“If Christianity has nothing to do with cannibalism, how do you explain communion? If you believe in trans-substantiation, you are consuming human blood and flesh. If you do not believe in the literal transformation of wine and crackers, you are still pretending to commit a cannibalistic act.”

I found this on a forum I visit, amidst a bit of wanking back and forth regarding a woman who may or may not have done some questionable things. Somehow, they got onto the topic of Catholics being cannibals, and that the band Insane Clown Posse is singing music created by Lucifer. While I won’t even begin to cover those things (I mean, really…REALLY??), I will add on one more bullet point to my previous post, Common Misconceptions About Catholics - that being, that we are NOT CANNIBALS!!

6. Catholics Are Not Cannibals - This one requires a bit more theology and thought, because there will be people who still argue this point, and will argue it, until their dying days. However, I find it a little humorous that this accusation made back by the Romans is still being used by people ignorant of the Faith today.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church actually explain this better than most, I think.

“The conversion of the whole substance of the bread and wine into the whole substance of the Body and Blood of Christ, only the accidents (i.e. the appearances of the bread and wine) remaining.”

To simplify that even more, while the bread and wine do become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, at the same time, to us, in every feasible way our limited five senses can reasonably figure out, it still remains just bread and wine. It is the substance, not the form, that changes and that feeds us through our souls. We are not cannibals, in that we do not eat physical blood, meat, and human tissue; we are not ‘pretending to commit a cannibalistic act’ either.

Another note to examine here is that when Christ originally said, “Take this and eat, it is my body/blood,” he was still living. By the same logic of those who will read this and continue to attest that Catholics are cannibals (and thus limiting their view and understanding of Christ’s actions and Holy Communion in general), we will ask ourselves this important question -were the apostles cannibals? No! Well, neither are Catholics. The same change that occurred as Jesus sat with his disciples is the one that we partake in at Mass. It’s the Holy Grace that is transubstantiation, folks.