1373 "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 the person of the minister.
But "he is present...MOST ESPECIALLY IN THE EUCHARISTIC SPECIES."
1374 The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is
unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the
perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments
tend." In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body
and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus
Christ and, therefore, THE WHOLE CHRIST IS TRULY, REALLY, AND
SUBSTANTIALLY CONTAINED." "This presence is called 'real' - by
which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if
they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the
fullest sense: that is to say, it is SUBSTANTIAL presence by which
Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."
1375 It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's
body 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 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.
And St. Ambrose says about this conversion:
Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what
the blessings has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails
over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is
changed. . . . Could not Christ's word, which can make from
nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what
they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their
original nature than to change their nature.
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