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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleotis" data-source="post: 1538001" data-attributes="member: 23960">No. The bread and wine literally do not “transform” into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  The forms of the bread and wine do not change. What does change is the substance. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ Himself is truly, really, and substantially present, in body, blood, soul, and divinity, under the forms (i.e. the external appearances) of bread and wine. By appearances, I mean the figure, the color, the taste, and whatever appears to the senses. All external appearances remain as before consecration, but the substance of bread and the substance of wine are changed into the substance of Our Lord's body and blood.Again, to reiterate:  the substance is the body and blood of Christ, under the appearances (“forms”) of bread and wine. All physically measurable qualities are appearances, so no physical test would show a difference before and after the consecration. We would not expect the measured gluten content to change. Celiacs who would react to unconsecrated wheat bread would be expected to have the same reactions to a consecrated host, unless another miracle prevented it.  The external qualities do not change their chemical properties.  The substance underlying those external appearances certainly does change. The fact that qualities remain unaltered is a fact of experience; the fact that the substance changes is revealed by God, and cannot be known in any other way. There are no signs in the consecrated Eucharistic Host itself proving He is bodily present — it is a mystery of faith. The reason why we believe is not in the Host (the consecrated “bread”) as such, but in God. He has revealed this truth, and we believe because He must know and could not tell an untruth.As a different issue, wheat bread is required for validity of the sacrament, because that is what Our Lord used. Gluten is considered essential to wheat, so non-gluten bread of any form is not valid matter. Rice cakes wouldn't “work”.  Now… Jesus Christ is present whole and entire both under the form of bread and under the form of wine. Under the appearance of bread we receive also Christ's blood. Under the appearance of wine we receive also Christ's body — because in the Holy Eucharist we receive the living body of Our Lord, and a living body cannot exist without blood, nor can living blood exist without a body.  Christ is also present whole and entire in the smallest portion of the Holy Eucharist under the form of either bread or wine; for His body in the Eucharist is in a glorified state, and as it partakes of the character of a spiritual substance, it requires no definite size or shape. So…For celiacs I see no reason why the priest communing them could not simply give them a much smaller fragment of the consecrated “bread” (which contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ), even if it is just the size of a pencil eraser, I don’t see how that would endanger someone's life because of an allergy to gluten. If a person truly can't deal with even the smallest amount of gluten, even after years of treatment/proper dieting, they could simply receive a drop of Precious Blood from the chalice, under the form of wine only, since they would still be receiving Christ Himself whole and entire. The should be a fairly easy, straightforward matter to resolve in Eastern rite churches especially, since they already administer the Holy Eucharist to the laity under both forms  anyway.</blockquote>

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