Theological Word of the Day

[tran’-sub-stan’-shee-ay‘-shun] (Latin transsubstantiati, “change of substance”)

The Roman Catholic doctrine that refers to the change by which the substance (not the appearance) of the bread and wine in the Eucharist becomes the actual body and blood of Christ. That is, Jesus is not merely symbolically or figuratively present, but is really (or actually) present in what was previously just bread and wine. In 1551 the Council of Trent defined this, “by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.” (Session XIII, chapter IV). Eastern Orthodox Churches agree that the bread and wine change into the body and blood of Christ, but they don”t seek to define how the change takes place the way Roman Catholics have. They are content to call it a mystery. Protestant churches all deny this doctrine.