Mary asked:My big issue is transubstantiation. I worked in hospitals for years. I'm getting ready to teach a class on anatomy. No one has explained transubstantiation to me so that I can understand it.Tim Staples replied:"One way to look at transubstantiation is if you go to Mark chapter 16, verse 12. You remember when Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus ... 'They did not recognize him for he appeared to them in another form.' ... I look at it this way. He's God. He can appear in any form that he so wills ... and so for him to take the form if you will of bread and wine, is a piece of cake ... What is transformed is the substance and not the accidents ... The accidents are things that are not essential to the essence or the substance of the thing ... Accidents include things like weight, and size and taste and so forth ... The substance of the thing is what is transformed, not the accidents."Source material:Mark 1612 After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Copyrights:Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Catholic Answers, "Open Forum for Non-Catholics" (San Diego: Catholic Answers, 2013) Editor's note: This is an excerpt of the answer provided. For the complete response download the podcast. |