Thursday, October 27, 2011

"Whether the matter of this sacrament is bread and wine?"



We respond to the manifest ignorance amongst Catholics regarding the Eucharist by periodically transmitting the teaching of St. Thomas concerning this sacrament.

To the above quaestio, St. Thomas answers:


"Christ instituted this sacrament under the species of bread and wine, as is evident from Matthew 26. Consequently, bread and wine are the proper matter of this sacrament. And the reasonableness of this is seen first, in the use of this sacrament, which is eating: for, as water is used in the sacrament of Baptism for the purpose of spiritual cleansing, since bodily cleansing is commonly done with water; so bread and wine, wherewith men are commonly fed, are employed in this sacrament for the use of spiritual eating."

Courtesy of New Advent, St. Thomas' complete answer here.

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

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