The Novelty of Transubstantiation: The Presence of Christ in the Eucharist | Fr. James Brent, O.P.
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
4.8 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2019
⏱️ 73 minutes
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Summary
This was one of the lectures from our 2019 Summer Science Conference, "Novelty in Nature: Scientific and Philosophical Understanding of Flux and Chance in the Natural World."
Conference Theme:
Modern science consistently presents us with new and surprising truths about the natural world, particularly about how new things come to be, whether stars and galaxies, plants and animals, or chemical and physical structures. In many ways this creativity and flux in nature might seem antithetical to the classical picture of nature that Aquinas inherited from Aristotle. The theme for the second annual Thomistic Institute symposium on modern science and Thomistic philosophy, “Novelty in Nature: Scientific and Philosophical Understanding of Flux and Change in the Natural World,” touches on this question. Expert scientists and philosophers will discuss whether Thomistic philosophy is compatible with our modern scientific view of nature and how the two might enrich one another. The symposium is primarily intended for graduate students in the sciences and the philosophy of science and will include introductory sessions on basic of Thomistic philosophy of nature in its own day and in the history of science.
2019 Featured Speakers:
Karin Oberg (Harvard University), Robert Koons, (University of Texas), Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, (Providence College), Marissa March (University of Pennsylvania), Fr. James Brent, OP, (Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception), Thomas McLaughlin (St. John Vianny Theological Seminary), Matthew Gaetano (Hillsdale College), Dr. Brian Carl (Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It is the firm belief and teaching of the Catholic Church |
| 0:05.0 | that Jesus Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist. |
| 0:14.0 | This teaching, I hope, is basically catechetical, meaning everyone should know this. |
| 0:22.9 | Unfortunately, it's a surprise to a lot of people, |
| 0:25.4 | even people who are raised in the Catholic Church. |
| 0:28.5 | But this is the constant and universal teaching of the church |
| 0:31.3 | that the Eucharist that we celebrate, |
| 0:35.0 | in the Eucharist that we celebrate, |
| 0:37.3 | we have something more than just bread and wine, |
| 0:41.1 | something that's not bread and wine. |
| 0:43.7 | What we are given and receive is nothing less than Jesus Christ himself. |
| 0:52.9 | And not just a phantom or a ghost of Jesus Christ, |
| 0:57.6 | but all that he is, his body, his blood, his soul, his human soul, |
| 1:04.5 | and his divinity or divine nature. |
| 1:06.6 | It's all there. |
| 1:09.1 | That's the essence of the Eucharist. |
| 1:12.6 | That's the teaching. |
| 1:14.6 | And it's the cause of great devotion among God's people, |
| 1:19.6 | and it has been so for 2,000 years now. |
| 1:25.6 | That could seem just like a kind of curious assertion like Catholics are weird they believe this thing |
| 1:32.4 | called the real presence of Christ and the Eucharist and wow isn't that crazy |
| 1:37.5 | so what we want to do before we jump into lots of details about transubstantiation is try to situate this teaching in a larger |
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