Transubstantiation and the Real Presence: Is the Eucharist Really Jesus?

At the heart of the Mass is the belief that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In this session of The Mass Explained, Dr. Brant Pitre distinguishes two things often confused: the Real Presence (that the whole Christ — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity — is "truly, really, and substantially" present) and transubstantiation (the Church's word for how the whole substance of bread and wine is changed into Christ, while the outward appearances remain) (CCC 1374–1377). He contrasts this with the three main Protestant views — Zwingli's purely symbolic presence, Calvin's spiritual-only presence, and Luther's "consubstantiation" — and then unfolds the striking Old Testament background of the "Bread of the Presence" (Exodus 25; Leviticus 24), the twelve loaves of "everlasting covenant" set before God in the Temple, fulfilled in the Last Supper as the new Bread of the Presence (Luke 22). He closes with the faith and reverence of the early Church — St. Cyril of Jerusalem ("do not consider them as bare bread and wine"), St. Augustine ("no one eats that flesh without first adoring it"), and St. Thomas Aquinas on how long the Presence lasts.

Key passages & sources examined: the Bread of the Presence (Exodus 25:23–30; Leviticus 24:5–8); David and the Bread of the Presence (Matthew 12:1–6; 1 Samuel 21); the Last Supper as the new Bread of the Presence (Luke 22:19–20); the Catechism on the Real Presence and transubstantiation (CCC 1374–1377); St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Mystagogical Catecheses); St. Augustine on adoring the Eucharist; and St. Thomas Aquinas on the duration of the Presence.