Works › The Book on the Sacrament of the Eucharist
Volume 38 · pp. 222–225
Tractate II. Chapters III-IV.
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Caput III. De doni hujus sacramentalis utilitate.
Est autem hoc donum etiam utile, omnem in se habens utilitatem. Sic enim sicut dicitur, ad Hebr. xii, 9: Multo magis obtemperabimus Patri spirituum. Et post pauca, v. 10: Hic autem erudit nos ad id quod utile est in recipiendo sanctificationem ejus. Quantae putas utilitatis est donum hujus sacramenti, quod omnem in se exhibet ad corpus et animam utilitatem? Isa. xlviii, 17, dicit, quod ego Dominus docens te utilia, et gubernans in via qua ambulas. Hoc enim quamvis in omnibus faciat, in hoc tamen sacramento praecipue hoc facit, in quo homo ad omnia quae utilia sibi sunt, accipit eruditionem. De hoc enim loquens, Eccli. xx, 10, dicit: Est datum quod non est utile, et est datum cujus retributio duplex. Datum enim mundi fallit, et non est utile. Datum autem Christi praecipue quod dedit in dono corporis sui, utile est in duplicem remunerationem: quia proficit in vitae spiritualis deperditae restaurationem, et proficit in redemptionem: et sic valde utile hoc donum invenitur. Unde de eodem dono ibidem post pauca, v. 12, subinfertur: Est qui multa redimat modico pretio, et restituens ea in septuplum. Modicum autem pretium dicitur corpus Christi, non ideo quod modicum sit, sed est magnae humilitatis, quod revera multa redemit: quia omnia nostra redemit et restituit in septuplum. Affert enim ex corpore Christi dulcissimam participationem, ex sanguine autem sanctificationem, ex anima vero reconciliationem, et ex spiritu vitae spiritualis in nobis restaurationem, et ex divinitate omnis virtutis perfectionem, et ex ipso sacramento Christi recordationem, et ex modo percipiendi sacramentum affert aeternae beatitudinis imaginem, et sic omnia restituit in septuplum.
Haec est ergo utilitas istius sacramenti.
Caput IV. De doni hujus ad donantem conformitate.
Ex hoc autem donum illud tantam habet conformitatem ad donantem, ut in ipso donans ipsum totus sit et totus habeatur. Unde, Luc. xxii, 19, dicit: Hoc facite in meam commemorationem. Et, Apostolus, I ad Corinth. xi, 26: Quotiescumque manducabitis panem hunc, et calicem bibetis, mortem Domini annuntiabitis donec veniat. Propter quod etiam donum istud memoriale abeuntis Domini vocatur: quia in ipso recordatio et repraesentatio Domini habetur: unde, Psal. cxxxvi, 6: Adhaereat lingua faucibus meis, si non meminero tui. Faucibus enim lingua adhaeret, quando quaerit temporales faucium delectationes contemptis spiritualibus. Quando autem habet spirituales delectationes, jam non faucibus adhaeret. Et hoc effectu dicit David, quod si non recordatur in suo memoriali abeuntis Domini, lingua sua faucibus adhaeret: quia recordatione Domini non nisi faucibus retrahitur. Jerem. li, 50: Recordamini procul Domini, et Jerusalem ascendat super cor vestrum.
Chapter III. On the usefulness of this sacramental gift.
This gift is also useful, having every usefulness in itself. For thus, as is said in Hebrews 12:9: Much more shall we obey the Father of spirits. And a little later, verse 10: But this one instructs us unto that which is useful in receiving his sanctification. Of how great usefulness do you think the gift of this sacrament is, which offers in itself every usefulness for body and soul? Isaiah 48:17 says that I am the Lord teaching you useful things and governing you in the way by which you walk. For although he does this in all things, nevertheless he does this chiefly in this sacrament, in which man receives instruction toward all things which are useful to him. For speaking of this, Ecclesiasticus 20:10 says: There is a gift which is not useful, and there is a gift whose repayment is double. For the gift of the world deceives and is not useful. But the gift of Christ, especially that which he gave in the gift of his body, is useful for a double remuneration, because it profits for the restoration of lost spiritual life, and it profits for redemption; and thus this gift is found very useful. Hence concerning the same gift, a little later in the same place, verse 12, it is added: There is one who redeems many things with a small price and restores them sevenfold. But the body of Christ is called a small price, not because it is small, but because it belongs to great humility; truly it redeemed many things, because it redeemed all our things and restored them sevenfold. For from the body of Christ it brings sweetest participation, from the blood sanctification, from the soul truly reconciliation, from the spirit the restoration of spiritual life in us, from divinity the perfection of every virtue, from the sacrament itself the remembrance of Christ, and from the mode of receiving the sacrament it brings the image of eternal beatitude; and thus it restores all things sevenfold.
