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Tell me, how can you "chew up" that which you believe is the literal Jesus Christ without breaking "His" bones?


Becuase, as a good Catholic, I beleive that the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ are truely, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist. As the Council of Trent states (Session 13):

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First of all, the holy council teaches and openly and plainly professes that after the consecration of bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is truly, really, and substantially contained in the august sacrament of the Holy Eucharist under the appearance of those sensible things [the bread and wine]. For there is no repugnance in this that our Savior sits always at the right hand of the Father in heaven according to the general mode of existing, and yet is in many other places sacramentally present to us in His own substance by a manner of existence which, though we can scarcely express in words, yet with our understanding illumined by faith, we can concieve and ought most firmly to beleive is possible to God.


In order to understand this, it is important to have a quick lesson in basic metaphysics. By "substance" is meant the essence of a thing, not physical materiality: for examply, in a loaf of Wonder Bread there is the substance "bread", which is different than the flour, milks, etc that the bread is actually composed of. Substances are not material. Normally, substances exist with the accidents (materiality, physical characteristics) of things. Continuing with the example of Wonder Bread: if one takes one slice in the left hand, and another in the right, does this mean one is holding two substances? No, substance is common to the thing in question, and dividing the object does not divide the substance.

Dictionary.com defines substance in this regard as: "That which underlies all outward manifestations; substratum; the permanent subject or cause of phenomena, whether material or spiritual; that in which properties inhere; that which is real, in distinction from that which is apparent; the abiding part of any existence, in distinction from any accident; that which constitutes anything what it is; real or existing essence."

Another good example of this meaning of substance would be the translation of a book. One can say "The Chinese edition of the Catechism is the same in substance as the original Latin." The Chinese edition looks different, sounds different--it might even taste different if it were printed on rice paper. However, despite the difference in accidents, the Latin and Chinese editions contain the same thing, namely the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Now that we have a basic understanding of what is meant by "substance", let us turn to the quote from the Council of Trent. Note that it does not say the Body and Blood of Christ are "literally" or "physically" present (the new Catechism doesn't either); this is due to the fact that the Church does not proclaim a physical presence, that is, Christ is not present in the Eucharist the same that my hand is present upon my keyboard. Unfortuneately, Catholics sometimes resort to using words like "literal" to express that Christ is actually in the sacrament.

How does the Council of Trent (and, I beleive, the IV Lateran Council) describe the Real Presence of Christ?
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...our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is truly, really, and substantially contained in the august sacrament of the Holy Eucharist...

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our Savior sits always...in heaven according to the general mode of existing, and yet is in many other places sacramentally present to us


We can see then, that the Church teaches that the Body and Blood of Christ are present in the Eucharist in the way that a substance is present, not according to the "general mode of existing", what we would call a "physical" presence. I don't know if you continued reading the Catechism of Trent, KJB Only, but if you did, you would have read this (emphasis mine):
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Pastors, however, should not fail to observe that in this Sacrament not all these things are contained after the same manner, or by the same power...some things are contained in the Sacrament because they are united to those which are expressed in the form.

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Since, however, to Christ's body are united His blood, His soul, and His Divinity, all of these also must be found to coexist in the Sacrament; not, however, by virtue of the consecration, but by virtue of the union that subsists between them and His body. All these are said to be in the Eucharist by virtue of concomitance. Hence it is clear that Christ, whole and entire, is contained in the Sacrament; for when two things are actually united, where one is, the other must also be.

Catechism of Trent--Sacraments--Eucharist

And so, the bones and sinew of the Body of Christ are "physically" present along with the rest of the risen Body of Christ at the right of the Father in Heaven. The Body of Christ is substantially and sacramentally present in the Eucharist; the bones and sinew, which are united to Christ's Body, are therefore also present, but not in a physical way. Therefore, when one partakes of the Eucharist, one is not crunching the Jesus' bones in one's mouth, which is a rather revolting thought.

A brief aside: The dogma of the Real Presence, and the doctrine of Transubstantiation, are not the same thing, and can not be used interchangebly. The dogma of the Real Presence states that the Body and Blood of Christ are really, truly present in the Eucharist. Transubstantiation is a metaphysical explanation, adopted (I think) around the time of Lateran Council IV, that explains how the Body and Blood are present. While the teaching of the Real Presence can be traced back to the Apostles, transubstantiation cannot. For example, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, which beleive in the Real Presence, do not acknowledge transubstantiation for the most part. Their Eucharist is still valid.

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For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.

--Justin Martyr, First Apology, circa Anno Domini 153-155