Part 8 (1/2)

(I) WHAT IT IS.

It is the supernatural conjunction of matter and spirit, of Bread and Wine and of the Holy Ghost. Here, as in Baptism, the ”inward and spiritual” expresses itself through the ”outward and visible”. Both must be there. And, notice again. This conjunction is not a _physical_ conjunction, according to physical laws; nor is it a spiritual conjunction, according to spiritual laws; it is a Sacramental conjunction, according to Sacramental laws. As in Baptism, so in the Blessed Sacrament: the ”outward and visible” is, and remains, subject to natural laws, and the inward and spiritual to spiritual laws; but the Sacrament itself is under neither natural nor spiritual but Sacramental laws.

For a perfect Sacrament requires both matter and spirit.[4] If either is absent, the Sacrament is incomplete.

Thus, the Council of Trent's definition of {84} _Transubstantiation_[5]

seems, as it stands, to spoil the very nature of a Sacrament. It is the ”change of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, of the whole substance of the wine into the blood of Christ, _only the appearance_ of bread and wine remaining”.

Again, the Lutheran doctrine of Consubstantiation destroys the nature of the Sacrament. The Lutheran _Formula Concordiae_, e.g., teaches that ”_outside the use the Body of Christ is not present_”. Thus it limits the Presence to the reception, whether by good or bad.

The _Figurative_ view of the Blessed Sacrament {85} destroys the nature of a Sacrament, making the matter symbolize something which is not there.

It is safer to take the words of consecration as they stand, corresponding as they do so literally with the words of Inst.i.tution, and simply to say: ”This (bread: it is still bread) is My Body” (it is far more than bread); ”this (wine: it is still wine) is My Blood” (it is far more than wine). Can we get beyond this, in terms and definitions? Can we say more than that it is a ”Sacrament”--The Blessed Sacrament? And after all, do we wish to do so?

(II) WHAT IT DOES.

Briefly, the Blessed Sacrament does two things; It pleads, and It feeds. It is the pleading _of_ the one Sacrifice; It is the feeding _on_ the one Sacrifice.

These two aspects of the one Sacrament are suggested in the two names, _Altar_ and _Table_.[6] Both words are liturgical. In Western Liturgies, _Altar_ is the rule, and _Table_ the exception; in Eastern Liturgies, _Table_ is the rule, and _Altar_ {86} the exception. Both are, perhaps, embodied in the old name, _G.o.d's Board_, of Thomas Aquinas. Both contain a truth.

_The Altar_.

This, for over 300 years, was the common name for what St. Irenaeus calls ”the Abode of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ”. Convocation, in 1640, decreed: ”It is, and may be called, an Altar in that sense in which the Primitive Church called it an Altar, and in no other”. This sense referred to the offering of what the Liturgy of St. James calls ”the tremendous and unb.l.o.o.d.y Sacrifice,” the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom ”the reasonable and unb.l.o.o.d.y Sacrifice,”[7] and the Ancient English Liturgy ”a pure offering, an holy offering, an undefiled offering, even the holy Bread of eternal Life, and the Cup of everlasting Salvation ”.

The word Altar, then, tells of the pleading of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the words of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to Leo XIII: ”We plead and represent before the Father the Sacrifice of the Cross”; or in the words of Charles Wesley: ”To G.o.d it is an {87} Altar whereon men mystically present unto Him the same Sacrifice, as still suing for mercy”; or, in the words of Isaac Barrow: ”Our Lord hath offered a well-pleasing Sacrifice for our sins, and doth, at G.o.d's right hand, continually renew it by presenting it unto G.o.d, and interceding with Him for the effect thereof”.

The Sacrifice does not, of course, consist in the re-slaying of the Lamb, but in the offering of the Lamb as it had been slain. It is not the repet.i.tion of the Atonement, but the representation of the Atonement.[8] We offer on the earthly Altar the same Sacrifice that is being perpetually offered on the Heavenly Altar. There is only one Altar, only one Sacrifice, one Eucharist--”one offering, single and complete”. All the combined earthly Altars are but one Altar--the earthly or visible part of the Heavenly Altar on which He, both Priest and Victim, offers Himself as the Lamb ”as it had been slain”. The Heavenly Altar is, as it were, the centre, and all the earthly Altars the circ.u.mference. We gaze at the Heavenly Altar through the Earthly Altars. We plead what He pleads; we offer what He offers.

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Thus the Church, with exultation, Till her Lord returns again, Shows His Death; His mediation Validates her wors.h.i.+p then, Pleading the Divine Oblation Offered on the Cross for men.

And we must remember that in this offering the whole Three Persons in the Blessed Trinity are at work. We must not in our wors.h.i.+p so concentrate our attention upon the Second Person, as to exclude the other Persons from our thoughts. Indeed, if one Person is more prominent than another, it is G.o.d the Father. It is to G.o.d the Father that the Sacrifice ascends; it is with Him that we plead on earth that which G.o.d the Son is pleading in Heaven; it is G.o.d the Holy Ghost Who makes our pleadings possible, Who turns the many Jewish Altars into the one Christian Altar. The _Gloria in Excelsis_ bids us render wors.h.i.+p to all three Persons engaged in this single act.

_The Table_.

The second aspect under consideration is suggested by the word _Table_--the ”Holy Table,” as St. Gregory n.a.z.ianzen and St. Athanasius call it; ”the tremendous Table,” or the ”Mystic {89} Table,” as St.

Chrysostom calls it; ”the Lord's Table,” or ”this Thy Table,” as, following the Easterns, our Prayer Book calls it.

This term emphasizes the Feast-aspect, as ”Altar” underlines the Sacrificial aspect, of the Sacrament. In the ”Lord's Supper” we feast upon the Sacrifice which has already been offered upon the Altar.

”This Thy Table,” tells of the Banquet of the Lamb. As St. Thomas puts it:--

He gave Himself in either kind, His precious Flesh, His precious Blood: In Love's own fullness thus designed Of the whole man to be the Food.