St. Augustine: The Bread and Wine Change in Their Essence to Become the Essence of Christ's Body and Blood

An Exercise in Dialogue with Protestant Eucharistology

In the quotation below from a section of St. Augustine's exposition of Psalm 99, we have evidence of his belief that the bread and the wine of Holy Communion are changed essentially, i.e., in their substance, into the flesh and blood of Christ. In the process, Augustine also gives us the standard Patristic reading of John 6 which might come as a surprise to many Catholics. Often the latter cite John 6 and quote the words of Christ "Unless you eat (even gnaw) on the flesh of the Son of Man, you shall have no life in you" as if Christ was literally commanding the people to begin forking and kniving at the Lord's human body, essentially killing Him and eating his body in a carnivorous and cannibalistic manner. Nonetheless, Augustine is still a realist, and I will be explaining why in my own commentary underneath the quotation. But let's begin by reading Augustine's comments: