What does time have to do with the Real Presence of Jesus in the sacramental elements of bread and wine in the Eucharist?
The Centrality of the Eucharist
The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the Eucharist, instituted by Christ at the Last Supper, the “source and summit” of the Christian life (1324). Reflecting on the reality of Christ's Body and Blood present in the Eucharist, Fr. Spitzer states:
Jesus unequivocally intended that the Eucharistic bread be His real body (given on the Cross at Calvary and in its risen form) and the Eucharistic wine be His real blood (given on Calvary and in its risen form).
The meaning of Christ’s command to “do this in remembrance of Me” is an essential element of this new liturgical action. Fr. Spitzer quotes theologian Fr. Johannes Betz to crystallize this notion of “remembrance”:
Anamnesis in the biblical sense means not only the subjective representation of something in the consciousness and as an act of the remembering mind. It is also the objective effectiveness and presence of one reality in another, especially the effectiveness and presence of the salvific actions of God, in the liturgical worship. Even in the Old Testament, the liturgy is the privileged medium in which the covenant attains actuality.
The Collapse of Time and Quantum Realities
The Last Supper was the night before Christ’s Crucifixion and death—a future event. Since that night, every time Mass is celebrated, the priest makes present that same sacrifice which occurred in the past. To quote Fr. Spitzer again:
The priest collapses the time from his present moment to the time of Jesus’ Last Supper, bringing the bread and wine that Jesus gives His apostles into the present moment—(just as) Jesus collapsed the time between His Eucharistic Last Supper and His future Body and Blood on the Cross at the very moment of His words of institution.
This perspective is central to the Jewish understanding of sacred time and ritual remembrance. This collapse of time is indeed what Christ intended at the institution of the Eucharist.
Science and the Eucharist
What, if anything, can science contribute to our understanding of this reality?
Fr. Mark Fusco, SJ, in his book The Physics and Metaphysics of Transubstantiation, makes the case for using quantum theory to better understand the sacramental mystery of the Eucharist. There are two things to keep in mind. From metaphysics (the study of being as being) and theology, it is clear that there is an infinite gap between the Transcendent and created reality. Secondly, our understanding of created reality is mediated through the lens of quantum theory, which is an attempt to describe the interactions of subatomic particles-matter at its most fundamental level. These interactions defy the laws of classic physics as we currently understand them. First, Fr. Fusco proposes a new theory of metaphysics that he calls holocryptic metaphysics—as a way to understand how Divine Being interacts with the created order and vice versa.
The Transcendent engages Nothingness as a self-reflective moment that brings reality into existence.
This “nothingness” is a necessary element of reality in light of the Judeo-Christian concept of creation ex nihilo. Fr. Fusco quotes Niels C. Nielsen, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, from whom we learn “the fact that the world is created out of nothing means only that the world exists in God and only by God, for the world does not have within itself the ground of its own being.” Fr. Fusco states that the “points of contact between the Transcendent and [the created order] create a complete ‘holographic image.’” He is very careful to point out the speculative nature of his thinking, but his efforts to incorporate the properties of created matter as highlighted in quantum theory into a coherent understanding of “being” are thought-provoking.
Quantum theory may also shed light on our understanding of Transubstantiation and the transformative power that the Eucharist provides for all those who believe. Fr. Fusco’s speculative considerations of quantum entanglement and the role it plays in Transubstantiation are beyond the scope of this post, but in brief, we can see Jesus as the bridge between Divine and created being. From the theory of relativity, we know that “now” is dependent on one’s frame of reference. It is clear that as the Logos, He stands outside of space and time–the Divine frame of reference!-while remaining present in the created order. The Eucharist provides us with an essential “point of contact” with the Transcendent that changes us.
As we strive to contemplate the richness of the Eucharistic Presence given to us at the Last Supper, the complex relationship between the created order and Uncreated Being, and the link between Divine and human nature in the person of Jesus (the hypostatic union) are a deep, seemingly unending source of prayerful reflection. That is indeed one definition of “mystery”—that one never reaches the end of what can be known.
As we prepare for the Holiest week of the year, contemplating Christ’s suffering for our salvation, let us also remember the Gift He continues to give us in the Eucharistic celebration and the gift of His presence “in all the tabernacles of the world even until the end of time.”
“In his love, God gives himself into our hands; we touch him and receive him daily into our mouths.”
—St. Francis of Assisi, Letter to All Clerics