This, therefore, is the usefulness of that sacrament.
Chapter IV. On the conformity of this gift to the giver.
From this, however, that gift has so great a conformity to the giver that in it the giver himself as a whole is present and is possessed as a whole. Hence in Luke 22:19 he says: Do this in remembrance of me. And the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 11:26: As often as you shall eat this bread and drink the chalice, you shall announce the death of the Lord until he comes. On account of this that gift is also called the memorial of the departing Lord, because in it remembrance and representation of the Lord is had. Hence Psalm 136:6: Let my tongue adhere to my jaws, if I do not remember you. For the tongue adheres to the jaws when it seeks temporal delights of the jaws, with spiritual things despised. But when it has spiritual delights, it no longer adheres to the jaws. And to this effect David says that if he does not remember the departing Lord in his memorial, his tongue adheres to his jaws, because by remembrance of the Lord he is drawn back only from the jaws. Jeremiah 51:50: Remember the Lord from afar, and let Jerusalem rise up over your heart.
Sunt autem tria quorum facit hoc sacramentum recordationem, scilicet dulcissimae charitatis, in qua is qui in sacramento sumitur, animam pro nobis posuit, et se nobis in sacramento exhibuit: amarissimae passionis, quam pro nobis sustinuit: et transitus ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, per quem nobis in caelum ingressum construxit, reconciliationem nostri ad Patrem perfecit.
De prima dicitur, Eccli. xlix, 1: Memoria Josiae in compositionem odoris facta opus pigmentarii. Josias interpretatur in quo est sacrificium et incensum Domini, et signat Christum, qui seipsum obtulit in igne charitatis, totus factus incensum Domini in odorem suavitatis, sicut opus pigmentarii, qui pro nobis pigmenta confecit suavitatis et sanitatis, sicut dicitur, Eccli. xxxviii, 7. Et in hujus rei memoriam devotamus ad aram hoc sacrificium venerandi corporis et pretiosi sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Osee, xiv, 8: Memoriale ejus sicut vinum Libani. Vinum enim illud valde odoriferum, et in omni suavitate flagrans, et dulce ad gustum, et valde rubicundum: quae omnia dilectionem Domini signant omni odore virtutis flagrantem, et dulcissimam omnium cordibus fidelium, et in omni corde laetitiam generantem, et judicio dilectionis maxime in effusione sanguinis nobis demonstratam: quia sicut dicitur, Cantic. viii, 6: Fortis est ut mors dilectio. Et ideo, Eccli. xlix, 2, dicitur: In omni ore quasi mel indulcabitur ejus memoria, et sicut musica in convivio vini. Hoc enim melos musicum est in jubilo cordis, et vinum oris ad reamandum, et inflammans in affectu dilectionis, et stringens nobis dilectum in amplexibus intimae communionis: quorum amplexum duo brachia sunt: quia ex dilectione pro nobis passus est, et ex dilectione se nobis tradidit in sacramento. Unde beatus Bernardus: Supra omnia te mihi reddit amabilem, Domine Jesu, calix quem bibisti, opus redemptionis. Propter quod in recordatione hujus dicit sponsa, Cantic. i, 12: Fasciculus myrrhae dilectus meus mihi, inter ubera mea commorabitur, supple ad recordationem. Et statim, v. 13, subjungitur: Botrus cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi. Quia multiplicitas passionum Christi, et dilectio quae per vinum significatur, Christum nobis reddunt memorabilem ad amandum. Cyprum enim vinum valde est accendens et spiritus multiplicans dulces in amorem. Hic autem maxime deprehenditur in vino vinearum Engaddi, quod oculus solis ab antiquis est vocatum, et fons haedi interpretatur: quia ad litteram illuc sol recto radio respicit, et fontem petulantiae haedi, hoc est, vinum calidum amoris petulantiam perficiens ex loco illo manare facit, et in hac proprietate amoris sui sponsi recordationem facit.
There are three things of which this sacrament makes remembrance, namely the sweetest charity, in which the one who is received in the sacrament laid down his soul for us and offered himself to us in the sacrament; the most bitter passion which he sustained for us; and the passage from this world to the Father, by which he constructed for us an entrance into heaven and perfected our reconciliation to the Father.
