Jesus said that the bread he gives us is his Flesh

Thursday, 4/18/13

Jesus said, “The bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.” And since he followed that up at the Last Supper by telling his disciples to do the same in memory of him, we believe that the Holy Communion we receive is really his Flesh. But, can we say in what way it becomes his Flesh?

The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 told us that what we receive is really the Flesh of Christ, because by the words of consecration the substance of bread disappears, to be replaced by the substance of Christ’s Flesh. The Council said this replacement should be known as Transubstantiation.

Since we know that the only working definition of a substance is its molecular make-up, and since we know that there is no change in the molecular make-up of what was bread; the word Transubstantiation cannot logically be applied to the change we believe takes place.

For ourselves it is enough to believe that Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion, because he said he would come to us.

It may not be wrong for us to go along with what the Anglican priest George Herbert wrote:

 I am sure, whether bread stay, or whether bread fly away, concerneth bread not me.