The Catholic and Evangelical Viewpoint Debate #4

Today from the book Letters Between a Catholic and an Evangelical - From Debate to Dialogue on the Issues That Separate Us we will take a a look at the Lord's Supper.

Transubstantiation

Pastor Jim: You say the bread and wine change into Christ's body and blood. The bread and wine, however, look suspiciously similar - identical, in fact-before and after the consecration. Your church favors the theory of transubstantiation to explain the alleged change. I would like to know how you understand this theory and whether you think it makes good sense.

Fr. John: Exactly, how bread and wine becomes Christ body and blood without changing its appearance is a mystery. Yet what happens when we eat? When you consume an apple, its flesh becomes yours. The atoms don't change, yet somehow your body assumes dominion over those atoms and molecules, making them its own. Somehow Christ's body takes dominion over bread and wine, making them its own.

Pastor Jim: The theory of transubstantiation says that at Mass the substance , the inner essence, of the bread and wine change, while their accidents, their outward appearances, remain the same. Yet when Jesus turned water into wine, the disciples tasted it for themselves (John 2:1-11. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, they saw it with their eyes (John 11:1-44). When God the Father spoke to Jesus from heaven, they heard it with their ears (John 12:28-32). When Jesus appeared to Thomas after the resurrection, He invited Thomas to touch the wounds left by the spikes and spear (John 20:26-28). What precedence is there for a "miracle", such as the Catholic Eucharist, that cannot be perceived by any of the senses?

Fr. John: Our Lord chastised Thomas for demanding to put his fingers and hand in our Lord's nail-prints and wounded side: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (John 20:29. There have also been many accounts of miraculous changes of consecrated bread and wine into flesh and blood. One such miracle is over 1200 years old.

My take: I believe the bread and wine are symbols and that is what Jesus was indicating. I also believe that anyone who has come to faith and believes in Jesus and all He did for us can partake in the Lord's Supper. I also believe the Lord's Supper is one of the two (not seven) sacraments that Jesus commands to us in the Bible. What are your thoughts?