Works › Sermons for the Seasons of the Year
Volume 13 · p. 157
Sermon XXXVI continuation and conclusion
Duodecimum est, quod caput cum intestinis et pedibus comedebant. Unde Exod. xii, 9: Caput cum pedibus ejus et intestinis vorabitis. Per hoc ostenditur, quod communicaturi fidem integram de divinitate et humanitate Jesu Christi debent habere: quasi enim caput manducat, qui credit divinitatem: sed non confitetur humanitatem. Pedes autem comedit et non caput, qui Jesum tantum hominem, et non Deum confitetur. Caput vero et pedes sine intestinis manducat, qui licet Christum credat Deum et hominem, tamen infirmitates ejus et miserias abhorret, et confiteri reformidat, sicut quidam hæretici, qui credebant Jesum sine dolore passum, sicut sagitta trajicitur per aerem.
Tredecimum est, quod si quid residuum fuerit, igni comburebant. Unde Exod. xii, 10: Si quid residuum fuerit, igne comburetis. Per hoc innuitur, quod subtilitates fidei, quæ supra nos sunt, igni quem Dominus venit mittere in terram, id est, sancto Spiritui, debemus committere.
Quartumdecimum est, quod cum azymis et lactucis agrestibus agnum comedebant. Unde Exod. xii, 8: Et edent azymos panes cum lactucis agrestibus. Per hoc ostenditur, quod communicaturi sine fermento tumidæ et malæ conscientiæ, sed cum azymis mundæ et humilis conscientiæ, et cum lactucis, id est, contritionis amaritudine ad sumendam sacrosanctam hostiam debent accedere.
Quintumdecimum est, quod luna quartadecima, hoc est, quod in plenilunio agnum typicum comedebant. Per hoc innuitur, quod nullis pueris, nisi eis qui ad annos discretionis pervenerunt, in quibus videlicet, quasi plena luna est, id est, quorum fides et ratio a vero sole, id est, Christo Jesu, sufficienter est illuminata, dari debet a Sacerdotibus corpus Christi. Sæpe enim ex hoc negligentiæ contigerunt, quod pueris indiscretis, et virtutem hujus sacramenti ignorantibus datum fuit corpus Christi.
Rogate ergo Deum Patrem, ut ad corpus Filii sui sumendum tam munde et reverenter accedere mereamini, ut per hoc et corporis et animæ salutem consequamini sempiternam. Quod nobis præstare dignetur, etc.
The twelfth is that they ate the head with the entrails and the feet. Hence Exodus 12:9 says: You shall eat its head with its feet and entrails. Through this it is shown that those who are about to communicate ought to have the whole faith concerning the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. For he as it were eats the head who believes the divinity but does not confess the humanity. But he eats the feet and not the head who confesses Jesus as only a human being and not God. But he eats the head and feet without the entrails who, although he believes Christ to be God and human, nevertheless abhors his weaknesses and miseries and fears to confess them, as certain heretics did, who believed that Jesus suffered without pain, as an arrow is shot through the air.
The thirteenth is that, if anything was left over, they burned it with fire. Hence Exodus 12:10 says: If anything shall have remained, you shall burn it with fire. Through this it is intimated that the subtleties of faith that are above us we ought to commit to the fire that the Lord came to send upon the earth, that is, to the Holy Spirit.
The fourteenth is that they ate the lamb with unleavened breads and wild lettuces. Hence Exodus 12:8 says: And they shall eat unleavened breads with wild lettuces. Through this it is shown that those who are about to communicate ought to approach the most holy host not with the leaven of a swollen and evil conscience, but with the unleavened breads of a clean and humble conscience, and with lettuces, that is, with the bitterness of contrition.
The fifteenth is that on the fourteenth moon, that is, at the full moon, they ate the typical lamb. Through this it is intimated that the body of Christ ought to be given by priests to no children except those who have arrived at the years of discretion, in whom, namely, there is as it were a full moon, that is, whose faith and reason have been sufficiently illumined by the true sun, that is, Christ Jesus. For often through negligence it has happened that the body of Christ was given to undiscerning children ignorant of the power of this sacrament.
Therefore pray to God the Father that you may deserve to approach the body of his Son to be received so cleanly and reverently that through this you may obtain everlasting salvation of body and soul. May he deign to grant this to us, and so forth.
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