Great question.

There are at least two possible ways to answer the question.

Transubstantiation

The most immediate answer that comes to mind is transubstantiation.

In transubstantiation, the entire substances of bread and wine become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, while the outward appearances remain those of bread and wine.

There are very precise philosophical terms such as substance and accident, and nature which, when properly understood, greatly facilitate one's understanding of transubstantiation. Related links are provided below for further exploration.

More generally speaking, transubstantiation is a miraculous transformation of one substance into two others (Divine and human), which is not without precedent in salvation history. A few examples of one substance becoming another include:

wood becoming a serpent and vice versa (cf. Ex 4:1-5, 7:8-13)
water becoming blood (cf. Ex 7:14-24)
water becoming wine (cf. Jn 2:1-12)

The difference between the transformations above and transubstantiation are the outward appearances; i.e. while the above miracles were confirmed by the eyes of the body and the five senses, the miracle of transubstantiation can only be confirmed by the inner eyes of faith.

The Catechism draws from the Council of Trent as follows:

The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation." (CCC no. 1376)

Epiclesis

From the liturgical perspective, the part of the Eucharistic Prayer called the epiclesis occurs in close connection with transubstantiation. As the Catechism states:

The Epiclesis ("invocation upon") is the intercession in which the priest begs the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, so that the offerings may become the body and blood of Christ and that the faithful by receiving them, may themselves become a living offering to God. (CCC, no. 1105)

Both Eastern and Western Catholic theologians agree that transubstantiation occurs within close proximity to the epiclesis. However, there still remains dialogue between East and West as to whether transubstantiation occurs before, during or after the epiclesis.

REFERENCES

The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. (Ignatius Press: San Francisco, CA. 2006.)

Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Catechism of the Catholic Church. (Paulist Press: Mahwah, NJ. 1994)

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