Substance
metaphysics, that much-maligned, apparently ‘static’ conception of thought, can
lead us to a deeper appreciation of phenomena, an understanding of how all
aspects of a being tensely coexist in one singular point.
The Eucharist
sheds light on this. It is not simply the Body and Blood of Christ, but it is
(in the traditional phrase) his ‘Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity’ – that is,
all there is to Him. When the bread is broken, Christ is not divided: his
Person resides completely in every part of the sacrament, just as, before,
every part of the bread was equally completely bread. It is not the matter but
the being that is changed; and the
being is unbreakable, indivisible.
It is
indivisible even through time. During Mass on Christmas Day, it occurred to me
that Christ in the sacrament was not only the crucified Christ, but also the
infant Christ, the child Christ, the risen Christ, the Christ in Heaven now.
All the phases of the unending life of the Messiah belong to one Being, and
that Being is among us.
Substance
metaphysics sheds light also on our own life. I was reminded of the final chapter
in The Great Divorce, the vision of
the chessmen moving on the board of Time, watched by the unmoving souls whom
they represent; and also of a striking passage in the Benedicto-Franciscan
encyclical:
This trustworthy truth of God is, as the Bible
makes clear, his own faithful presence throughout history, his ability to hold
together times and ages, and to gather into one the scattered strands of our
lives.
(Lumen Fidei, 23)
