Tractate III, Chapter VIII

CHAPTER VIII.

On the third communion.

1. Communicating, etc. Here the third communion is touched. And three things are said in it: namely the mode of communion, and those to whom the communion itself is directed, and how this communion descends from the blessed into the militant Church.

Therefore it is said: Communicating. This communion is more hidden than the two preceding ones; and therefore in the expression there is first set forth how we communicate with the saints in the homeland in the sacrament of the altar, because what they receive in the truth of the thing, we frequent in sacramental species. For communion is the perception of one and the same thing, in which those who communicate are united, although they participate in that one thing in diverse ways. For thus in the Symbol we say: I believe in the communion of saints. Hebrews 13:16: Do not forget beneficence and communion; for with such victims God is won over. Acts 2:42, concerning the faith of converts, says: They were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread and prayers.

For this communion is not of earth only, but in it we also communicate with heaven; and therefore we add: And venerating the memory. For the memory of the saints is to be venerated, from whom, while they lived, we received this communion, and by whose patronages we stand in it. For this is not new, because, Exodus 32:13, Moses also alleged the memory of the fathers before God, so that he might turn away his wrath, saying: Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. And after a few words there follows, verse 14: And the Lord was appeased, so that he did not do the evil which he had spoken against his people. Similarly, 3 Kings 11:12 and 13, thus the Lord was speaking to Solomon: I will not do it in thy days, for David thy father's sake; from the hand of thy son I will tear it away, namely thy kingdom. Nor will I take away thy whole kingdom, but I will give one tribe to thy son, for the sake of David my servant and Jerusalem which I have chosen. Therefore relying on this authority, the Church places martyrs and Apostles most dear to God in the supplication of holy communion. For the Apostle says, Romans 9:8: Those who are sons of the promise are accounted in the seed.

2. In the first place, she who deservedly is always placed first, because she is designated by the second propitiatory, Exodus 27:34, in which God appeared bodily so that he might be propitiated, and toward which all Angels look with faces turned, so that from her they may receive illumination of splendor, which has two excellences. The first of these he touches, saying: Of the glorious ever-virgin Mary. But she is glorious because she was so virgin in her whole mind and body that she alone was unlibated by every concupiscence; and concerning her it is said, Tobit 3:16 and 17: Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never desired a man, and I have kept my soul clean from every concupiscence. I never mixed myself with those who play, nor with those who walk in levity did I offer myself as a sharer. Again she is rightly glorious because she first vowed celibacy to God, bringing the cleanness of Angels to earthly persons, and acting manfully the victory of flesh and blood, triumphing over the first enemy of chastity.

And concerning the first it is said, Song of Songs 2:5: Support me with flowers, surround me with apples, because I languish with love. For she languished so greatly with desire for the heavenly spouse in tenderness of love that she could be consoled by no carnal love, but, supported by the flowers of heavenly cleanness, she gave virgins the way and example in celibacy, and was surrounded by the fragrant apples of the cleanness of paradise. Emulous of the angelic integrity of the first incorruption, in which virgins were made by God, she disdained marriages and allurements of carnal commerce, whom afterward many choirs of virgins followed. And another translation of the Septuagint hints this in the same place thus: I saw the bride like a dove ascending above the streams of waters, whose inestimable odor was exceedingly in her garments, and as the days of spring flowers of roses and lilies of the valleys surrounded her. For she was beautiful in virginity, a dove adorned with simplicity. Concerning her as concerning Judith 10:4 it is said: Every composition depended not on lust but on virtue. She ascended above streams of waters to the disdain of virginity, trampling the flow of concupiscence and reaching by every virtue; in the garment of her way of life the inestimable odor of the fruits of paradise was fragrant, because she meditated on and showed nothing except divine and angelic integrity. Flowers of roses surround her in the redness of martyrs who, in imitation of her, wished to suffer all things rather than lose virginity; around her are lilies of the valleys, those conserving the lily of virginity in humility without the sword of a persecutor. She triumphs over the enemy of chastity in herself and in her own, because in her is verified what the Lord foretold in honor of his mother: She shall crush thy head ¹. For she was safe from the bending of the tail and the harm of the twisted and levered body, who immediately in the beginning, before every wound of lust, crushed and excluded the head of the dragon.

