coatta@cs.ubc.ca (Terry Coatta) (08/12/90)
Kenneth Kutz writes: > If the elements of the Lord's supper are literally the body and blood > of Jesus, would it follow that Jesus still suffers at every mass or > not necessarily? What is the Catholic view of this? If the answer > is no, why not if the host is *literally* Christ's body? > ... > If the bread and wine do not merely symbolize Christ's body and blood but > literally are one and the same, wouldn't if follow that the suffering > is still continuing (at each Mass) and that he is literally reappearing > (more than once vs. once for all) as the elements are brought forth? The moderator has already stated that there is a mystical element in the Mass, in which the original sacrifice of Christ is brought into our immediate presence. But the kind of questions you are asking don't acknowledge this mystical nature; specifically, you are treating time in the linear fashion that is normal for humans, but does not apply to God. Just as God is was and ever shall be, so the sacrifice at Calvary is was and ever shall be. God knows no time. The sacrifice of the mass transcends time. A similar problem surfaces in your question about Christ ``literally'' reappearing. The questions doesn't make much sense in the philosophical framework in which the Mass is embedded (not that I find that framework satisfying myself, but I recognize that it exists). What do you mean by ``literally''? The Catholic Church asserts that the substance of Christ is present not the accidents. Thus none of the observable properties of Christ exist in the elements, only the ``Christness of Christ''. Does this mean he is literally reappearing? I don't know, because I don't know how to apply the word ``literally'' to the notions of substance and accidents. Terry Coatta (coatta@cs.ubc.ca) Dept. of Computer Science, UBC, Vancouver BC, Canada `What I lack in intelligence, I more than compensate for with stupidity'