Of course the Eucharist is a SYMBOL of the body and blood of Christ. Nobody has ever denied that. St. Thomas Aquinas himself says the Eucharist is a symbol or SIGN. He says that the body and the blood of Christ are present in the Eucharist IN THE MANNER OF A SYMBOL.
This is most clearly seen when you consider that if the host is broken in two, each portion of the host contains THE WHOLE CHRIST, precisely because the breaking of the sign creates two pieces, each of which functions as a SIGN just as the one unbroken host did.
Christ is NOT “physically present” in the Eucharist, as so many amateur theologians have said. I.e., when the host is chewed, Christ’s flesh is not torn and his bones are not broken. When the Eucharistic species is moved from place to place, Christ in heaven is not moved about.
Christ is really, fully, substantially present in the Eucharist. The Church has always taught the the Eucharistic presence of Christ in the Eucharist IS TO BE WORSHIPED. I.e., we give the Eucharist the worship of LATRIA, the worship that is due to GOD ALONE.
This leaves absolutely no ambiguity. The Eucharist IS Jesus Christ, because the Eucharist IS the living, risen body of Jesus Christ.
The entire article is a misfire. It seizes on a few uses of the word “symbol” in relation to the Eucharist, and misinterprets them all as meaning “mere symbol.” The writings of all the authors quoted, taken as a whole, will not bear the interpretation that the Eucharist is a MERE symbol.
A likeness of God to be worshipped you say? Scripture calls that idolatry.
>>Christ is NOT “physically present” in the Eucharist<<
“CANON I. If any one denies that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but says that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or power; let him be anathema.
“CANON II. If any one says, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denies that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood — the species Only of the bread and wine remaining — which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation; let him be anathema.” (Council of Trent, 13th session)