By Request - Transubstantiation

  A particularly ignorant twitter user, @MitchGoldwyn, who is either too lazy, too stupid, or too dishonest to use google, has asked me to explain transubstantiation, probably in some puerile attempt to 'catch me out', or something.

  The short version is: through a miraculous intervention God alters the essential nature of the bread and wine without (necessarily) changing the accidents of the bread and wine.

  Now, since I get the impression @MitchGoldwyn wouldn't know philosophy if he took it at the 200 level, I will go into more detail.

  What is this?

 

  A chair, right?

  So - all chairs are black, wooden, and have a straight back, right?

  But what is this?

  OOOoooooh! All chairs are black, but some are hard plastic. OK!

 Huh. Still a chair, but not black, not hard, not wood or ...

  What is going on?

  There is an essential thing called a "chair". This essence is the same even if a particular chair is black, or red, or wood, or plastic, Those aprticulars, the things not directly assocaited with the essence, are called 'accidents', a philosophical term that kinda' means 'not important to the essence of a thing'.

  The essence of a thing is separate from the thing. For example, if I took an axe to the first chair very soon it would cease to be a chair and become kindling (the *particular* chair ceased to exist) but the essence or idea of Chair still exists, unchanged.

  If I change the accidents of a thing I don't change its essence. If I spray paint the first chair red it remains a chair. If I staple a pillow to it it remains a chair.

  Pretty simple so far, right?

  So what does this have to do with transubstantiation? Everything!

  What happens in transubstantiation is that the essence of the Eucharist and the wine are changed from bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Christ without affecting the accidents. They look, smell, etc. the same (the accidents) but their essence, their substance, has been altered - that is what the word 'transubstantiation' means.

  So this is, in very, very simple language and with pictures and examples, what transubstantiation means.

Lack of Self-Awareness

  In this article a woman named Jillian Dunham describes a bit of her life. What we glean from the article is:
  -She dated a wonderful man from the age of 25 until about 30
  -This man proposed shortly after her mother died
  -She broke off the engagement when she was 32 because "[her] sense of who [she]was lacked the normal range of experience", whatever that means
  -She was in a string of relationships where "the mistakes [she] made were obvious", admitting she was dating men unsuitable for or uninterested in a relationship
  -After years of this she realized her fertility was decreasing, so she spent the money to freeze some of her eggs
  -Now about 40 she is having trouble finding single men interested in both her and a relationship

  He conclusion?
  Men are the problem.

  This little article is so heartfelt it tugs at me, so ludicrous in its lack of self-awareness it makes me want to cringe, and so common I want to cry.

  I see this same story on the verge of beginning as I speak with young people and their parents;
  "Oh, she shouldn't even date until her education is complete and her career established!"
  "So you want her to not even start looking for a husband or husband material until she's 25 or so?"
  "Goodness, no! 30 is young enough to start looking for a husband! I mean, she's beautiful, she'll be well-educated, and she'll be successful; what man wouldn't want her?"
  "Well, since the median age of marriage for men is 29 and for women is 27 more than half of all the men who every will marry shall be married by the time she starts looking. Also, the average amount of time spent dating before marriage is a touch more than 3.5 years so even if your daughter finds a good guy immediately and everything works out then she will be 34 years old at the time of marriage. And since it takes about 2.5 years on average to find 'the right guy' that's 6 years average, making her 36!"
  "...well, an education is so important."

  Miss Dunham's problem is that she trew away opportunities and now doesn't want to wait.