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| Chapter IX. In order that no one through observing the outward part should waver in faith, many instances are brought forward wherein the outward nature has been changed, and so it is proved that bread is made the true body of Christ. The treatise then is brought to a termination with certain remarks as to the effects of the sacrament, the disposition of the recipients, and such like.
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Chapter IX.
In order that no one through observing the outward part
should waver in faith, many instances are brought forward wherein the
outward nature has been changed, and so it is proved that bread is made
the true body of Christ. The treatise then is brought to a
termination with certain remarks as to the effects of the sacrament,
the disposition of the recipients, and such like.
50. Perhaps you
will say, “I see something else, how is it that you assert that I
receive the Body of Christ?” And this is the point which
remains for us to prove. And what evidence shall we make use
of? Let us prove that this is not what nature made, but what the
blessing consecrated, and the power of blessing is greater than that of
nature, because by blessing nature itself is changed.
51. Moses was holding a rod, he cast it down
and it became a serpent.2891
Again,
he took hold of the tail of the serpent and it returned to the nature
of a rod. You see that by virtue of the prophetic office there
were two changes, of the nature both of the serpent and of the
rod. The streams of Egypt were running with a pure flow of water;
of a sudden from the veins of the sources blood began to burst forth,
and none could drink of the river. Again, at the prophet’s
prayer the blood ceased, and the nature of water returned.2892
The people of the Hebrews were
shut in on every side, hemmed in on the one hand by the Egyptians, on
the other by the sea; Moses lifted up his rod, the water divided and
hardened like walls, and a way for the feet appeared between the
waves.2893
Jordan
being turned back, returned, contrary to nature, to the source of its
stream.2894
Is it
not clear that the nature of the waves of the sea and of the river
stream was changed? The people of the fathers thirsted, Moses
touched the rock, and water flowed out of the rock.2895
Did not grace work a result
contrary to nature, so that the rock poured forth water, which by
nature it did not contain? Marah was a most bitter stream, so
that the thirsting people could not drink. Moses cast wood into
the water, and the water lost its bitterness, which grace of a sudden
tempered.2896
In the
time of Elisha the prophet one of the sons of the prophets lost the
head from his axe, which sank. He who had lost the iron asked
Elisha, who cast in a piece of wood and the iron swam. This, too,
we clearly recognize as having happened contrary to nature, for iron is
of heavier nature than water.
52. We observe, then, that grace has more
power than nature, and yet so far we have only spoken of the grace of a
prophet’s blessing. But if the blessing of man had such
power as to change nature, what are we to say of that divine
consecration where the very words of the Lord and Saviour
operate? For that sacrament which you receive is made what it is
by the word of Christ. But if the word of Elijah had such power
as to bring down fire from heaven, shall not the word of Christ have
power to change the nature of the elements? You read concerning
the making of the whole world: “He spake and they were
made, He commanded and they were created.”2897
Shall not the word of Christ,
which was able to make out of nothing that which was not, be able to
change things which already are into what they were not? For it
is not less to give a new nature to things than to change
them.
53. But why make use of arguments? Let us
use the examples He gives, and by the example of the Incarnation prove
the truth of the mystery. Did the course of nature proceed as
usual when the Lord Jesus was born of Mary? If we look to the
usual course, a woman ordinarily conceives after connection with a
man. And this body which we make is that which was born of the
Virgin. Why do you seek the order of nature in the Body of
Christ, seeing that the Lord Jesus Himself was born of a Virgin, not
according to nature? It is the true Flesh of Christ which
crucified and buried, this is then truly the Sacrament of His Body.
54. The Lord Jesus Himself proclaims:
“This is My Body.”2898
Before the blessing of the heavenly words another nature is spoken of,
after the consecration the Body is signified. He Himself speaks
of His Blood. Before the consecration it has another name,
after it is called Blood. And
you say, Amen, that is, It is true. Let the heart within confess
what the mouth utters, let the soul feel what the voice speaks.
55. Christ, then, feeds His Church with
these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is
strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, He
rightly says to her: “How comely are thy breasts, my
sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of
thy garments is above all spices. A dropping honeycomb are thy
lips, my spouse, honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of
thy garments is as the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my
sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain
sealed.”2899
By
which He signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed up with you,
that it be not violated by the deeds of an evil life, and pollution of
chastity, that it be not made known to thou, for whom it is not
fitting, nor by garrulous talkativeness it be spread abroad amongst
unbelievers. Your guardianship of the faith ought therefore to be
good, that integrity of life and silence may endure
unblemished.
56. For which reason, too, the Church,
guarding the depth of the heavenly mysteries, repels the furious storms
of wind, and calls to her the sweetness of the grace of spring, and
knowing that her garden cannot displease Christ, invites the
Bridegroom, saying: “Arise, O north wind, and come, thou
south; blow upon my garden, and let my ointments flow down. Let
my Brother come down to His garden, and eat the fruit of His
trees.”2900
For it has
good trees and fruitful, which have dipped their roots in the water of
the sacred spring, and with fresh growth have shot forth into good
fruits, so as now not to be cut with the axe of the prophet, but to
abound with the fruitfulness of the Gospel.
57. Lastly, the Lord also, delighted with
their fertility, answers: “I have entered into My garden,
My sister, My spouse; I have gathered My myrrh with My spices, I have
eaten My meat with My honey, I have drunk My drink with My
milk.”2901
Understand,
you faithful, why He spoke of meat and drink. And there is no
doubt that He Himself eats and drinks in us, as you have read that He
says that in our persons He is in prison.2902
58. Wherefore, too, the Church, beholding so
great grace, exhorts her sons and her friends to come together to the
sacraments, saying: “Eat, my friends, and drink and be
inebriated, my brother.”2903
What we
eat and what we drink the Holy Spirit has elsewhere made plain by the
prophet, saying, “Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is
the man that hopeth in Him.”2904
In
that sacrament is Christ, because it is the Body of Christ, it is
therefore not bodily food but spiritual. Whence the Apostle says
of its type: “Our fathers ate spiritual food and drank
spiritual drink,”2905
for the Body of
God is a spiritual body; the Body of Christ is the Body of the Divine
Spirit, for the Spirit is Christ, as we read: “The Spirit
before our face is Christ the Lord.”2906
And in the Epistle of Peter we
read: “Christ died for us.”2907
Lastly, that food strengthens our
heart, and that drink “maketh glad the heart of
man,”2908
as the prophet
has recorded.
59. So, then, having obtained everything,
let us know that we are born again, but let us not say, How are we born
again? Have we entered a second time into our mother’s womb
and been born again? I do not recognize here the course of
nature. But here there is no order of nature, where is the
excellence of grace. And again, it is not always the course of
nature which brings about conception, for we confess that Christ the
Lord was conceived of a Virgin, and reject the order of nature.
For Mary conceived not of man, but was with child of the Holy Spirit,
as Matthew says: “She was found with child of the Holy
Spirit.”2909
If, then,
the Holy Spirit coming down upon the Virgin wrought the conception, and
effected the work of generation, surely we must not doubt but that,
coming down upon the Font, or upon those who receive Baptism, He
effects the reality of the new birth.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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