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A modern Christian theologian can also see an opportunity for the development of the Ecumenical dialogue in these types of understanding of the transubstantiation. In general, all the attempts to comprehend the transubstantiation use, as a rule, one of the three possible rational discourses to deepen in this Ordinance. Some theologians in this case think the change in "substance", others – "on the incarnation", and others offer to speak personally about the subtle personal and energical presence of Christ in the bread and wine. The strongest opposition is between those who believe that the bread and the wine lose something in the transubstantiation, and those who do not want to think of any deformation in the ontological "content" of bread and wine.
Despite the apparent opposition, we can state a deep affinity of different approaches. First, we shall tell about the proximity of the substantial and hypostatic understanding of the miraculous transformation. The terms "substance" and "hypostasis" are etymologically traced back to the mean "that which is (exists) in itself" (with varying degrees of independence). These two approaches have got the common understanding that the bread and wine, after the transubstantiation, lose its autonomy in its existence, that is cease to exist "of itself". In the first case, its existence after the transubstantiation does not "rest" on itself, but on the substance of the Body and Blood, which is already in the Hypostasis of the Word, and in the second case – on the hypostasis of the Word, which contains in Itself the substance of the Body and Blood. A substance does not exist without a hypostasis, a hypostasis cannot exist without a substance, according to the philosophy of the Holy fathers. He who receives the substance of the Body and Blood in the Eucharist, is connected with the Hypostasis (the Person) of the Son, and he who receives the bread and wine that are included in the Hypostasis of the Son, is connected with the substance of the resurrected Body and Blood.
After the adherents of the substantial approach (in modern Russian Orthodox theology), we must also note the proximity of the two opposite positions: of the hypostatic change of bread and wine and of the personal and energical presence of Christ (the "occurrence" of Christ in the unchanged bread and wine) in the transubstantiation. According to the hypostatic approach, in the transubstantiation, actually, there is an “Absorption” of bread and wine in the personal existence of Christ, that is, the bread and wine, after the accomplishment of the miracle, get a real specific existence not from its own hypostasis, but from the Hypostasis of God the Word Incarnate (just as God the Word assumed a reasonable flesh from the Virgin Mary without deformation of human nature). According to the personal and energical approach, Christ's Identity is included in the bread and wine, drains them. Thus, we can say that for the proponents of the hypostatic change in the act of transubstantiation, occurs the entry of the Gifts in the Person of Christ, and for the supporters of the personal and energical approach, in this case, the process is reversed, that is, the Person of Christ enters in the Gifts. According to the principles of patristic philosophy, hypostasis does not exist without substance and substance without its characteristic actions (actions, in turn, point to some kind of substance that cannot be without hypostasis). Therefore, they who receive the bread and wine that Christ penetrates by his Person or energies, are also connected with the substance of his Body and Blood. We can only in the mind separate the hypostasis from the substance and energies from the substance, which is certainly in the incarnation, while in reality, the hypostasis, the substance and its energies exist inseparably. Thus, there is an association of the concept of the personal and energical occurrence of Christ in the bread and wine with a substantial approach.
The substantial, the hypostatic and the personal and energical approach, to some extent, require each other and even pass each other on the level of dialectics and in the historical process of development of the eucharistology. Each of the outlined approaches was processed with the help of the philosophical apparatus in opposition to other approaches, which is typical for the modern theology. In each of the positions can be seen a sincere desire to preserve the integrity of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. In the opinion of the Protestants and of some Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics make the understanding of transubstantiation too materialistic and biological. In the opinion of Roman Catholics and of some Orthodox Christians, Protestants make the presence of Christ in the Eucharist too delicate. In this case, they who are disputing, understand the coarsening and the thinning, as the loss of authentic fullness of Christ's presence. It seems that only the mutual influence of the three possible approaches will be able to warn a human from the confluence of this extreme coarsening, as from that extremity of the thinning.
Sometimes, the tension between the confessions just occurs because of the lack of information. For example, in the modern Orthodox eucharistology in Russia, there is a popular judgment that the Roman Catholics, as the supporters of the substantial approach in the understanding of the transubstantiation, are supporters of illusionism, while Orthodox theologians should be their opponents, that is, the Orthodox believe that the concealment of the Body and Blood after the transubstantiation under the species of bread and wine is carried out in objective reality, and not just in the mind of the believer, to whom the Body and the Blood must seem like a mirage in the desert. Not all the Orthodox know that Thomas Aquinas, in one of his writings, spoke out against the gross illusionism in favor of the objective existence of properties of bread and wine after the transubstantiation: "Nevertheless, we do not say that the forms that appear in the Sacrament are just in the imagination of the viewer, as happens in magical tricks, because any deceit is unworthy of this Sacrament. But God, who is the creator of substance and accidents, can preserve sensible accidents in existence even when the substance is changed into something else. For he can produce and preserve in existence the effects of secondary causes by his omnipotence without secondary causes”[1]. Unfortunately, the text is still not translated to Russian language in a scientific format.
Each of the three approaches require the presence of another, for not to become an extreme position, in which the fullness of the presence of Christ is in some sense lost. When we say that each approach complements the other, we do not claim that it is necessary to merge all three approaches into one indistinguishable whole. In each of the three approaches is a honest Christian orientation, not an evil, but a sincere requirement that a theologian of any denomination needs to hear. Being in the positions of a deep hearing, we can detect a deep historical and dialectical relation between different approaches in the understanding of the ontology of the transubstantiation.
Most importantly, we must understand the untoldness of the miracle of the Eucharist. The fullness of Christ's presence in the bread and wine after the transubstantiation, exceeds all the possible rational constructions. The untoldness of the sacrament of transubstantiation corresponds to the mystical understanding of the ecclesiological fullness of Christ's presence in His Church, and to the mystical depth of the love of Christ, "which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19). Guided by the principle of Christ's love, a theologian of one denomination can look at the concept of another confession without feud. Not taking conceptual constructions of another confession, a true theologian must deeply understand its theology and take, in the love of Christ, the identity of the bearer of other beliefs.
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[1] Saint Thomas Aquinas. DE RATIONIBUS FIDEI. The meaning of “The faithful receive the body of Christ”. – URL: http://www.dbspriory.org/thomas/Rationes.htm#8