Again she was a glorious virgin, who alone was prepared clean enough for the Son of God; for it was fitting that she shine with that purity than which under God none greater could exist, she into whom the whole divinity poured itself. Wisdom 7:25: Therefore she reaches from end to end, namely everywhere because of her cleanness; and therefore nothing stained runs into her ². Therefore it is said, Isaiah 7:14: Behold a virgin, or alma kept from every stain, shall conceive and bear a son ³. She is ever virgin before birth, in birth, and after birth, as is said, Ezekiel 44:2: This gate which thou hast seen shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and a man shall not pass through it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered through it.

Mother of God, etc. And therefore according to the council she must be called Θεοτόκος and not Χριστοτόκος: for her son is therefore called Emmanuel, because he is true God and true man, and she is mother of the person of the Son, who in two natures is true God, Son of the eternal Father, whom, just as the Father begot according to divinity without corruption from eternity, so the virgin mother begot the same true God according to humanity in time without any diminution of virginity. For this reason the mother's generation is a unique and special example of the eternal Father's generation. For this reason Isaiah cries, 66:7 and 8: Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her birth-pangs came, she brought forth a male. Who has ever heard such a thing? and who has seen anything like this? For the time in which other women give birth is that after corruption the conceived seed is formed, and after the weight and anguish of the womb they give birth to a son wrapped in the misery of the mother with great pains. For this reason therefore it is said: Mother of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, of the mediator of God and human beings in grace, and of us by conformity of nature; and concerning these things enough has now often been said.

3. Hence it is said: But also of the blessed Apostles, because they were the founders and preachers of our faith, as is said in Psalm 86:1: Its foundations are in the holy mountains, in those mountains from which help will come to me ⁴. Apocalypse 21:14: And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. These are the twelve chosen stones from the midst of the Jordan, on account of the solidity of their faith ⁵. These are the twelve oxen beneath the bronze sea, on account of their labor in the spiritual harvests prefigured under the figure of oxen ⁶. These are the twelve fountains found in Elim ⁷, called fountains on account of the most true flow of their doctrine. These are the twelve gates of the city ⁸. They are called gates because through them there is entrance into the Church. The Lord chose them and said to them: I chose you that you may go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit may remain ⁹. These are our princes in this communion, deservedly to be placed before all others with Abraham toward God.

And of thy martyrs, who were witnesses of our faith, because martyr in Greek is witness in Latin. Concerning these it is said, Hebrews 2:3 and 4: Which salvation, namely, when it had begun to be narrated by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by those who heard, God bearing witness by signs and wonders and various powers and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his will. But Patriarchs and Prophets are not placed here, because they descended to limbo, awaiting there with happy hope the consolation of redemption. Nor are Confessors placed here, because the Church is not so certain concerning their merit; and therefore Leander in the order of his Canon which he left to the Church of Seville makes offering for Confessors, and not in veneration of the memory of Confessors.

Of Peter, who was the highest and head of the Apostles, to whom were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, who was the confirmer of the others after he rose again from the threefold denial with respect to the Lord; of whom Christ said, Luke 22:32: Thou, once converted, confirm thy brothers; whose successor still has to confirm the whole Church, and therefore Peter was named from rock, because in the Syrian tongue petros is interpreted rock.

And of Paul, who was chosen not by men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and was added by merit to the rank of the Apostles, so that he might be a vessel of election to bear the name of the Lord before nations and kings and sons of Israel ¹⁰. He is caught up into the third heaven and into paradise, so that he might hear secret words which it is not permitted for human beings to speak ¹¹. Yet he speaks those things which belong to wisdom among the wise and perfect, and after so great a height of contemplation he arranged the bed of those joined in marriage. He glories in tribulations ¹². He is not ignorant of the thoughts of Satan ¹³. He labored more abundantly than all. He attributes all things to grace ¹⁴. And finally for the faith he triumphs by the sword, after death bearing witness to the faith, as is read in the history of his passion.

Of Andrew, who, coming to Christ by the voice of John, led his brother Peter to him.

