MATT. XXVI 28
This is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for
the remission of sins.
It is part of the manifold wisdom of God, that his gifts, in nature
and grace, minister to distinct, and, as it often seems, unconnected ends;
manifesting thereby the more His own Unity; as the secret cause and power
of all things, putting Itself forward in various forms and divers manners,
yet Itself the one Cause of all that is. The element which is the image
of our Baptism, cleans es alike and refreshes, enlighteneth the fainting
eye, wakens to life, as it falls, a world in seeming exhaustion and death,
changes the barren land into a garden of the Lord, gives health and nourishment
and growth. And if in nature, much more in the Gifts of grace. For therein
God, not by Will or by Power only, but by Himself and the Effluence of
His Spirit, is the Life of all which lives through Him. Our One Lord is
to us, in varied forms, all, yea more than all, His disciples dare ask
or think. All are His Life, flowing through all His members, and in all,
as it is admitted, effacing death, enlarging life. As blind, He is our
Wisdom; as sinful, our Righteousness; as hallowed, our Sanctification;
as recovered from Satan, our Redemption; as sick, our Physician; as weak,
our Strength; as unclean, our Fountain; as darkness, our Light; as daily
fainting, our daily Bread; as dying, Life Eternal; as asleep in Him, our
Resurrection.
It is, then, according to the analogy of His other gifts, that His two
great Sacraments have in themselves manifold gifts. Baptism containeth
not only remission of sin, actual or original, but maketh members of Christ,
children of God, heirs of Heaven, hath the seal and earnest of the Spirit,
the germ of Spiritual life; the Holy Eucharist imparteth not life only;
spiritual strength, and oneness with Christ, and His Indwelling, and participation
of Him, but, in its degree, remission of sins also. As the manna is said
to have "contented every man¹s delight and agreed to every taste,"
so He, the Heavenly Manna, becometh to every man what he needeth, and what
he can receive; to the penitent perhaps chiefly remission of sins and continued
life, to those who have "loved Him and kept His word," His own transporting,
irradiating Presence, full of His own grace and life and love; yet to each
full contentment, because to each His own overflowing, undeserved goodness.
Having then, on former occasions, spoken of the Fountain of all comfort,
our Redeeming Lord, His Life for us and Intercession with the Father, as
the penitent¹s stay amid the overwhelming consciousness of his sins,
it may well suit, in this our season of deepest joy, to speak of that,
which, flowing from the throne of the Lamb which was slain, is to the Penitent,
the deepest River of his joy, the Holy Mysteries; from which, as from Paradise,
he feels that he deserves to be shut out, from which perhaps, in the holier
discipline of the Ancient Church, he would have been for a time removed,
but which to his soul must be the more exceeding precious, because they
are the Body and Blood of his Redeemer. While others joy with a more Angelic
joy, as feeding on Him, Who is the Angels¹ food, and "sit," as St.
Chrysostom says, "with Angels and Archangels and heavenly powers, clad
with the kingly robe of Christ itself, yea clad with the King Himself,
and having spiritual armoury," he may be the object of the joy of Angels;
and while as a penitent he approaches as to the Redeemer¹s Side, he
may hope that having so been brought, he, with the penitent, shall not
be parted from It, but be with Him and near Him in Paradise. "To the holier,"
says another, "He is more precious as God; to the sinner more precious
is the Redeemer. Of higher value and avail is He to him, who hath more
grace; yet to him also to whom much is forgiven, doth He the more avail,
because "to whom much is forgiven, he loveth much."
Would that in the deep joy of this our Easter festival, the pledge of
our sealed forgiveness, and the earnest of endless life in God, we could,
for His sake by Whom we have been redeemed, lay aside our wearisome strifes,
and that to speak of the mysteries of Divine love might not become the
occasion of unloving and irreverent disputings. Would that, at least in
this sacred place, we could dwell in thought, together, on His endless
condescension and loving-kindness, without weighing in our own measures,
words which must feebly convey Divine mysteries; rather intent (as so many
in this day seem) on detecting that others have spoken too strongly on
that which is unfathomable, than on ourselves adoring that Love, which
is past finding out. "When we speak of spiritual things," is St. Chrysostom¹s
warning, on approaching this same subject, "Be there nothing of this life,
nothing earthly in our thoughts; let all such things depart and be cast
out, and be we wholly given to the hearing of the Divine word. When the
Spirit discourseth to us, we should listen with much stillness, yea with
much awe. ŒExcept ye each the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood,
ye have no life in you.¹"
The penitent¹s joy, then, in the Holy Eucharist is not the less
deep, because the pardon of sins is not, as in Baptism, its direct provision.
