By David Martin
On Sunday, June 23, the Feast of Corpus Christi, Pope Francis in his Sunday address made what appeared to be a heretical statement. Speaking on the Holy Eucharist, he said:
"In the presence of the Eucharist, Jesus who becomes bread, this simple bread that contains the entire reality of the Church, let us learn to bless all that we have, to praise God, to bless and not curse all that has led us to this moment, and to speak words of encouragement to others."
The theological fact is that Jesus does not "become bread," but vice-versa. To say that Jesus becomes bread implies that Jesus ceases and becomes something else, i.e. bread, so that only the substance of bread is present in the consecrated Host. This is what Protestants believe.
The truth is that during the Sacrifice of the Mass, the "simple bread" ceases and becomes Jesus, so that only the substance of Jesus is present. As such, the bread cannot "contain the entire reality of the Church [Christ]" because the bread is not there to contain Him. This is why the physical property of the consecrated Host is called the accidents or sacred species, because cessation of the bread occurs during the consecration of the Mass.
By saying that the bread "contains" Jesus, Francis is also promoting consubstantiation, the coexistence of two substances together, i.e. Jesus and bread, which is what Luther taught and which the Church condemns.
Saying that the bread contains the “entire reality” of the Church also suggests that all things are contained in the Eucharist, thus tending to give an equality to everything, which Francis alludes to by saying, "let us learn to bless all that we have." Shall we bless our adultery too? (AL 303) What about learning to renounce all and to bless only God? Isn't this why we are on earth and why we were baptized Catholic?
Not surprisingly, an earthquake shook the city of Rome a few hours after Francis’ address. Italy’s Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) put the preliminary magnitude at 3.7. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre put the magnitude slightly higher, at 3.9.
Was this a sign from God? Was The Lord expressing His indignation over Francis’ error?