The Council of Trent

Way back in the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church was grappling with the Protestant Reformation. While there were many aspects to this movement, an important one to consider for us is the impact on the understanding of the Eucharist.

Protestant reformers like Martin Luther felt that humans were corrupting the Church, and that only those words found in Sacred Scripture (the principle of sola scriptura) could direct the Church and theological understanding. This led to the basis for arguments against many of the sacraments, including the Eucharist.

The Church convened an ecumenical council at Trent, Italy (1545-1563). The Council of Trent sought to correct the errors and heresies of Luther and others in the Protestant movement. From the proceedings of this council, we have a great deal of teachings in support of the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist and other sacraments.

Luther agreed that Christ instituted the Eucharist. However, he did not believe in the principle of transubstantiation (see this column from 6/18/23 for more on that topic). Catholic teaching used the philosophical terms “substance” and “accidents” to help explain how bread and wine truly became Jesus during the consecration. Luther rejected this, since those words are not found in the Bible. The Council of Trent sought to counteract this with reasoning from both Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

Unfortunately, to this day, issues like this divide Christ’s Church. However, as Catholics, we point to Jesus’ words themselves in Scripture, that the bread and wine truly become his Body and Blood, and that when we do this in memory of him at every Mass, he truly becomes present again on the altar, the bloodless sacrifice offered to the Father which is offered back to us to strengthen our faith and our love.

"And because that Christ […] declared that which He offered under the species of bread to be truly His own body […] a conversion is made 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; which conversion is, by the holy Catholic Church, suitably and properly called Transubstantiation." - Council of Trent, 13^th Session, Chapter IV

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Contact me at eucharist@stmli.org.