The two great Sacraments, as their very signs shew, have not the same end.
Baptism gives, the Holy Eucharist preserves and enlarges life. Baptism
engraffs into the true Vine; the Holy Eucharist derives the richness and
fulness of His life into the branches thus engraffed. Baptism buries in
Christ¹s tomb, and through it He quickens with His life; the Holy
Eucharist is given not to the dead, but to the living. It augments life,
or ‹death; gives immortality to the living; to the dead it gives not life,
but death; it is a savour of life or death, is received to salvation or
damnation. When the ancient Church so anxiously withheld from it such as
sinned grievously, not as an example only to others, but in tenderness
to themselves, lest they break through and perish; "profane," says S. Cyprian,
"the Holy Body of the Lord," not themselves be sanctified; fall deeper,
not be restored; be wounded more grievously, not be healed; since it is
said, he adds, "Whoso eateth the Bread and drinketh the Cup of the Lord
unworthily, is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord."
The chief object, then, of the Holy Eucharist, as conveyed by type or
prophecy, by the very elements chosen, or by the words of the Lord, is
the support and enlargement of life, and that in Him. In type, the tree
of Life was within the Paradise of God, given as a nourishment of immortality,
withheld from Adam when he sinned; the bread and wine, wherewith Melchizidek
met Abraham, was to refresh the father of the faithful, the weary warrior
of God; the Paschal Lamb was a commemorative sacrifice; the saving blood
had been shed; it was to be eaten with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth, and with bitter herbs, the type of mortification, and by those
only who were undefiled. The Manna was given to them after they had passed
the Red Sea, the image of cleansing Baptism, and, as He Himself interprets
it, represented Him as coming down from heaven, to give life unto the world,
the food of Angels and the holy hosts of heaven; the Shew-bread was eaten
only by those hallowed to the Priesthood, (as the whole Christian people
has in this sense been made kings and priests,) and, when once given to
David and those that were with him, still on the ground that the "vessels
of the young men were made holy." The Angel brought the cake to Elijah,
that in the strength of that food, he might go forty days and forty nights
unto the Mount of God. In verbal prophecy, it is foretold under the images
of the very elements, and so of strengthening and overflowing joy. "Wisdom,"
that is, He Who is the Wisdom of God, in a parable corresponding to that
of the marriage feast, crieth, "Come eat of My bread and drink of the wine
I have mingled." Or, in the very Psalm of His Passion and atoning Sacrifice,
it is foretold, that "the poor shall eat and be satisfied;" or that He,
the Good Shepherd, shall prepare a Table for those whom He leadeth by the
still waters of the Church, and giveth them the Cup of overflowing joy;"
or as the source of gladness, "Thou has put gladness into my heart, since
the time that their corn and wine and oil (the eblem of the Spirit of which
the faithful drink) increased," and "the wine which gladdeneth man¹s
heart, and oil which maketh his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth
man¹s heart;" or of spiritual growth, "corn and wine shall make the
young men and maidens of Zion to grow;" or as that which alone is satisfying,
"buy wine without money and without price," for that "which is not bread;"
or as the special Gift to the faithful, "He hath given meat unto them that
fear Him;" or that which, after His Passion, He drinketh anew with His
disciples in His Father¹s kingdom, "I have gathered my myrrh, I have
drunk my wine with my milk; eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly,
O beloved."
In all these varied symbols, strength, renewed life, growth, refreshment,
gladness, likeness to the Angels, immortality, are gifts set forth; they
are gifts as to the Redeemed of the Lord placed anew in the Paradise of
His Church, admitted to His Sanctuary, joying in His Presence, growing
before Him, filled with the river of His joy, feasting with Him, yea Himself
feasting in them, as in them He hungereth. Hitherto, there is no allusion
to sin; it is what the Church should be, walking in the brightness of His
light, and itself reflecting that brightness.
