Works › Sermons on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist
Volume 13 · pp. 757–760
Sermon XXII. On the Second Four Fruits of Christ’s Body
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### Sermo XXII
### De quatuor fructibus corporis Christi secundis
Venite, comedite panem meum, etc. Prov. ix, 5. Ut supra.
Alia quatuor mala nostra, sive languores sunt, quasi defectus gratiae, quibus multae laborant animae, scilicet,
1. Defectus in cognitione nostri.
2. In dilectione proximi.
3. In sapore spirituali.
4. In conservatione boni.
I.
Contra haec valet fructus Virginis corpus Salvatoris.
1. De primo languore, Genes. i, 2: Tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi: quasi ab antiquo cor hominis obvolutum fuit ignorantia sui. Jer. xvii, 9: Pravum est cor omnium, et inscrutabile: quis cognoscet illud? Psalm. xviii, 13 et 14: Delicta quis intelligit? ab occultis meis munda me: et ab alienis parce servo tuo: et ab alienis quibus alios peccare feci, vel aliorum peccatis consensi. Matth. vii, 3: Quid vides festucam in oculo fratris tui: et trabem in oculo tuo non vides?
2. De secundo, Matth. xxiv, 12: Quoniam abundavit iniquitas, refrigescet charitas multorum. Eccli. xliii, 22: Frigidus ventus aquilo flavit, et gelavit crystallus ab aqua. Defectus amoris probatur ab exterioribus signis. I Joan. iii, 17: Qui habuerit substantiam hujus mundi, et viderit fratrem suum necessitatem habere, et clauserit viscera sua ab eo: quomodo charitas Dei manet in eo? Jerem. ix, 4 et 5: Unusquisque se a proximo suo custodiat, et in omni fratre suo non habeat fiduciam: quia omnis frater supplantans supplantabit, et omnis amicus fraudulenter incedet. Et vir fratrem suum deridebit, et veritatem non loquetur. Prov. xx, 10: Pondus et pondus, mensura et mensura: utrumque abominabile est apud Deum. Glossa: "Diversum pondus et diversam mensuram habet in domo sua, ut aliter sibi, aliter proximo noceat: qui in suis semper actibus, quae laudentur, in proximis quae vituperentur, quaerit: sed et qui in temporalibus sibi majorem, proximo minorem mensuram dare studet." Quia defectum dilectionis habet, Deo displicet. Similiter est de eo, qui malo verbo vel facto proximum contristat, laedit, vel damnificat.
3. De tertio, Jerem. xxxi, 30: Omnis homo, qui comederit uvam acerbam, obstupescent dentes ejus. Gregorius: "Quid est uva acerba nisi peccatum? uva quippe acerba est fructus ante tempus. Quisquis ergo praesentis vitae delectationibus satiari desiderat, quasi fructus ante tempus comedere festinat. Sed qui uvam acerbam comedet, dentes ejus obstupescent: quia qui praesentis mundi delectationibus pascitur, interni sensus ejus ligantur, ut jam spiritualia sapere nequeant." Hoc figuratum est in Num. xi, 4 et seq., in populo Israel, qui in Aegypto carnibus cum allio et caepis satiatus fuerat, et postea in deserto talia concupiscens, panem coelestem, scilicet manna dulcissimum, cum nausea respiciebat. I ad Corinth. ii, 14: Animalis homo non percipit ea, quae sunt Spiritus Dei. Augustinus: "Animalis dicitur carnalis homo, qui fertur dissoluta lascivia animae suae, quem intra naturalis ordinis metas spiritus rector non continet, eo quod ipse Deo regendum se non subjicit. Talis spiritualem dulcedinem non sapit."
### Sermon XXII
### On the Second Four Fruits of Christ's Body
Come, eat my bread, etc. Proverbs 9:5. As above.
The other four evils of ours, or languors, are as defects of grace, with which many souls labor, namely:
1. Defect in knowledge of ourselves.
2. In love of neighbor.
3. In spiritual savor.
4. In conservation of the good.
I.
