Whether Christ's Body Is in This Sacrament Movably?
Objection 1: It seems that Christ's body is movably in this
sacrament, because the Philosopher says (Topic. ii) that "when we are
moved, the things within us are moved": and this is true even of the
soul's spiritual substance. "But Christ is in this sacrament," as
shown above (Q. 74, A. 1). Therefore He is moved when it is moved.
Obj. 2: Further, the truth ought to correspond with the figure. But,
according to the commandment (Ex. 12:10), concerning the Paschal
Lamb, a figure of this sacrament, "there remained nothing until the
morning." Neither, therefore, if this sacrament be reserved until
morning, will Christ's body be there; and so it is not immovably in
this sacrament.
Obj. 3: Further, if Christ's body were to remain under this sacrament
even until the morrow, for the same reason it will remain there
during all coming time; for it cannot be said that it ceases to be
there when the species pass, because the existence of Christ's body
is not dependent on those species. Yet Christ does not remain in this
sacrament for all coming time. It seems, then, that straightway on
the morrow, or after a short time, He ceases to be under this
sacrament. And so it seems that Christ is in this sacrament movably.
_On the contrary,_ it is impossible for the same thing to be in
motion and at rest, else contradictories would be verified of the
same subject. But Christ's body is at rest in heaven. Therefore it is
not movably in this sacrament.
_I answer that,_ When any thing is one, as to subject, and manifold
in being, there is nothing to hinder it from being moved in one
respect, and yet to remain at rest in another just as it is one thing
for a body to be white, and another thing, to be large; hence it can
be moved as to its whiteness, and yet continue unmoved as to its
magnitude. But in Christ, being in Himself and being under the
sacrament are not the same thing, because when we say that He is
under this sacrament, we express a kind of relationship to this
sacrament. According to this being, then, Christ is not moved locally
of Himself, but only accidentally, because Christ is not in this
sacrament as in a place, as stated above (A. 5). But what is not in a
place, is not moved of itself locally, but only according to the
motion of the subject in which it is.
In the same way neither is it moved of itself according to the being
which it has in this sacrament, by any other change whatever, as for
instance, that it ceases to be under this sacrament: because whatever
possesses unfailing existence of itself, cannot be the principle of
failing; but when something else fails, then it ceases to be in it;
just as God, Whose existence is unfailing and immortal, ceases to be
in some corruptible creature because such corruptible creature ceases
to exist. And in this way, since Christ has unfailing and
incorruptible being, He ceases to be under this sacrament, not
because He ceases to be, nor yet by local movement of His own, as is
clear from what has been said, but only by the fact that the
sacramental species cease to exist.
Hence it is clear that Christ, strictly speaking is immovably in this
sacrament.
Reply Obj. 1: This argument deals with accidental movement, whereby
things within us are moved together with us. But with things which
can of themselves be in a place, like bodies, it is otherwise than
with things which cannot of themselves be in a place, such as forms
and spiritual substances. And to this mode can be reduced what we say
of Christ, being moved accidentally, according to the existence which
He has in this sacrament, in which He is not present as in a place.
Reply Obj. 2: It was this argument which seems to have convinced
those who held that Christ's body does not remain under this
sacrament if it be reserved until the morrow. It is against these
that Cyril says (Ep. lxxxiii): "Some are so foolish as to say that
the mystical blessing departs from the sacrament, if any of its
fragments remain until the next day: for Christ's consecrated body is
not changed, and the power of the blessing, and the life-giving grace
is perpetually in it." Thus are all other consecrations irremovable
so long as the consecrated things endure; on which account they are
not repeated. And although the truth corresponds with the figure,
still the figure cannot equal it.
Reply Obj. 3: The body of Christ remains in this sacrament not only
until the morrow, but also in the future, so long as the sacramental
species remain: and when they cease, Christ's body ceases to be under
them, not because it depends on them, but because the relationship of
Christ's body to those species is taken away, in the same way as God
ceases to be the Lord of a creature which ceases to exist.
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