And when our Lord most largely and directly is setting forth the fruits
of eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood, He speaks throughout of one
Gift, life; freedom from death, life through Him, through His indwelling,
and therefore resurrection from the dead, and life eternal. "This is the
Bread, which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not
die. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread
that I shall give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
"Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have
no life in you." "Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last Day." "He that eateth My Flesh
and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him." "As the Living Father
hath sent Me and I live by The Father, so he that eateth of this Bread
shall live for ever." No one can observe how this whole discourse circleth
round this gift of life, and how our Lord, with unwearied patience, bringeth
this one truth before us in so many different forms, without feeling that
He means to inculcate, that life in Him is His chief gift in His Sacrament,
and to make a reverent longing for it an incentive to our faith. Yet although
life in Him is the substance of His whole teaching, the teaching itself
is manifold. Our Lord inculcates not one truth only in varied forms, but
in its different bearings. He answers not the strivings of the Jews, "How
can this man give us ŒHis flesh to eat?" Such an "how can these things
be?" He never answereth; and we, if we are wise, shall never ask how they
can be elements of this world and yet His very Body and Blood. But how
they give life to us, He does answer; and amid this apparent uniformity
of His teaching, each separate sentence gives us a portion of that answer.
And the teaching of the whole, as far as such as we may grasp it, is this.
That He is the Living Bread, because He came down from Heaven, and as being
One God with the Father, hath life in Himself, even as te Father hath life
in Himself; the life then which He is, He imparted to that Flesh which
He took into Himself, yea, which He took so wholly, that Holy Scripture
says, He became it, "the Word became flesh," and since it is thus a part
of Himself, "Whoso eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood," (He Himself
says the amazing words,) "eateth Me," and so receiveth into Himself, in
an ineffable manner, his Lord himself, "dwelleth" (our Lord says) "in Me
and I in Him," and having Christ within him, not only shall he have, but
he "hath" already "eternal Life," because he hath Him Who is "the only
true God and Eternal Life;" and so Christ "will raise him up at the Last
Day," because he hath His life in him. Receiving him into this very body,
they who are His, receive life, which shall pass over to our very decaying
flesh; they have with them Him Who is Life and Immortality and Incorruption,
to cast out or absorb into itself our natural mortality and death and corruption,
and "shall live for ever," because made one with Him Who Alone "liveth
for evermore." It is not then life only as an outward gift, to be possessed
by us, as His Gift it is no mere strengthening and refreshing of our souls,
by the renewal and confirming of our wills, and invigorating of our moral
nature, giving us more fixedness of purpose, or implanting in us Christian
graces; it is no gift such as we might imagine given to the most perfect
of God¹s created beings in himself. Picture we the most perfect wisdom,
knowledge, strength, harmony, proportion, brightness, beauty, fitness,
completeness of created being; fair as was that angel "in the garden of
God" before he fell, "the seal of comeliness, full of wisdom, and complete
in beauty -- perfect in his ways from the day he was created." Yet let
this be a perfection, upheld indeed of God, yet external to Him, as a mere
creation, and it would fall unutterably short of the depth of the mystery
of the Sacraments of Christ, and the gift, the germ whereof is therein
contained for us; although such as we actuall are, we know that, for our
strength we have weakness, for knowledge, ignorance, our nature jarring
still, disharmonized, obscured, deformed, both by the remains of original
corruption and our own superadded sins. For the life therein bestowed is
greater than any gift, since it is life in Christ, life through His indwelling,
Himself Who is Life. And Holy Scripture hints, that the blessed Angels,
who never fell, shall in some way to us unknown, gain by the mystery of
the Incarnation, being with us gathered together under one Head, our Incarnate
Lord, into His One Body, the fulness of Him Who filleth all in all. Certainly,
Scripture seems to imply, that, although He "took not the nature of angels"
but "of man," yet all created beings, "thrones and dominions and principalities
and powers," shall, if one may reverently say it, be more filled with God,
when, this is Body being perfected, there shall be no check or hindrance
to the full effluence of His Divine Nature, circulating through the whole
Body, into which He shall have "knit things in heaven and things in earth,"
"the innumerable company of the Angels," and "the just made perfect;" and
the whole glorified Church shall be clothed and radiant with him, the Sun
of Righteousness.
