Section 9. This confirmed from Cyril, and by a familiar example. How the flesh of Christ gives life, and what the nature of our communion with Christ.
The flesh of Christ, however, has not
such power in itself as to make us live, seeing that by its own
Q9 first condition
it was subject to mortality, and even now, when endued with immortality, lives
not by itself. Still it is properly said to be life-giving, as it is pervaded
with the fullness of life for the purpose of transmitting it to us. In this sense
I understand our Savior's words as Cyril interprets them, “As the Father hath
life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself”
(John
5:26). For there properly he is speaking not of the properties which he
possessed with the Father from the beginning, but of those with which he was
invested in the flesh in which he appeared. Accordingly, he shows that in his
humanity also fullness of life resides, so that every one who communicates in his
flesh and blood, at the same time enjoys the participation of life. The nature
of this may be explained by a familiar example. As water is at one time drunk
out of the fountain, at another drawn, at another led away by conduits to
irrigate the fields, and yet does not flow forth of itself for all these uses,
but is taken from its source, which, with perennial flow, ever and anon sends
forth a new and sufficient supply; so the flesh of Christ is like a rich and
inexhaustible fountain, which transfuses into us the life flowing forth from the
Godhead into itself. Now, who sees not that the communion of the flesh and blood
of Christ is necessary to all who aspire to the heavenly life? Hence those
passages of the apostle: The Church is the “body” of Christ; his “fullness.” He
is “the head,” “from Q9 whence the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted
by that which every joint supplies,” “maketh increase of the body”
(Eph.
1:23;
Eph 4:15-16). Our bodies are the “members of Christ”
(1
Cor. 6:15). We perceive that all these things cannot possibly take place
unless he adheres to us wholly in body and spirit. But the very close connection
which unites us to his flesh, he illustrated with still more splendid epithets,
when he said that we “are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones”
(Eph.
5:30). At length, to testify that the matter is too high for utterance, he
concludes with exclaiming, “This is a great mystery”
(Eph.
5:32). It were, therefore, extreme infatuation not to acknowledge the
communion of believers with the body and blood of the Lord, a communion
which
the apostle declares to be so great, that he chooses rather to marvel at it than
to explain it.
(Q9 For a visionary perspective and explanation of the cementing Love of God that unites us as members in the Body of Jesus Christ, please got to: 1. Protestant Communion Dream 2. Roman Catholic Communion Dream)
Click
10.
for the next Section: No distance of place can impede it.
In
the Supper it is not presented as an empty symbol, but, as the apostle
testifies,
we receive the reality. Objection, that the expression is figurative.
Answer. A sure rule with regard to the sacraments.
Communion