Against these the fruit of the Virgin, the body of the Savior, avails.
1. Concerning the first languor, Genesis 1:2: Darknesses were over the face of the abyss; as if from old the heart of man had been wrapped in ignorance of itself. Jeremiah 17:9: Depraved is the heart of all, and inscrutable; who will know it? Psalm 18:13 and 14: Who understands faults? Cleanse me from my hidden ones, and spare your servant from alien ones, and from alien ones by which I made others sin or consented to others' sins. Matthew 7:3: Why do you see the splinter in your brother's eye and do not see the beam in your own eye?
2. Concerning the second, Matthew 24:12: Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many will grow cold. Ecclesiasticus 43:22: The cold north wind blew and froze the crystal from water. Defect of love is proved from exterior signs. 1 John 3:17: He who has the substance of this world and sees his brother have need and closes his bowels from him: how does the charity of God remain in him? Jeremiah 9:4 and 5: Let each one guard himself from his neighbor, and let him have no trust in any brother, because every brother supplanting will supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully. And a man will deride his brother and will not speak truth. Proverbs 20:10: Weight and weight, measure and measure, each is abominable before God. The Gloss says: "He has diverse weight and diverse measure in his house, so that he harms himself in one way and his neighbor in another, who in his own acts always seeks things to be praised and in his neighbors' acts things to be blamed; but also he who in temporal things strives to give a greater measure to himself and a lesser one to his neighbor." Because he has a defect of love, he displeases God. It is similar concerning him who saddens, injures, or damages his neighbor by an evil word or deed.
3. Concerning the third, Jeremiah 31:30: Every man who eats a sour grape, his teeth will be numbed. Gregory says: "What is a sour grape except sin? For a sour grape is fruit before its time. Therefore whoever desires to be filled with the delights of the present life hastens, as it were, to eat fruit before its time. But he who eats a sour grape, his teeth will be numbed, because he who is fed by the delights of the present world has his inner senses bound, so that now they cannot savor spiritual things." This was figured in Numbers 11:4 and following, in the people of Israel, who had been filled in Egypt with meats, with garlic and onions, and afterward in the desert, desiring such things, looked back with nausea at the heavenly bread, namely the sweetest manna. 1 Corinthians 2:14: The animal man does not perceive the things which are of the Spirit of God. Augustine says: "The carnal man is called animal, who is carried by the dissolved wantonness of his soul, whom the ruling spirit does not contain within the boundaries of the natural order, because he himself does not subject himself to God to be ruled. Such a one does not savor spiritual sweetness."
4. De quarto, ad Gal. iii, 3: Sic stulti estis, ut cum spiritu coeperitis, nunc carne consummamini? Prov. ii, 13: Relinquunt iter rectum, et ambulant per vias tenebrosas. Luc. viii, 13: Qui supra petram: qui cum audierint, cum gaudio suscipiunt verbum: et hi radices non habent, scilicet, stabilitatem firmae voluntatis: quia ad tempus credunt, et in tempore tentationis recedunt. Cant. vii, 12: Mane surgamus ad vineas, videamus si floruit vinea, si flores fructus parturiunt. Glossa: "Non est intuendum si vinea floret, sed si flores ad partum fructuum convalescunt:" quia non mirum est, si quis bonum inchoat: sed valde mirabile est, si intentione bona in bono opere perseverat.
II.
Contra haec quatuor mala, quatuor secundi fructus corporis Domini, qui nos hic in gratia perficiunt, 1. Intellectum enim ad se cognoscendum illuminant, 2. Voluntatem sive affectum in dilectione proximi inflammant, 3. Memoriam spirituali dulcedine delectant, 4. Et totum hominem in bono confirmant.