And of this we have the germs and first beginnings now. This is (if
we may reverently so speak) the order of the mystery of the Incarnation,
that the Eternal Word so took our flesh into Himself, as to impart to it
His own inherent life; so then we, partaking of It, that life is transmitted
on to us also, and not to our souls only, but our bodies also, since we
become flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone, and He Who is wholly life
is imparted to us wholly. The Life which He is, spreads around, first giving
Its own vitality to that sinless Flesh which He united indissolubly with
Himself and in It encircling and vivifying our whole nature, and then,
through that bread which is His Flesh, finding an entrance to us individually,
penetrating us, soul and body, and spirit, and irradiating and transforming
into His own light and life. In the words of a father who in warfare with
the Nestorian heresy, lived in the mystery of the Incarnation, "He is life
by nature, inasmuch as He was begotten of the Living Father; but no less
vivifying also is His Holy Body, being in a matter brought together (sunhnegmenon)
and ineffably united with the all-vivifying Word; wherefore It is accounted
His, and is conceived as one with Him. For, since the Incarnation, it is
inseparable; save that we know that the Word which came from God the Father,
and the Temple from the Virgin, are not indeed the same in nature; for
the Body is not consubstantial with the Word from God, yet is one by that
ineffable coming-together and concurrence; and since the Flesh of the Savior
became life-giving, as being united to That which is by nature Life, The
Word from God, then, when we taste It, we have life in ourselves, we too
being united with It, as It to the indwelling Word." "I then," He saith,
being in him will by Mine own Flesh raise up him who eateth thereof, in
the last Day. For since Christ is in us by His own Flesh, we must altogether
rise, for it were incredible, yea rather, impossible, that Life should
not make alive those in whom It is." To ad the words of one father only
of the Western Church, ever had in honour, as well for his sufferings for
the faith, as for his well-weighed and reverent language. S. Hilary adduced
the very actualness of this union in proof against the Arians, that the
unity of the Father and the Son, was not of will but of nature, not of
harmony of will only. "For if the Word was truly made Flesh, and we, in
the Supper of the Lord, truly receive the Word, being Flesh, how must He
not be thought to abide in us, by the way of nature, Who being born man,
took to Himself the Nature of our flesh, now inseparable from Him, and
under the Sacrament of the Flesh which is to be communicated to us, hath
mingled the Nature of His own Flesh with His eternal Nature. So then, we
are all one, because both the Father is in Christ, and Christ in us. Whosoever
then shall deny that the Father is in Christ by way of Nature, let him
first deny that himself is by way of nature in Christ or Christ in Him;
because the Father in Christ and Christ in us, make us to be one in them.
If then Christ truly took the Nature of our Body, and that Man, Who was
born of Mary, is truly Christ, and we truly, under a mystery, receive the
Flesh of His Body, (and thereby shall become one, because the Father is
in Him and He in us,) how is it asserted that the Unity is of will only,
whereas the sacramental property (conveyed) through the Sacrament is the
Sacrament of a perfect unity?" And a little after, alleging our Blessed
Lord¹s words, "My Flesh is truly meat, My Blood is truly drink." "Of
the truth of the Flesh and the Blood, there is no room left for doubt.
For now, according both to the declaration of the Lord and our faith, It
is truly Flesh and truly Blood. And these, received into us, cause, that
we are in Christ and Christ in us. Is not this truth? Be it not truth to
those who deny that Jesus Christ is true God. He then is in us through
the flesh, and we are in Him, since this, which we are, is with Him in
God."
Would that, instead of vain and profane disputings, we could but catch
the echoes of these hallowed sounds, and forgetting the jarrings of our
earthly discords, live in this harmony and unity of Heaven, where, through
and in our Lord, we are all one in God. Would that, borne above ourselves,
we could be caught up within the influence of the mystery of that ineffable
love whereby the Father would draw us to that oneness with Him in His Son,
which is the perfection of eternal bliss, where will, thought, affections
shall be one, because we shall be, by communication of His Divine Nature,
one. Yet such is undoubted Catholic teaching, and the most literal import
of Holy Scripture, and the mystery of the Sacrament, that the Eternal Word,
Who is God, having taken to Himself our flesh and joined it indissolubly
with Himself, and so, where His Flesh is, there He is, and we receiving
it, receive Him, and receiving Him are joined on to Him through His flesh
to the Father, and He dwelling in us, dwell in Him, and with Him in God.
"I," He saith, "in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." This is the
perfection after which all the rational creation groans, this for which
the Church, which hath the first fruits of the Spirit, groaneth within
herself, yea this for which our Lord Himself tarrieth, that His yet imperfect
members advancing onwards towards Him, and the whole multitude of the Redeemed
being gathered into the One Body, His whole Body should, in Him, be perfected
in the Unity of the Father. And so is He also, as Man, truly the Mediator
between God and Man, in that being as God, One with the Father, as man,
one with us, we truly are in Him who is truly in the Father. He, by the
truth of the Sacrament, dwelleth in us, in Whom, by Nature, all the fulness
of the Godhead dwelleth; and lowest is joined on with highest, earth with
heaven, corruption with incorruption, man with God.
