Whether the Sacramental Species Can Nourish?
Objection 1: It seems that the sacramental species cannot nourish,
because, as Ambrose says (De Sacram. v), "it is not this bread that
enters into our body, but the bread of everlasting life, which
supports the substance of our soul." But whatever nourishes enters
into the body. Therefore this bread does not nourish: and the same
reason holds good of the wine.
Obj. 2: Further, as is said in De Gener. ii, "We are nourished by the
very things of which we are made." But the sacramental species are
accidents, whereas man is not made of accidents, because accident is
not a part of substance. Therefore it seems that the sacramental
species cannot nourish.
Obj. 3: Further, the Philosopher says (De Anima ii) that "food
nourishes according as it is a substance, but it gives increase by
reason of its quantity." But the sacramental species are not a
substance. Consequently they cannot nourish.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle speaking of this sacrament says (1
Cor. 11:21): "One, indeed, is hungry, and another is drunk": upon
which the gloss observes that "he alludes to those who after the
celebration of the sacred mystery, and after the consecration of the
bread and wine, claimed their oblations, and not sharing them with
others, took the whole, so as even to become intoxicated thereby."
But this could not happen if the sacramental species did not nourish.
Therefore the sacramental species do nourish.
_I answer that,_ This question presents no difficulty, now that we
have solved the preceding question. Because, as stated in _De Anima_
ii, food nourishes by being converted into the substance of the
individual nourished. Now it has been stated (A. 5) that the
sacramental species can be converted into a substance generated from
them. And they can be converted into the human body for the same
reason as they can into ashes or worms. Consequently, it is evident
that they nourish.
But the senses witness to the untruth of what some maintain; viz.
that the species do not nourish as though they were changed into the
human body, but merely refresh and hearten by acting upon the senses
(as a man is heartened by the odor of meat, and intoxicated by the
fumes of wine). Because such refreshment does not suffice long for a
man, whose body needs repair owing to constant waste: and yet a man
could be supported for long if he were to take hosts and consecrated
wine in great quantity.
In like manner the statement advanced by others cannot stand, who
hold that the sacramental species nourish owing to the remaining
substantial form of the bread and wine: both because the form does
not remain, as stated above (Q. 75, A. 6): and because to nourish is
the act not of a form but rather of matter, which takes the form of
the one nourished, while the form of the nourishment passes away:
hence it is said in _De Anima_ ii that nourishment is at first
unlike, but at the end is like.
Reply Obj. 1: After the consecration bread can be said to be in this
sacrament in two ways. First, as to the species, which retain the
name of the previous substance, as Gregory says in an Easter Homily
(Lanfranc, De Corp. et Sang. Dom. xx). Secondly, Christ's very body
can be called bread, since it is the mystical bread "coming down from
heaven." Consequently, Ambrose uses the word "bread" in this second
meaning, when he says that "this bread does not pass into the body,"
because, to wit, Christ's body is not changed into man's body, but
nourishes his soul. But he is not speaking of bread taken in the
first acceptation.
Reply Obj. 2: Although the sacramental species are not those things
out of which the human body is made, yet they are changed into those
things stated above.
Reply Obj. 3: Although the sacramental species are not a substance,
still they have the virtue of a substance, as stated above.
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