1. De primo fructu, Prov. xxiv, 13: Comede, fili mi, mel, quia bonum est. Mel est sapientia Dei incarnata, in cibum dulcem nobis praeparata. Hoc bonum est ad spiritualem medicinam: quia illuminat mentem. I Reg. xiv, 29: Vidistis ipsi quia illuminati sunt oculi mei, eo quod gustaverim paululum de melle. Isa. vii, 15: Butyrum et mel comedet omnis qui relictus fuerit, ut scilicet sciat reprobare malum et eligere bonum. Psalm. xxvi, 1: Dominus illuminatio mea, et salus mea. Et xxxiii, 6: Accedite ad eum, et illuminamini, scilicet ad cognitionem nostri. Prov. xx, 27: Lucerna Domini spiraculum hominis, quae investigat omnia secreta ventris. Spiraculum est illuminatio a Domino data homini ad cognitionem sui. Unde Glossa: "Divini afflatus illuminatio cum in mentem hominis venerit, eam sibimetipsi illuminans, ostendit quae ante cogitationes pravas et portare poterat et pensare bona nesciebat."
4. Concerning the fourth, Galatians 3:3: Are you so foolish that when you began with the spirit, now you are completed by the flesh? Proverbs 2:13: They leave the right way and walk through ways of darkness. Luke 8:13: Those upon rock: when they have heard, they receive the word with joy, and these do not have roots, namely the stability of a firm will, because they believe for a time and in the time of temptation withdraw. Song of Songs 7:12: Let us rise in the morning to the vineyards; let us see if the vineyard has flowered, if the flowers are bringing forth fruits. The Gloss says: "One must not look whether the vineyard flowers, but whether the flowers grow strong toward the bearing of fruits," because it is not marvelous if someone begins a good thing; but it is very marvelous if with good intention he perseveres in a good work.
II.
Against these four evils are the four second fruits of the body of the Lord, which perfect us here in grace: 1. for they illuminate the understanding for knowing itself, 2. they inflame the will or affection in love of neighbor, 3. they delight the memory with spiritual sweetness, 4. and they confirm the whole man in the good.
1. Concerning the first fruit, Proverbs 24:13: Eat honey, my son, because it is good. Honey is the wisdom of God incarnate, prepared for us as sweet food. This is good for spiritual medicine, because it illuminates the mind. 1 Kings 14:29: You yourselves have seen that my eyes have been enlightened because I tasted a little honey. Isaiah 7:15: Everyone who has been left will eat butter and honey, so that namely he may know how to reject evil and choose good. Psalm 26:1: The Lord is my illumination and my salvation. And 33:6: Approach him and be illuminated, namely to knowledge of ourselves. Proverbs 20:27: The lamp of the Lord is the breath of man, which investigates all the secrets of the belly. Breath is the illumination given by the Lord to man for knowledge of himself. Hence the Gloss says: "When the illumination of the divine breathing has come into the mind of man, by illuminating it to itself, it shows what depraved thoughts it could before carry and did not know how to weigh as good."
2. De secundo fructu dicitur, Isa. vi, 6, et 7, quod Angelus tulit calculum de altari, et tetigit eo os Isaiae. Calculus est carbunculus, sic dictus, quia ignitus ut carbo, et significat corpus Domini de altari sumptum, et charitate inflammatum: quod accendit amore corda fidelium. Psal. xvii, 9: Ignis a facie ejus exarsit: carbones succensi sunt ab eo. Cant. viii, 6: Lampades ejus lampades ignis atque flammarum; quia intus ardent Dei et proximi dilectione, et exterius lucent operibus misericordiae.
3. De tertio fructu, Psal. xxxiii, 9: Gustate, et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus. Eccli. xlix, 1 et 2: Memoria Josiae in compositionem odoris facta opus pigmentarii. In omni ore quasi mel indulcabitur ejus memoria. Josias qui interpretatur fortitudo Domini significat Christum. Dicit Glossa: "Memoria Christi, id est, sacramentum corporis ejus, quod in memoriam sui jussit consecrari, opus est odoriferum veri pigmentarii, id est, Spiritus sancti, qui illud composuit de pretiosis speciebus, scilicet de carne virginali, et sapientia Dei. Hoc quasi mel in ore cordis indulcabitur, si virtus ejus in salutem humani generis pie cogitatur." Cant. ii, 3: Sub umbra illius, quem desideraveram, sedi: et fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo. Primo fidelis anima Christum desiderat, aestuat spiritu, et sitit: secundo umbram refrigerii in fructum obtinendi sentit: tertio sedet, exspectat, orat, ut se totum ad ipsam reficiendam et vivificandam fructus infundat: quarto per infusam ejus dulcedinem suaviter gustat.