Of James the Greater, who held primacy among the Apostles in this respect, that he was the first among them crowned with martyrdom, as is said in Acts 12:2 concerning Herod: But he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

Of John, who was the beloved disciple of the Lord, who was present at the transfiguration, who at supper reclining above the breast of the Lord, as Bede says, drank the streams of the Gospel from the sacred fountain of the Lord's breast itself, and therefore wrote more loftily than the others concerning the deity of the Word; to him, a virgin, Christ the virgin commended the Virgin Mother on the cross.

Of Thomas, who by the touch of Christ after the resurrection was so strengthened in the faith of Christ that he in no way doubted further.

Of James the Lesser, who was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, so similar to Christ in the configuration of the body and imitation of religion that he deserved to be called brother of the Lord by the Apostles.

Of Philip, who was instructed concerning the divinity of the Father and the Son, and deserved to hear instruction concerning that bread with which Christ wished to feed the crowds ¹⁵.

Of Bartholomew, who alone among the Apostles is said to have been both noble and a philosopher, whence he also wrote a Gospel, concerning which Dionysius remembers, saying that in the proem of his Gospel he said: The Gospel is brief and long.

Of Matthew, who from being a tax collector was made both Apostle and Evangelist for the hope of penitent sinners, and distributor of spiritual talents, and preparer of God's banquets ¹⁶.

Of Simon, who was brother of James the Lesser, who is called Cananaean from the zeal which he had for the Christian religion.

And of Thaddaeus, who, Judas Thaddaeus, was called little-heart by the Apostles because of diligent guarding of the heart. But he was the third brother of James, the brother of the Lord, and of Simon the Cananaean. The Lord chose these twelve, eleven on earth and the twelfth, Paul, from heaven.

4. To these he also joins certain martyrs concerning whose faith and cause of martyrdom there existed undoubted certitude. But the Church does not place many here, because in ecclesiastical history it is read that heretics sometimes suffered with martyrs, since at that time the Church could not have synods and visitations and examinations because of the persecutions of tyrants. But at the beginning she places distinguished martyrs whom the Roman Church had and has in her bosom, saying: Of Linus, who was Pope, triumphing for Christ through very many kinds of torments. Of Cletus, who also was Pope, with many sufferings and very clear signs. Of Clement, who also was Pope, disciple and attendant of Peter, writing in twelve books all the acts of Peter. Of Sixtus, Pope and martyr, who ordained that in the very solemnities of Masses the Sanctus and Agnus Dei be sung. Of Cornelius, whose martyrdom was undoubted among the holy Fathers Augustine and Ambrose. Of Cyprian, whose faith was so great that, when his condemnation had been read by the notary in the Roman consistory, he publicly cried, Thanks be to God, in whose heart the figure of the cross is said to have been depicted in the appearance of gold as testimony of faith. Of Lawrence, who, existing as Archdeacon of the Roman Church, sustained the pyre with certain and undoubted faith, so that he was roasted alive in the presence of the emperor Decius. He also scattered and gave with a large hand the resources of the Church to the poor; therefore his justice remains forever and ever. Of Chrysogonus, whose faith was wondrous, so that rejoicing willingly he underwent the punishments of death. Of John and Paul, who were chief officers of the imperial court, and proved by great signs and public confession against Julian the Apostate that they were glorious martyrs. Of Cosmas and Damian, both of whom were physicians who gave medicine freely, curing human beings more by the power of the cross and faith than by herbs or poultice.

And of all thy saints, in common, whose names are known to God.

By whose merits and prayers thou wouldest grant: because the merits of their supererogation can also aid others. But prayers always give suffrage; for this can be said concerning them which is read concerning Jeremiah, 2 Maccabees 15:14: This is the lover of the brothers and of the people of Israel; this is he who prays much for the people and the whole holy city, Jeremiah, prophet of God.

That in all things, to be understood, believed, done, and desired, we may be fortified, O Lord, by the aid of thy protection or defense against all plots of visible and invisible enemies. For having thy aid and the aid of thy saints, we shall stand secure, saying: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth ¹⁷.

Therefore this is the third communion, by which the Church communicates with heaven.