What is consubstantiation?

Answer

Consubstantiation is the belief that during Communion / the Lord’s Supper, the bread and wine spiritually represent the flesh and blood of Jesus, while remaining physically bread and wine. This differs from transubstantiation, which asserts that the bread and wine actually transform into the body and blood of Jesus. Transubstantiation, a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church dating back to its early years, contrasts with consubstantiation, a concept that emerged during the Protestant Reformation. Consubstantiation teaches that Jesus is present “with, in, and under” the bread and wine, but not identically as the bread and wine.

Martin Luther, the initiator of the Protestant Reformation, was a Roman Catholic priest dissatisfied with the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. His aim was to reform the church and restore it to its origins. Luther, through his theological education, became familiar with the doctrine of transubstantiation, which was integral to his faith as he frequently conducted Mass as a priest, where transubstantiation is a key element.

As the Reformation emerged in response to Roman Catholic misconduct (such as the selling of indulgences) and faced opposition from the church, the reformers, who were predominantly Roman Catholic believers excommunicated from the church, found themselves without a religious institution. This situation prompted a reevaluation of the elements of the Mass, specifically the bread and wine, in light of scripture. Instead of relying solely on faith to accept transubstantiation, which lacks observable changes in the bread and wine, consubstantiation was developed to clarify the transformation of these elements without a physical alteration.

The shift frTo transform rather than transmute is the solution to perceiving the bread and wine as the body and blood of Jesus. The prefix “trans-” signifies “change” and indicates that a transformation occurs; the bread truly becomes the body of Jesus, and the wine genuinely becomes the blood of Jesus. Conversely, the prefix “con-” signifies “with” and denotes that the bread does not transform into the body of Jesus but coexists with the body of Christ, allowing the bread to be both bread and the body of Jesus. The same principle applies to the wine. It does not change into the blood of Jesus but coexists with the blood of Jesus, enabling the wine to be both wine and the blood of Jesus.

In this manner, the composition of the Host, central to the worship service, approaches reality as the physical attributes of the bread and wine remain unaltered; the bread retains the taste of unleavened bread, not flesh, and the wine retains the taste of wine, not blood. Nevertheless, these two fundamental components, the flesh and the blood, persist as coexisting elements with the bread and wine, ensuring the faithful observance of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 26:26-28 and Mark 14:22-24. Consubstantiation is upheld by certain Eastern Orthodox churches and other liturgical Christian denominations (such as Episcopal and Lutheran). However, even within these groups, consubstantiation is not universally embraced.