But where, one may feel, is there here any place for the sinner? Here
all breathes of holy life, life in God, the life of God imparted to man,
the indwelling of the All Holy and Incarnate Word, the Presence of God
in the soul and body, incorruption and eternal life, through His Holy Presence
and union with Him, Who, being God, is Life. Where seems there room for
one, the mansion of whose soul has been broken down, and he to have no
place where Christ may lay His head; the vessel has been broken, if not
defiled, and now seems unfit to contain God¹s Holy Presence; the tenement
has been narrowed by self-love, and seems incapable of expanding to receive
the love of God, or God who is love; or choked and thronged with evil or
foul imaginations; or luxury and self-indulgence have dissolved it, or
evil thoughts and desires have made room for evil spirits in that which
was the dwelling-place of the Trinity?
Doubtless, God¹s highest and "holy" gift, is as the Ancient Church
proclaimed, chiefly "for the holy." "Ye cannot be partakers of the Table
of the Lord, and the table of devils." And as Holy Scripture, so also the
Ancient Church, when alluding to the fruits of that most ineffable gift,
speak of them mostly as they would be to those, who, on earth, already
live in Heaven, and on Him Who is its life and bliss. They speak of those
"clothed in flesh and blood, drawing nigh to the blessed and immortal nature;"
of "spiritual fire;" "grace exceeding human thought and a gift unutterable;"
"spiritual food, surpassing all creation visible and invisible," "kindling
the souls of all and making them brighter than silver purified by the fire;"
"removing us from earth, transferring us to heaven," "making angels for
men, so that it were a wonder that man should think that he were yet on
earth," yes, more than angels, "becoming that which we receive, the Body
of Christ." For that so we are "members of Him, not by love only, but in
very deed, mingled with that Flesh, mingled with Him, that we might become
in a manner one substance with Him," "the one Body and one Flesh of Christ;"
and He the Eternal Son and God the Word in us, "commingled and co-united
with us," with our bodies as with our souls, preserving both for incorruption;
"re-creating the spirit in us, to newness of life, and making us "partakers
of the Divine Nature;" "the bond of our unity with the Father, binding
us to Himself as Man," Who is "by nature, as God, in God His own Father;"
"descending to our nature subject to corruption and to change, and raising
it to Its own excellencies," and "by commingling it with Itself, all but
removing it from the conditions of created Nature," and "re-forming it
according to Itself." "We are," adds S. Cyril, "perfected into unity with
God the Father, through Christ the Mediator. For having received into ourselves,
bodily and spiritually, Him who is by Nature and truly the Son, Who hath
an essential Oneness with Him, we, becoming patakers of the Nature which
is above all, are glorified." "We," says another, "come to bear Christ
in us, His Body and Blood being diffused through our members; whence, saith
St. Peter, we become Œpartakers of the Divine Nature.¹"
Yet although most which is spoken belongs to Christians as belonging
already to the household of saints and the family of Heaven and the Communion
of Angels and unity with God, still, here as elsewhere in the New Testament,
there is a subordinate and subdued notion of sin; and what wraps the Saint
already in the third Heaven, may yet uphold us sinners, that the pit not
shut its mouth upon us. The same reality of the Divine Gift makes It Angels¹
food to the Saint, the ransom to the sinner. And both because It is the
Body and Blood of Christ. Were it only a thankful commemoration of His
redeeming love, or only a shewing forth of His Death, or a strengthening
only and refreshing of the soul, it were indeed a reasonable service, but
it would have no direct healing for the sinner. To him its special joy
is that it is His Redeemer¹s very broken Body, It is His Blood, which
was shed for the remission of his sins. In the words of the Ancient Church,
he "drinks his ransom," he eateth that, "the very Body and Blood of the
Lord, the only Sacrifice for sin," God "poureth out" for him yet "the most
precious Blood of His Only-Begotten;" they "are fed from the Cross of the
Lord, because they eat His Body and Blood;" and as of the Jews of old,
even those who had been the betrayers and murderers of their Lord, it was
said, "the Blood, which in their phrenzy they shed, believing they drank"
so of the true penitent it may be said, whatever may have been his sins,
so he could repent, awful as it is to say, -- the Blood he in deed despised,
and profaned, and trampled under foot, may he when himself humbled in the
dust, drink, and therein drink his salvation. "He Who refused not to shed
His Blood for us, and again gave us of His Flesh and His very Blood, what
will He refuse for our salvation?" "He," says S. Ambrose, "is the Bread
of life. Whoso then eateth life cannot die. How should he die, whose food
is life? How perish, who hath a living substance? Approach to Him and drink,
because He is a Fountain; approach to Him and be enlighteed, because He
is Light; approach to Him and be freed, because, where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty; approach to Him and be absolved, because He
is Remission of sins."
