Lesson 22 – What Happens When You Eat the Body of Christ?

When you eat normal human food, it sustains your bodily life – and in fact, it becomes a part of your body. A child has to eat in order for his body to grow larger. Is it different when you eat the Eucharist?

In his book The Confessions, St. Augustine has an amazing line about this, which he writes as if Jesus were speaking to him: “You will not change me into you, as you do with the food of your flesh; rather, you will be changed into me” (St. Augustine’s Confessions, Book 7, Chapter 10).

That is, when you eat the body of Christ, you don’t change it into a part of you. Rather, it transforms you, and you become a member of the body of Christ.

Course Reading

Summa Theologiae III, q. 79, a. 1 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae III, q. 79, a. 2 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Excerpt from the Summa Theologiae III, q. 79, a. 1

[T]he effect of this sacrament is considered from the way in which this sacrament is given; for it is given by way of food and drink. And therefore this sacrament does for the spiritual life all that material food does for the bodily life, namely, by sustaining, giving increase, restoring, and giving delight. Accordingly, Ambrose says (De Sacram. v): "This is the bread of everlasting life, which supports the substance of our soul." And Chrysostom says (Hom. xlvi in Joan.): "When we desire it, He lets us feel Him, and eat Him, and embrace Him." And hence our Lord says (Jn. 6:56): "My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed."

Course Listening

Entering into Christ's Passion: the Mass as a Sacrifice | Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.

God on a Cross: The Meaning of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus | Prof. Bruce Marshall