Sed dicit aliquis: Ecce saepius, ut possum, me praeparo: corpus Domini sumo: sed nihil sentio solatii specialis, nihil spiritualis dulcedinis. Respondeo: Cibus iste sive fructus, medicina est hominis. Unde sicut medicus peritus quandoque quibusdam dat medicinam dulcem palato corporis, et quandoque non, sed palato mentis: quae quamvis non gutturi, tamen bene sapit rationi: pro eo quod dum sanat mentem delectat. Sic Dominus dat suis fidelibus dulce semper corpus: sed dulcedinem suam alio modo illis ostendit, prout cuilibet expedire novit. Hinc est, quod quidam dulcedinem illam sapiunt per affectum, et ardentiori delectantur devotione: et alii eamdem dulcedinem sapiunt per intellectum, et sufficienti reficiuntur utilitate, in eo quod credunt et intelligunt per hunc cibum sanctum veram vitam obtineri.
2. Concerning the second fruit it is said in Isaiah 6:6 and 7 that the Angel took a small stone from the altar and touched Isaiah's mouth with it. The small stone is a carbuncle, so called because it is fiery like coal, and it signifies the body of the Lord taken from the altar and inflamed with charity, which kindles the hearts of the faithful with love. Psalm 17:9: Fire blazed from his face; coals were kindled by him. Song of Songs 8:6: Its lamps are lamps of fire and flames, because inwardly they burn with love of God and neighbor, and outwardly they shine with works of mercy.
3. Concerning the third fruit, Psalm 33:9: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Ecclesiasticus 49:1 and 2: The memory of Josiah was made into a composition of odor, the work of a perfumer. In every mouth his memory will be sweetened like honey. Josiah, which is interpreted strength of the Lord, signifies Christ. The Gloss says: "The memory of Christ, that is, the sacrament of his body, which he commanded to be consecrated in memory of himself, is the odoriferous work of the true perfumer, that is, of the Holy Spirit, who composed it from precious species, namely from virginal flesh and the wisdom of God. This will be sweetened like honey in the mouth of the heart if its power for the salvation of the human race is devoutly considered." Song of Songs 2:3: Under the shadow of him whom I had desired I sat, and his fruit was sweet to my throat. First the faithful soul desires Christ, grows hot in spirit and thirsts; secondly it senses the shadow of coolness for obtaining the fruit; thirdly it sits, waits, and prays that the fruit may pour itself whole into it to refresh and give life; fourthly, through its infused sweetness, it tastes sweetly.
But someone says: Behold, as often as I can, I prepare myself; I receive the body of the Lord, but I feel no special consolation, no spiritual sweetness. I answer: This food or fruit is the medicine of man. Hence just as a skilled physician sometimes gives to certain persons a medicine sweet to the palate of the body, and sometimes not, but sweet to the palate of the mind, which, although it does not taste good to the throat, nevertheless tastes good to reason because while it heals the mind it delights it, so the Lord always gives his faithful a sweet body, but shows his sweetness to them in another way, according as he knows it to be expedient for each. Hence it is that some savor that sweetness through affection and are delighted with a more ardent devotion, and others savor the same sweetness through understanding and are refreshed with sufficient usefulness, in that they believe and understand that true life is obtained through this holy food.
Igitur quamvis non sapis dulcedinem Domini primo modo, id est, per affectum intimae devotionis, sapis tamen secundo modo, scilicet per intellectum multae utilitatis.