Concerning the first it is said in Ecclesiasticus 49:1: The memory of Josiah was made like the composition of odor, the work of a perfumer. Josiah is interpreted in whom there is the sacrifice and incense of the Lord, and signifies Christ, who offered himself in the fire of charity, made wholly the incense of the Lord unto an odor of sweetness, like the work of a perfumer, who for us made pigments of sweetness and health, as is said in Ecclesiasticus 38:7. And in memory of this thing we vow at the altar this sacrifice of the venerable body and precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hosea 14:8: His memorial is like the wine of Lebanon. For that wine is very odoriferous, burning in every suavity, sweet to taste, and very red. All these things signify the love of the Lord, burning with every odor of virtue, and sweetest to the hearts of all the faithful, and generating joy in every heart, and shown to us especially in the judgment of love in the outpouring of blood, because as is said in Canticles 8:6: Love is strong as death. And therefore Ecclesiasticus 49:2 says: In every mouth his memory will be sweetened like honey, and like music at a banquet of wine. For this musical melody is in the jubilation of the heart, and wine of the mouth for loving again, and inflaming in the affection of love, and clasping the beloved for us in the embraces of inward communion. Their embrace has two arms, because from love he suffered for us, and from love he handed himself over to us in the sacrament. Hence blessed Bernard says: Above all things, Lord Jesus, the chalice which you drank, the work of redemption, renders you lovable to me. On account of this, in remembrance of this the bride says in Canticles 1:12: My beloved is a bundle of myrrh to me; he shall dwell between my breasts, supply: for remembrance. And immediately, verse 13, it is added: My beloved is a cluster of Cyprus to me in the vineyards of Engaddi. Because the multiplicity of Christ's passions and the love which is signified by wine render Christ memorable to us for loving. For Cyprus is a wine very much enkindling and multiplying sweet spirits unto love. This is most of all found in the wine of the vineyards of Engaddi, which was called by the ancients the eye of the sun, and is interpreted the fountain of the kid, because literally the sun looks there with a direct ray and makes the fountain of the wantonness of the kid, that is, hot wine of love perfecting wantonness, flow from that place; and in this property of his love it makes remembrance of the bridegroom.
Sic ergo memoriale est dulcissimae charitatis.
2. Est autem etiam memoriale amarissimae passionis, quam pro nobis sustinuit. Propter quod, Exod. xii, 8 et seq., lactucis agrestibus intincta caro, assa igni sumi praecipitur, ut memoria passionis sit ex succo amaro, et memoria charitatis ex igne: nec crudum quid, nec coctum aqua sumitur, sed tantum assum igni. Crudum enim cor est, quod nulla decoctione pietatis et charitatis ab humore concupiscentiae est transmutatum. Elixum autem est aqua, quia aqua fervens concupiscentiae mundanae interius ab omni pietatis amore destituit. Elixa autem, sicut dicit Philosophus in IV Meteororum, intus sicca sunt, humiditate naturali destituta, et exterius humore aquae ferventis infusa. Assa autem igni intus sunt humida et exterius sicca sunt per propriae carnis mortificationem. Hoc est quod dicitur, Thren. i, 19: Recordare paupertatis et transgressionis meae, absynthii et fellis. Paupertatis, inquam, qua omnibus spoliatus nudus sum suspensus: transgressionis, qua in sensu doloris omnes omnium passiones longe excessi. Thren. i, 12: O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus! Absynthii et fellis, quibus commixtis cum aceto et hyssopo interius in gustu sum amaricatus. Et respondet pro omnibus Jeremias, Thren. iii, 20: Memoria memor ero, et tabescet in me anima mea. Isa. xliii, 26: Reduc me in memoriam, et judicemur simul: narra si quid habes ut justificeris. Ac si dicat: Compara passiones tuas in doloribus, et paupertatem et amaritudinem ad meas, et judica me Deum nulli debitorem ad te hominem omnia debentem per compassionem, et tunc narra si quid habes quod comparari possit, et videbis quia nihil habes nisi ut diligas, et gratias agas. Job, ix, 3: Si voluerit contendere cum eo, non poterit ei respondere unum pro mille.
Thus therefore it is a memorial of sweetest charity.
