Catholics believe that the sacrament literally becomes the body of Christ in a sense. I used to think that belief was grotesque. Just as every drop of water you drink is probably dinosaur pee, it would mean the communicant was — pardon me for being vulgar here — pooping out Christ. But the3 grotesqueness of that image is just a hangover from the false sectarian belief that the body and its functions are lesser. All that is really grotesque in Christianity comes from the Incarnation, where God Himself stunk into his nappy when he was a baby and squatted to poop when he was an adult.

Now I think that if I were a Catholic, I would relish the image of God slowly filling up the world as he was sluffed off from my skin, sweat from my pores, emptied from my bladder, and evacuated from bowels and nostrils. Bled from my hurts. Shed from my tears. Puffed out with my breath. I would be in awe that through me God was slowly making the world into divine flesh.

I would not give a hang about transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation, but this I would care a lot about.

I’m not Catholic. So lets bring this idea home. Let’s talk about substantiation.

Proper Catholics treat the Eucharist with a great deal of reverence. Like we are supposed to treat the flag, but better. The idea is that it is, after all, the body of God. Desecrating the eucharist was a capital offense in the middle ages because it was a physical assault on God.

Imagine how you would treat his body yourself. Even were he dead, you would carry his flesh carefully to the tomb and reverently lay it down. You would wash and treat with oil and herbs. You would never disrespect the flesh of the divine.

In Restoration Christianity–i.e., in light and truth–you are the body of Christ. Not just a metaphor. You are divine flesh. You were born of eternal gods, the great God of everything is the father of your soul, and in baptism you are again begotten a son or daughter of God. The divine flesh is you. You are the substance of God.

That is why I call the LDS belief substantiation. In the sacrament, the bread and water becomes the body and blood of the Lord when you take it in and digest it into divine flesh.

That is why your sins, even your little sins, your omissions, are so terrible. You are desecrating God. You are the blasphemous notion of our sweet lord doing wrong and being small-souled. And this is why, when you are redeemed or even before, you are infinitely valuable.