation is completed.  And going further the Real Presence never leaves the species that are Consecrated.  

One gnawing question that always affects our thinking is if the other denominations believed in the Real Presence what keeps them from becoming Roman Catholic?  The answer is they do not believe it!  Perhaps none of these denominations can accept the rest of Catholicism's truths regarding the Blessed Mother Mary as the Mother of God (through the Incarnation that her biological son assumed humanity and therefore was the Son of God making her the Mother of Jesus Christ).  Mary is truly “Mother of God” since she is the mother of the eternal Son of God made man, who is God himself.  (CCC 509).

Since the Virgin Mary’s role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church.  “The Virgin Mary…is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer…She is “clearly the mother of the members of Christ”...since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head.”  “Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church.”   (CCC 963).

“Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us,”  is present in many ways to his Church: in his word, in his Church’s prayer, “where two or three are gathered in my name,” in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in every person of the minister.  But “he is present…most especially in the Eucharistic species.”  (CCC 1373).  

It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ’sbody and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament.  The Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion.  Thus St. John Chrysostom declares: it is not by man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself.  The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God’s.  This is my body, he says.  This word transforms the things offered.  (CCC 1375).

Transubstantiation?  It is Catholic and defies any other denomination to subvert its meaning.

Ralph B. Hathaway