In each place in Holy Scripture, where the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist
is taught, there is, at least, some indication of the remission of sins.
Our Blessed Lord, while chiefly speaking of Himself, as the Bread of life,
the true meat, the true drink, His Indwelling, Resurrection from the dead,
and Life everlasting, still says also, "the Bread that I will give is My
Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." As amid the apparent
identity of this teaching, each separate oracle enounces some fresh portion
of the whole truth, so also does this; that His Flesh and Blood in the
Sacrament shall give life, not only because they are the Flesh and Blood
of the Incarnate Word, Who is Life, but also because they are the very
Flesh and Blood which were given and shed for the life of the world, and
are given to those, for whom they had been given. This is said yet more
distinctly in the awful words, whereby He consecrated for ever elements
of this world to be His Body and Blood. It has been remarked, as that which
cannot be incidental, (as how should any words of the Eternal Word be incidental?)
how amid lesser variations in the order or fulness of those solemn words,
they still, wherever recorded, speak of the act as a present act. "This
is My Body which is given for you;" "This is My Body which is broken for
you;" "This is My Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for
the remission of sins;" "This Cup is the New Testament in My Blood, which
is shed for you." He saith not, "which shall be given," "shall be broken,"
"shall be shed," but "is being given," "being broken," "being shed," (d
idomenon , klwmenon, ekcunomenon ,) and this in remarkable contrast with
His own words, when speaking of that same Gift, as yet future, "The Bread
which I will give is My Flesh, which I will give (Œon ¹egwdwsw) for
the life of the world." And of one of the words used, S. Chrysostome remarks
how it could not be said of the Cross, but is true of the Holy Eucharist.
"For Œa bone of Him,¹ it saith, shall not be broken.¹ But tat
which He suffered not on the Cross, this He suffers in the oblation for
thy sake, and submits to be broken that He may fill all men." Hereby He
seems as well to teach us that the great Act of His Passion then began;
then, as a Priest, did He through the Eternal Spirit offer Himself without
spot to God; then did He "consecrate" Himself, before He was by wicked
hands crucified and slain; and all which followed, until He commended His
Blessed Spirit to the Hands of His Heavenly Father, was One protracted,
willing, Suffering. Then did He begin His lonely journey, where there was
none to help or uphold, but He "travelled in the greatness of His strength;"
then did He begin to "tread the wine-press alone," and to "stain all His
raiment;" then to "wash the garments" of His Humanity "with" the "Wine"
of His Blood; and therefore does the Blood bedew us too; it cleanses us,
because it is the Blood shed for the remission of our sins. And this may
have been another truth, which our Lord intended to convey to us, when
He pronounced the words as the form which consecrates the sacramental elements
into His Body and Blood, that that Precious Blood is still, in continuance
and application of His One Oblation once made upon the Cross, poured out
for us now, conveying to our souls, as being His Blood, with the other
benefits of His Passion, the remission of our sins also. And so, when St.
Paul says, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the participation
of the Blood of Christ?" remission of sins is implied by the very words.
For, if we be indeed partakers of His atoning Blood, how should we not
be partakers of its fruits? "That which is in the Cup," S. Chrysostome
paraphrases, "is that which flowed from His side, and of that do we partake."
How should we approach His Sacred Side, and remain leprous still? Touching
with our very lips that cleansing Blood, how may we not, with the Ancient
Church, confess, "Lo, this hath touched my lips, and shall take away mine
iniquities and cleanse my sins?"
There is, accordingly, an entire agreement in the Eucharistic Liturgies
of the universal Church, in prayer, in benediction, in declaration, confessing
that in the Holy Eucharist there is forgiveness of sins also. Those of
S. James and S. Mark so paraphrase the words of Consecration as to develope
the sense that they relate not only to the past act of His Precious Bloodshedding
on the Cross, but to the communication of that Blood to us now. "This is
My Body which for you is broken and given for the remission of sins." "This
is My Blood of the New Testament, which for you and for many is poured
out and given for the remission of sins." Again, the Liturgies join together,
manifoldly, remission of sins and life eternal, as the two great fruits
of this Sacrament. Thus in the prayer for the descent of the Holy Ghost
on the sacred elements, "that they may be to all who partake of them to
the remission of sins, and to life eternal;" or in the intercession, "that
we may become meet to be partakers of Thy holy mysteries to the remission
of sins and life eternal," or in the words of communicating, "I give thee
the precious and holy and undefiled Body of our Lord and God and Saviour
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and life eternal." And the prayer
in our own liturgy is almost in the very words of an Eastern and in the
character of a Western Liturgy, "that our sinful bodies may be made clean
by His Body and our souls washed through His most precious Blood." Even
the Roman Liturgy, though less full on this point, has prayers, "that the
Communion may cleanse us from sin," "may be the washing away of guilt,
the remission of all offences."
