[Sermones de eucharistiae sacramento]

Third cause of institution

First, Jeremias 6: "Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, your victims have not pleased me" Jeremias 6. Osee 6; Matthew 9: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Of the second, Psalm: "Burnt offering and for sin you did not ask." Romans 3: "By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before God." Hebrews 10: "It is impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sins." Of the third, Ezechiel 20: "I gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments in which they shall not live." Statutes not good, that is, less good in respect to sacrifices and ceremonials, in which they shall not live, because they did not confer the life of grace. Hebrews 7: "A rejection indeed is made of the preceding commandment because of its weakness and uselessness," namely because of its barrenness, because it did not confer grace. The third cause of the institution of this sacrament is the food of man, a food which is medicinal against the corruption of the deadly fruit, which cause of the wicked island is by the first parents to the human race, that it might be incurable unless the best medicine, which the prudence of God could make, should come to its aid. Ecclesiasticus 38: "The Most High has created medicine from the earth," that is, from the flesh of the Virgin, "and a wise man will not abhor it." Ambrose: The body of Christ is a spiritual medicine which, tasted with reverence, purifies those devoted to it. To recognize the reason for the necessity of the medicine of the body of Christ, it must be known that the wicked serpent poured into man, through the poison of the forbidden food, a threefold corruption, namely: into the soul, the darkness of ignorance; into the flesh, the disease of wicked concupiscence and death. And everywhere against this the body of Christ is instituted as a remedy, illuminating the darkness of ignorance, healing the disease of concupiscence, and mortifying our death. On account of this, it can be compared to a threefold sweet and medicinal food, namely to honey on account of the first, to a fig on account of the second, and to the fruit of life on account of the third. Of this, Proverbs 24: "Eat, my son, honey, for it is good." Honey signifies the sweet body of Christ. This is good because it illuminates the darkness of our mind. 1 Kings 14: "You have seen that my eyes are illuminated because I tasted a little of this honey." Psalm: "Butter and honey everyone shall eat who shall be left, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good." Psalm: "The Lord is my illumination and my salvation." Item, "Come to him and be illuminated." Of the second, Jeremias 24: "I see very good figs," fig mentioned twice, signify the sweet body of Christ, God and man. These are twice very good because they heal the mind and flesh from the disease of wicked concupiscence. 4 Kings 20; Isaias: "He ordered a mass of figs to be brought, which when he had placed it upon the ulcer of the king, he was healed." The ulcer of the king is carnal concupiscence. The mass of figs is the body of Christ, containing the sweetness of many goods for the medicine of evil desires. Of the third, Luke 1: "Blessed is the fruit of your womb," namely the body of Christ, which is the fruit of life, valid for the destruction of the death of hell and the acquisition of eternal life. Proverbs 3: "It is a tree of life to those who lay hold on it," namely the incarnate wisdom of God. Hence it is said, Osee 13: "O death, I will be your death." John 6: "I am the living bread who came down from heaven; if anyone shall eat..."