Properties Of The Eucharist

Q. I firmly believe that at Mass the Eucharist becomes Christ's body and blood. But here's what I don't understand: Why then do the properties of the bread and wine still affect people --- for example, those with wheat allergies or alcoholics? (Danville, Indiana)
A. Not surprisingly, this is a bit difficult to explain: It is, after all, a mystery of our faith -- a miracle of Christ's doing -- and there is nothing else to which it can be compared.
But it is nevertheless a core belief of the Catholic faith that the bread and wine are changed at Mass into the body and blood of Christ, something celebrated and proclaimed by hundreds of millions throughout the world since the evening of the Last Supper when Jesus said, "This is my body. ... This is my blood."
A bit of Thomistic philosophy might help: What the church believes is that the "substance" (deepest reality) of the bread and wine is changed but the "accidents" (physical attributes) are not. In other words, with the priest's words of consecration, what continues to look, taste and feel like bread and wine have actually become instead the glorified presence of Christ.
So committed was Jesus to this central truth that in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, even when some of his followers abandoned Christ because of this teaching, Jesus let them walk away and did not say, "Wait, we're only talking about symbols."
For those with wheat allergies or for alcoholics, the church does make provision for the use of low-gluten hosts and for "mustum" (grape juice in which fermentation has begun but has been suspended). Still there are those for whom even trace amounts of gluten or alcohol can be harmful. They may opt to receive under only one species, and the church teaches that Jesus is wholly present under either one.
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Questions may be sent to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 30 Columbia Circle Dr., Albany, New York 12203.