It will then seem probably too refined and narrowing a distinction,
when some Divines of that Communion, countenanced by the language of the
Council of Trent, maintain in opposition to other error, that venial sins
only are remitted by the Holy Eucharist, since to approach it in mortal
sin were itself mortal sin. For although our own Church also requires at
least confession to God, and pronounces His absolution over us before we
dare approach those holy Mysteries, yet because we are so far freed from
our sins, that we may approach, to our salvation not to condemnation, yet
can we say that we are so freed, that nothing remains to be washed away?
that the absolution, which admits to that cleansing Blood, is every thing,
that cleansing Blood Itself, in this respect also, addeth nothing? Rather,
the penitent¹s comfort is, that, as, in S. Basil¹s words on frequent
communion, "continual participation of life is nothing else than manifold
life," so, often communion of that Body which was broken and that Blood
which was shed for the remission of sins, is manifold remission of those
sins over which he mourns, that as the loving-kindness of God admits him
again and again to that Body and that Blood, the stains which his soul
had contracted are more and more effaced, the guilt more and more purged,
the wounds more and more healed, that atoning Blood more and more interposed
between him and his sins, himself more united with his Lord, Who Alone
is Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption.
Since then, this Divine Sacrament has, as its immediate and proper end,
union with Him Who hath taken our manhood into God, and the infusion into
us of His Spirit and life and immortality, making us one with His glorified
Humanity, as He is One in the Godhead with the Father, and, besides this,
it is ulteriorly, the cleansing of our sins, the refining our corruptions,
the repairing of our decays, what must the loss of the Church of the latter
days, in which Communions are so infrequent! How can we wonder that love
should have waxed cold, corruptions so abound, grievous falls have been,
among our youth, almost the rule, to stand upright the exception, Heathen
strictness reproach Christian laxity, the Divine life become so rare, all
higher instances of it be so few and faint, when "the stay and the staff,"
the strength of that life is willingly forfeited? How should there be the
fulness of the Divine life, amid all but a month-long fast from our "daily
Bread?" While in the largest portion of the Church, the people mostly gaze
at the threshold of the Heaven where they do not enter, what do we? We
seem, alas! even to have forgotten, in our very thoughts, that daily Communion,
which once was the common privilege of the whole Church, which, when the
Eastern Church relaxed in her first love, the Western continued, and which
they from whom we have our Communion Service in its present form, at first
hoped to restore. It implies a life, so different from this our common-place
ordinary tenor, a life so above this world as knit with Him Who hath overcome
the world; so Angelic as living on Him Who is Angels¹ Food; an union
with God so close; that we cannot mostly, I suppose, imagine to ourselves,
how we could daily thus be in Heaven, and in our daily business here below,
how sanctify our daily duties, thoughts, refreshment, so that they should
be tinged with the hues reflected by our daily Heaven, not that heavenly
Gift be dimmed with our earthliness; how our souls should through the day
shine with the glory of that ineffablePresence to which we had approached,
now we approach to it with earth-dimmed souls. It must ever be so; we cannot
know the Gift of God, if we forfeit it; we must cease mostly even to long
for what we forego. We lose the very sense to understand it.
It is not in blame of others, my brethren, God Forbid! it is as the
confession of a common fault to which others have contributed least who
have been least unworthy, and which, if we confess, God may the rather
teach us how to amend, that I dare not but notice, how, even in this privileged
and protected place, we still mostly forego even what remains, and what
our Liturgy still enjoins. We have learned even, as people needs must,
to justify the omission. As those who know not our privileges of daily
service, think set daily prayers must become a lifeless form, so right-minded
persons speak, (and perhaps until they know it, must needs speak,) as though
not we needed more reverence to partake of the Communion weekly, but as
though weekly Communions must needs decrease, not increase, reverence.
