Is Transubstantiation Cannibalism? Part 2 Answering Jason Evert

"It would have been cannibalism is if a disciple two thousand years ago had tried literally to eat Jesus by sinking his teeth into his arm. Now that our Lord is in heaven with a glorified body and made present under the appearance of bread in the Eucharist, cannibalism is not possible."1

This is a quote from Jason Evert, a young Catholic apologist who is a degreed theologian and spokesperson for Catholic interests. I want to respond to his explanation of why transubstantiation is not cannibalism. The doctrine of Transubstantiation teaches that the substance of the Eucharistic bread and wine are changed into the literal substance of the literal flesh and blood of Jesus. The doctrine of Transubstantiation denies any symbolic or metaphorical interpretation of, "eat my flesh and drink my blood."

Jason argues that the reason why eating the literal flesh and drinking the literal blood of Christ is not cannibalism, is because Christ is not present so that one may eat Jesus by "sinking his teeth into his arm." So, it is only cannibalism if you eat it off the bone while he is present? So, are we to assume that if tribal cannibals would start filleting their victims that they would no longer be cannibals because the are not eating it off the bone? What if they were to store the human meat for 200 years and their children's children were to eat it, would they not be cannibals? You see a person does not have to be physically present or alive for eating their flesh to be cannibalism.

It does not matter how you slice it (pun intended), or by what means it was provided, if one eats literal human flesh it is cannibalism!

Is Transubstantiation Cannibalism?

I became interested in how Catholics would respond to the charge of cannibalism while listening to the Donahue-Martignoni Debate on transubstantiation. In searching the web I came across the following explanation.

"Cannibalism is eating of the dead flesh of a human person. Christ is not dead, His flesh is not dead, and He is not a human person (He is a Divine Person). Further, when a cannibal eats human flesh that flesh is gone forever. Over the centuries Catholics and Orthodox have eaten millions and millions of pounds of the Eucharist, and yet Christ surely didn't weigh more than 150 pounds or so. How is this possible if the Eucharist is cannibalism?

The very charge of cannibalism, the eating of the dead flesh of a human person, denies the Incarnation, the Divinity of Christ and the Resurrection. Since we Catholics don't deny any of these things, we understand that the charge of cannibalism is nonsense."1

This answer postulates that cannibalism is "eating of the dead flesh of a human person." So, eating the flesh of Christ is not cannibalism because Christ is not dead. This is absurd as the definition of cannibalism does not require that the person be dead before it is considered cannibalism. Cannibalism is simply, "the eating of human flesh by another human being."2

I would like to see the definition that demands that cannibalism is ONLY the eating of the dead flesh of a human. That is absurd! In fact, cannibalism is also defined as, "the act of pecking flesh from a live fowl by a member of the same flock."3 This the equivalent of human cannibalism; the same act performed by two different species. Therefore cannibalism is not limited to dead flesh.

This argument that the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist is not the eating of dead flesh of Christ is absurd. Jesus describes the blood and bread like this: "For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28 KJV)." "And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me (1Corinthians 11:24). So, the blood that is drank is the shed blood and the bread that is eaten is the broken body of Christ. In drinking the shed blood and eating the broken body we show the Lord's death (1 Corinthians 11:26). So, if it is the LITERAL blood and body of the Lord, it is the LITERAL DEAD body and blood of the Lord. So, it would be, even by his definition, cannibalism.

Maybe this is an elementary and ignorant point, but if it is LITERALLY the body and blood of Christ, then have the Eucharistic bread and wine analyzed for traces of human DNA. What LITERAL proof do Catholics have that the bread and wine are the LITERAL body and blood of Christ? It would not be hard to prove, if the body and blood were literal. The bottom line is, there is no proof. All they have is their misunderstanding of scripture.

I welcome and solicit response from my Catholic friends. Please help us understand how this is not cannibalism.