The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has been believed by Christians since the time of the Apostles. Understanding this metaphysically and describing our belief in human terms has been a development over time, but the teaching that Jesus – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – is present in the bread and wine after the consecration has never changed. There was no widescale rejection of this doctrine among Christians until after the time of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Even then, the first “reformer” – Martin Luther – adamantly defended the belief in the Real Presence against
