Sacramental Math

Just as the laws of classical mechanics break down at the quantum level, so the laws of mathematics that most of us know fail to work the closer we get to the Trinity.  Since first grade, we have learned that 1+1+1=3.  With the Trinity, however, 1+1+1=1.  We should find it no surprise, then, when it comes to deep matters of interaction with our triune God, other aspects of math cease to operate as expected.

Consider the Eucharist.  It really is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, but this does not mean that there is more than one Christ, despite His material presence in multiple locations simultaneously.  In this instance, multiplication does not produce increase.  There is but ever one Christ.

This is, of course, a point of disagreement among Protestants who do not see the sacred emblems of bread and wine as anything other than bread and wine.  This is curious, however, since Protestants freely accept the strangeness of "God-math" when it comes to the Holy Spirit.  In John 14:17 we read with regard to the Spirit, "The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."  (NIV)  The Greek for "you" in this verse is υμιν, which is the second person plural.  On the day of Pentecost in Acts, everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit.  No Protestant thinks that there is more than one Holy Spirit.  We all know that there is but one Third Person of the Trinity.  This is a miracle, to be sure, for once again, multiplicity of location does not indicate increase, but if we accept this, then there should be no problem with sacramental math by which one Lord Jesus can be fully present in multiple instances of the Eucharist.  Now, Protestants certainly have other problems with the doctrine of the Real Presence, but the mathematics of it all can hardly be one of them.