And thus in this abode, which God has encompassed and blessed with privileges
above all others, where so many have been brought into an especial nearness
to Him, and a sacredness of office, so many look so to be brought, and
yet on that account need the more watchfulness and Divine strength that
they fall not,‹where, if we will, we may retire into ourselves, as much
as we will, and have daily prayers to prepare our souls,‹we have, in very
many cases, not even the privileges which are becoming common in village-Churches;
we all, to whom it is expressly, as by name, enjoined, to "receive the
Holy Communion with the Priest every Sunday at the least," have it perhaps
scarcely monthly; and the thanksgiving for the Ascension of our Lord stands
in our Prayer Book year by year unuttered, because when he ascended up
on high to receive gifts for men, there are none here below to receive
the Gift He won for us, or Himself Who is the Giver and the Gift. Nor has
this been ever thus; even a century and a half ago, this Cathedral was
remarked as one of those, where, after the desolation of the Great Rebellion,
weekly Communions were still celebrated.
But, however we may see that our present decay and negligence should
not continue, restoration must not be rashly compassed. It is not a matter
of obeying rubrics, but of life or death, of health or decay, of coming
together for the better or for the worse, to salvation or to condemnation.
Healthful restoration is a work of humility, not to be essayed as though
we had the disposal of things, and could at our will replace, what by our
forefathers¹ negligence was lost, and by our sins bound up with theirs
is yet forfeited. Sound restoration must be the gift of God, to be sought
of Him in humiliation, in prayer, in mutual forbearance and charity, with
increased strictness of life and more diligent use of what we have. We
must consult one for the other. There is, in our fallen state, a reverent
abstaining from more frequent Communion, founded on real though undue fears;
there is and ought to be a real consciousness that more frequent Communion
should involve a change of life, more collectedness in God, more retirement,
at times, from society, deeper consciousness of His Presence, more sacredness
in our ordinary actions whom He so vouchsafeth to hallow, greater love
for His Passion which we celebrate, and carrying it about, in strictness
of self-rule and self-discipline, and self-denying love. And these graces,
we know too well, come slowly. Better, then, for a time forego what any
would long for, or obtain it, where by God¹s bounty and Providence
that Gift may be had, than by premature urgency, "walk not charitably,"
or risk injury to a brother¹s soul. He Who alone can make more frequent
Communion a blessing, and Who gave such strength to that one heavenly meal,
whereby through forty days and forty nights of pilgrimage He carried Elijah
to His Presence at the Mount of God, can, if we be faithful and keep His
Gift which we receive, give such abundant strength to our rarer Communions,
that they shall carry us through forty years of trial unto His own Holy
Hill, and the Vision of Himself in bliss. Rather should those wh long for
it, fear that if It were given them, they might not be fitted for it, or,
if we have it, that we come short of the fulness of its blessing, than
use inconsiderate eagerness in its restoration. Ask we it of God, so will
He teach us, how to obtain it of those whom He has made its dispensers
to us. They too have their responsibilities, not to bestow it prematurely,
though they be involved in the common loss. Let us each suspect ourselves,
not others; the backward their own backwardness, the forward their own
eagerness; each habitually interpret well the other¹s actions and
motives; they who seek to partake more often of the heavenly Food, honour
the reverence and humility which abstains, and they who think it reverent
to abstain, censure not as innovation, the return to ancient devotion and
love; restore it, if we may, at such an hour of the day, when to be absent
need not cause pain or perplexity, and may make least distinction; so,
while we each think all good of the other, may we all together, strengthened
by the Same Bread, washed by the Same Blood, be led, in the unity of the
Spirit and the bond of peace and holiness of life, to that ineffable Feast,
where not, as now, in Mysteries, but, face to face, we shall ever see God,
and be ever filled with His Goodness and His Love.
Meantime such of us, as long to be penitents, may well feel that we
are less than the least of God¹s mercies; that we have already far
more than we deserve; (for whereas we deserved Hell, we have the antepast
of Heaven;) that the children¹s bread is indeed taken and given unto
dogs; that He, Who is undefiled, spotless, separate from sinners, cometh
to be a guest with us sinners; and therein may we indeed find our comfort
and our stay. For where He is, how should there not be forgiveness and
life and peace and joy? What other hope need we, if we may indeed hope
that we thereby dwell in Him and He in us, He in us, if not by the fulness
of His graces, yet with such at least as are fitted to our state, cleansing
our iniquities and healing our infirmities, Himself the forgiveness we
long for; we in Him, in Whom if we be found in that Day, our pardon is
for ever sealed, ourselves for ever cleansed, our iniquity forgiven, and
our sin covered.
