I like to think of things as having both a substance and a form. Human beings also have a substance and a form. For a living person, the substance is that of a human and the form is the human body. So just to be clear, the substance is the nature of being human (not to be confused with human nature) and the form is the physical body. For a dead person however, the form is still the human body but the substance is no longer of a human. This is because to be human, you must have both the body and soul.
When the bread and wine are offered up during mass, they have both the substance and form of bread and wine. But when transubstantiation takes place, the form remains that of the bread and wine but the substance changed to the body and blood of Christ.
Cannibals are people who have the practice of eating human flesh, as in they eat the form but not the substance. Catholics who eat the body and blood of Christ through the bread and wine are eating the substance of Christ and not the form. As Catholics we do not eat human flesh so therefore are not cannibals. What we do eat then is the substance of Christ and in fact, eat Christ.
When we consume meat, the meat goes through our body and is digested to give nutrients to the body and keeps us alive. The meat is part of ourselves and absorbed. When we consume the body and blood of Christ, we make Christ a part of ourselves and give off nutrients to our souls that make us alive.
"I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible.” – Ignatius of Antioch
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