[Sermones de eucharistiae sacramento]

shall live forever from this bread, and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him; and he who eats me shall live because of me. Hilary: By receiving the flesh of our Lord and drinking his blood, it is brought about that we are in him, and he is in us. This is the cause of our life, which we possess in us, who are carnal, through Christ in the flesh, who is the true life remaining. We shall live through him by the same condition through which he himself lives through the Father who is in him. Amen.

¶ Concerning the first cause of the institution, by the theme itself

appropriate to the remembrance of the Lord. ¶ Sermon 2.

Three things must be understood:
First.
Therefore.

Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mixed for you Proverbs 9.

By these words the Lord invites us to a saving banquet in which he has prepared a precious food and drink: his body and his blood. Treat your cause, as in the first sermon: the first cause of the institution of the sacrament of the Lord's body is the remembrance of the Savior, so that just as we retreated from the Lord through the love of iniquity, so we might return through the memorial of piety. Regarding the remembrance of the Savior, three things can be inquired: namely, what evil follows if it is abandoned; of what things the remembrance should be held; and to what end it is useful when held. Firstly, it is asked what evil follows if the remembrance of the Lord is abandoned. It must be said that a threefold evil follows: namely, the loss of divine grace, submission to the power of the devil, and great deformity of guilt. Regarding the first: Deuteronomy 32, "You have forsaken God who begot you," and so on; and he says, "I will hide my face from them," that is, I will withdraw grace. Where the fountain fails, the stream dries up. Psalm 16 Vulgate numbering; Psalm 17 in modern Bibles: "You shall be desolate because you have forgotten God your Savior." Ecclesiasticus 20: "The favor of the foolish shall be poured out." Regarding the second: 1 Kings 12 1 Samuel 12: "They forgot the Lord their God and he delivered them into the hand of Sisara," that is, into the power of the devil. Tobias 6: "Those who enter into marriage in such a way that they exclude God from themselves and their mind, the demons have power over them." Regarding the third: Romans 1: "As they did not approve," that is, they did not want to have God in their knowledge, "he delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient," and alas, this often happens even unto death. Psalm: "God is not in his sight; his ways are defiled at all times." Joel 1: "The beasts have rotted in their dung," that is, in luxury and other vices.

Second.
Therefore.

Secondly, it is asked of what things the remembrance of the Lord should be held, and it must be said: of three. Of the past, of the present, and of the future. Of the past: of our Redeemer, who through excessive charity freed us from evil death by his own death. Of the present: as the inspector of all, he who through his hidden presence always sees all our things. Of the future: as the just judge, who through his omnipotence will strictly judge everything wicked and uncorrected.