Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Potential Inconsistency in Applying Aristotelian Causality to the Consecration of the Bread and Wine in Roman Catholic Sacramental Theology

On (priest + words + material + intention) being the sum total of all causes in the consecration of the Eucharist in Catholic sacramental theology, Christiaan Kappes noted that

 

Herein lies a potential inconsistency in applying Aristotelian causality. Real causes touch or act upon matter immediately (changing it) as with efficient causes. Therefore, in what sense is the priest called an instrumental cause? In virtue of an intrinsic power, he causes some effect by his operation of saying the words. Each power and operation is from him as a subject. If God is efficient cause, while the priest is an inferior instrument, yet two causes create a new substance or eliminate an old one, it is not clear in what sense the flesh, soul, or priestly character eliminate the bread-form, introduce or displace Christ from heaven into accidental-bread-form, or (arguably) annihilate bread-matter. (Christiaan Kappes, The Epiclesis Debate at the Council of Florence [Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2019], 341 n. 19)