Dissertation on the Most August Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood

Book I. On the Venerable Sacrament

...Augustine, and by offering it to His disciples; then also as a memorial of the extraordinary virtues which He practiced throughout His entire life: humility, obedience, kindness, gentleness, and patience. To these things, it is a testimony and, as it were, a pledge of the love of Christ toward His bride, the Church, which He acquired with His own blood. Just as that love is immense and the power of Christ is infinite, so too this pledge had to be wonderful beyond measure. It is not, therefore, some "naked symbol," as the adversaries The author refers to Protestant reformers who viewed the Eucharist as a symbolic memorial rather than the literal body and blood of Christ. would have it. Otherwise, it would have been of much lower dignity than the Paschal lamb or the manna, which were similarly memorials of the wonders that happened to the Hebrews during their exodus from Egypt. Furthermore, it is a sign and the sum of the three greatest benefits that God ever has or will show to men: namely, the redemption which has been accomplished, the sanctification which is even now being worked within us, and the glorification which we expect in the future. For the sharing of this most august Sacrament signifies all these things—and all others connected to them—in a singular way, and it provides them to us insofar as we are capable of receiving them, according to that prayer of the Church:

O sacred banquet in which Christ is received, the memory of His passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us! original: "O Sacrum convivium in quo Christus sumitur..." This is a famous liturgical antiphon often attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas.

But most especially, by Christ's institution, it is a memorial of the passion and death of the Lord, according to that word of the Apostle:

8. Especially indeed the passion and death.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you shall proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes. 1 Corinthians 11, v. 26.

Christ commands His death to be proclaimed above His other wondrous deeds because by His death He completed His Testament and His last will—namely, our redemption and His infinite love toward us, by which He was moved to suffer such things for our sake. Moreover, we proclaim the death of the Lord both in words and, most importantly, in our deeds and affairs: specifically, when we die to sin and live for Christ, as Saint Basil well says in his Shorter Rules, rule 234.

Sign...?

Sacrifice...?

Finally, the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Christian religion, whatever the adversaries may say to the contrary. And because this sacrifice is the fulfillment consummativum|Bringing to completion or perfection. of the ancient figures In theology, "figures" or "types" are Old Testament events or objects (like the Paschal Lamb) that foreshadow New Testament realities.; and therefore more excellent than all the sacrifices of the Hebrews, it could not and should not consist of bread and wine alone, as the Sacramentarians A term used for those who denied the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, such as Huldrych Zwingli. claim. For these things are far inferior to calves and rams. Rather, it was necessary for the true body of Christ itself to be contained in this sacrifice, so that in this way the truth might correspond to the image, the original to the figure, and the body to the shadow as perfectly as possible. Furthermore, this sacrament and sacrifice shall endure until the coming of the Antichrist, who will attempt to take it away, as was fore-