Ostension, Expertise, and Eucharist Presence

This paper introduces three kinds of ostension, formative, informative, and performative, and attends to the role of authority in each. It distinguishes between direct ostension, which points to something present in order to name it, and deferred ostension, which points to something present in order to name something else which is absent. The paper then adapts these terms to the logic of Christian faith and the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. Jesus, whom the Father informatively ostends as his Son by means of the Spirit, himself performatively ostends his own body in the Eucharist. As the Son, Christ has sovereign authority over all reality. When he, pointing to the bread, says, “This is my body,” he is not limited to a deferred ostension, “This bread will count as my body,” but can most fittingly offer a direct ostension, “This is my body.” What is then pointed out is not absent, but present.