The Transfiguraion of the Eucharistic Gifts according to St. Gennadios Scholarios

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In his treatise on the Eucharist Gennadios Scholarios borrows from Thomas Aquinas the concept of transubstantiation and follows the argumentation of the scholastic theologian, according to which the accidents are authentic categorical markers of individuation. However, when demonstrating that the body and the blood adopt a created essence, and not an uncreated one, Gennadios rejects the Thomistic differentiation between the actual presence of Christ’s body by virtue of the sacrament and the collateral presence of his soul and his divine nature. The main consequence of this conceptual transformation is that Scholarios does not accept a special mode of supernatural substantial presence to demonstrate that the body and blood in each single Eucharist, celebrated at any time and at any place, are identical with the ones of Jesus Christ. This identity is the result of the energetic presence of God. Gennadios uses verbatim most of the examples, given in the text De sacramento eucharistiae, ascribed to Thomas Aquinas; nevertheless he reconstructs the original meaning of one reference to a statement of John Damascene. This passage coming from John’s Expositio fidei stresses not the substantial transformation, but the immanent personal presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Although he does not aim at particularly proving the role of divine energy, Scholarios, adhering to the sacramental personalism typical of Eastern theology, elaborates a conceptual model of transubstantiation, which is based on the deification of creatures through participation in the essential energy of God.

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