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Friday, April 22, 2022

Consecration in a Bakery

 If a priest goes into a bakery and says the words of consecration, what would happen?

NOTHING.  

Absolutely nothing because it's not the words, by themselves, that change the bread into the Body of Jesus.

The priest isn't saying magic words that create change.  It's the prayer of the Church, the congregation, the faith of the people--the Church, expressed in the words Jesus used at the Last Supper, that empowers the priest to act as Jesus.  It's the liturgy in prayer, not a formula of words.  

This is difficult.  We can see natural, concrete, worldly bread and wine. However, through the power of the Holy Spirit communing with these natural substances, transubstantiation occurs.  The term Transubstantiation was first used at the Lateran Council IV (1215).  Thomas Aquinas explains that the natural substances aren't reacting to physics but deeper, rather metaphysics.  It's the inside that changes, not the outside (the accidents).  Surely, it is a miracle of faith. 

When we offer the gifts at the oblation of the Mass, we are joined by Christ.  That's the only offering we can give to the Father--His Son, who is transforming not only bread and wine but all of us as the Body of Christ for the salvation of the world.



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