2. It is also a memorial of the most bitter passion which he sustained for us. On account of this, in Exodus 12:8 and following, flesh dipped in wild lettuces and roasted by fire is commanded to be taken, so that the memory of the passion may be from bitter juice, and the memory of charity from fire; neither anything raw nor cooked in water is taken, but only what is roasted by fire. For a raw heart is one which by no cooking of piety and charity has been changed from the moisture of concupiscence. But what is boiled is in water, because the boiling water of worldly concupiscence inwardly deprives one of every love of piety. But boiled things, as the Philosopher says in the fourth book of the Meteorology, are dry within, deprived of natural moisture, and outwardly infused with the moisture of boiling water. But things roasted by fire are moist within and dry outwardly through mortification of one's own flesh. This is what is said in Lamentations 1:19: Remember my poverty and transgression, the wormwood and gall. My poverty, I say, by which, despoiled of all things, I was hung naked; transgression, by which in the sense of pain I far exceeded all the sufferings of all. Lamentations 1:12: O all you who pass by the way, attend and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow! Wormwood and gall, with which, mixed with vinegar and hyssop, I was made bitter inwardly in taste. And Jeremiah responds for all in Lamentations 3:20: Remembering I shall remember, and my soul will waste away within me. Isaiah 43:26: Bring me back into memory, and let us be judged together; tell if you have anything by which you may be justified. As if he were saying: Compare your sufferings in pains, and poverty and bitterness, to mine, and judge me, God debtor to no one, toward you, man, owing all things through compassion, and then tell if you have anything that can be compared, and you will see that you have nothing except to love and give thanks. Job 9:3: If he wishes to contend with him, he will not be able to answer him one for a thousand.
Sic ergo est memoriale passionis.
3. Est etiam memoriale Domini abeuntis, qui dicit, Joan. xiv, 2: Si quo minus dixissem vobis: Quia vado parare vobis locum: et ideo eamdem quam pro nobis obtulit, frequentamus hostiam: quia per ipsius sanguinem introivit Jesus pro nobis in sancta, et cum ipso habemus ingressum. Ad Hebr. ix, 11: Christus assistens pontifex futurorum bonorum. Et post pauca, v. 12: Sed per proprium sanguinem introivit semel in sancta, aeterna redemptione inventa. Ad Roman. v, 2: Per quem, scilicet Christum, et habemus accessum per fidem in gratiam istam in qua stamus, et gloriamur in spe gloriae filiorum Dei. Hoc attendens Paulus, ad Hebr. x, 19 et seq., dicit: Habentes itaque, fratres, fiduciam in introitu sanctorum in sanguine Christi, quam initiavit nobis viam novam et viventem per velamen, id est, carnem suam, et sacerdotem magnum super domum Dei: accedamus cum vero corde in plenitudine fidei, aspersi corda a conscientia mala, et abluti corpus aqua munda: teneamus spei nostrae confessionem indeclinabilem. Hoc est enim quod nulla umquam delere debet oblivio, quod pro nobis abiit, et sanguinem quo introivit ad hoc quod semper introire possimus, nobis frequentandum in devotione reliquit. Psal. cxxxvi, 5: Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem, etc.
Sic igitur primum memoriale attendit ad amorem. Secundum aedificat ad fidei veritatem. Tertium autem mirabiliter elevat ad spei firmitatem. Unde, ad Hebr. vi, 18 et 19: Ut... fortissimum solatium habeamus, qui confugimus ad tenendam propositam spem, quam sicut anchoram habemus animae tutam ac firmam. Sicut enim anchora figitur navis, ita haec spes in nobis fluctuantem tutatur mentem, et exspectatione salutis tenet immobilem. Haec ergo in ipso dono sunt consideranda, etc.
Thus therefore it is a memorial of the passion.
3. It is also a memorial of the departing Lord, who says in John 14:2: If it were otherwise, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. And therefore we frequent the same host which he offered for us, because through his blood Jesus entered the holy places for us, and with him we have entrance. Hebrews 9:11: Christ standing by as pontiff of future goods. And a little later, verse 12: But by his own blood he entered once into the holy places, eternal redemption having been found. Romans 5:2: Through whom, namely Christ, we also have access by faith into that grace in which we stand, and we glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. Attending to this, Paul says in Hebrews 10:19 and following: Therefore having, brothers, confidence in the entrance of the holy places in the blood of Christ, which he initiated for us as a new and living way through the veil, that is, his flesh, and having a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in the fullness of faith, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and the body washed with clean water; let us hold the confession of our hope unwavering. For this is what no forgetfulness ought ever to erase, that he departed for us and left to us, to be frequented in devotion, the blood by which he entered so that we might always be able to enter. Psalm 136:5: If I shall have forgotten you, Jerusalem, and so forth.
Thus therefore the first memorial attends to love. The second builds up toward the truth of faith. The third, however, wonderfully raises up toward firmness of hope. Hence Hebrews 6:18 and 19: That we may have the strongest consolation, we who flee to hold the hope set before us, which we have like a sure and firm anchor of the soul. For just as a ship is fixed by an anchor, so this hope guards the mind wavering within us and holds it immovable in the expectation of salvation. These things, therefore, are to be considered in the gift itself, and so forth.
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