De primo, Isa. lv, 2: Audite audientes me, et comedite bonum, et delectabitur in crassitudine anima vestra. Ambrosius: "Panis candidissime habens omne delectamentum, etc."
De secundo est illud Cant. ii, 3: Fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo, id est, piae et fideli menti, quae credit et intelligit hunc cibum sanctum esse sibi utilissimum. Unde Glossa: "Dulcis fructus gutturi cordis:" quia in eo intelligit anima causam vitae, dum etiam corporaliter percipit.
Haec dulcedo valet contra tria mala, quae sunt in mundo1.
4. De quarto fructu, Psal. ciii, 15: Panis cor hominis confirmat. Quia scilicet corpus Christi fideles suos in vita sua finaliter confortat. III Reg. xix, 8: Comedit Elias panem, quem sibi Angelus ministravit, et ambulavit in fortitudine cibi illius quadraginta diebus, et quadraginta noctibus, usque ad montem Dei Horeb. Horeb interpretatur mensa: mons ergo iste est mensa Dei, et significat satietatem coelestis gloriae. Panis utique corporis Christi confortat nos in vita bona et bono opere quadraginta diebus et noctibus, id est, toto tempore praesentis poenae, usque ad montem et mensam Dei, id est, quousque perveniamus ad altitudinem securitatis, et satietatem dulcedinis aeternae gloriae. De his dicitur, IV Reg. iv, 34: Eliseus incubuit super puerum: posuitque os suum super os ejus, et oculos suos super oculos ejus, et manus suas super manus ejus: et incurvavit se super eum, et calefacta est caro pueri. Fidelis anima per puerum, Dominus per Eliseum significatur: qui sicut sigillum cerae, sic se conjungit animae. Oculos suos super oculos ejus ponit, quia intellectum illuminat: carnem calefacit, quia affectum charitatis inflammat: os super os ponit, quia gustum memoriae dulcedine spirituali delectat: manus super manum ponit, quia in bono opere usque in finem conservat, et sic totum hominem perficit, et ad vitam aeternam perducit. Amen.
Therefore although you do not savor the sweetness of the Lord in the first mode, that is, through the affection of inward devotion, nevertheless you savor it in the second mode, namely through the understanding of much usefulness.
Concerning the first, Isaiah 55:2: Hear me, you who hear, and eat the good, and your soul will delight in fatness. Ambrose says: "Most white bread having every delight, etc."
Concerning the second is that text Song of Songs 2:3: His fruit is sweet to my throat, that is, to the pious and faithful mind, which believes and understands this holy food to be most useful for itself. Hence the Gloss says: "Sweet fruit to the throat of the heart," because in it the soul understands the cause of life, while it also perceives bodily.
This sweetness avails against three evils which are in the world1.
4. Concerning the fourth fruit, Psalm 103:15: Bread confirms the heart of man. Because, namely, the body of Christ finally strengthens his faithful in their life. 3 Kings 19:8: Elijah ate the bread which the Angel ministered to him, and he walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, all the way to the mountain of God, Horeb. Horeb is interpreted table; therefore that mountain is the table of God, and signifies the satiety of heavenly glory. Certainly the bread of Christ's body strengthens us in good life and good work for forty days and nights, that is, for the whole time of the present punishment, all the way to the mountain and table of God, that is, until we come to the height of security and the satiety of the sweetness of eternal glory. Concerning these things it is said in 4 Kings 4:34: Elisha lay upon the boy and placed his mouth upon the boy's mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he bent himself over him, and the flesh of the boy was warmed. The faithful soul is signified by the boy, the Lord by Elisha, who joins himself to the soul as a seal to wax. He places his eyes upon its eyes, because he illuminates the understanding; he warms the flesh, because he inflames the affection of charity; he places mouth upon mouth, because he delights the taste of memory with spiritual sweetness; he places hand upon hand, because he preserves it in good work all the way to the end, and thus he perfects the whole man and leads him to eternal life. Amen.
Notes
- Look above in Sermon XVIII after the middle. (Require supra in Sermone XVIII post medium.) ↩
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