Pars 6, Cap. 9
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/5/d/6/q/bon-brev-p6-c9
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### Chapter IX. *On the integrity of the eucharist.*

Concerning the Sacrament of the *eucharist* this must be held: that in this Sacrament the true body of Christ and his true blood are not only signified, but also truly contained under a twofold species, namely of bread and of wine, as under one, not under a twofold Sacrament; and this is after the priestly consecration, which takes place in the utterance of the vocal form instituted by the Lord; over the bread, namely: This is my body; and over the wine: This is the chalice of my blood. When these words have been uttered by a priest with the intention of consecrating, each element is transubstantiated according to its substance into the body and blood of Jesus Christ; the sensible species remaining, in each of which the whole Christ is contained *totally*, not *circumscriptibly*, but *sacramentally*. — In which he is also set before us as food, and whoever receives it worthily — eating not only sacramentally but also spiritually through faith and charity — is the more incorporated into the mystical body of Christ, and in his own self is

refreshed and purged; but he who approaches unworthily *eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning* the most holy *body of Christ*.

Now the reason for the understanding of the aforesaid is this: since our reparative principle, the Word namely incarnate, is both *most sufficient* in power and *most wise* in understanding; therefore he has so bestowed the Sacraments upon us as his *wisdom and sufficiency* require. — And because he is *most sufficient*, therefore, in the bestowing of the medicines of diseases and of the charisms of graces, he instituted not only a Sacrament which should *beget* us into the *being* of grace, as baptism, and should *augment* and strengthen those begotten, as confirmation, but also one which should *nourish* those begotten and augmented, as the Sacrament of the eucharist; on account of which these three Sacraments are given to all who come to the faith. Since therefore our nourishment, as regards gratuitous *being*, is attended to in each of the faithful through the preservation of *devotion* toward God, of *love* toward the neighbour and of *delight* within himself; and *devotion* toward God is exercised through the oblation of the sacrifice, *love* toward the neighbour through the communion of the one Sacrament, and *delight* within himself through the refection of the viaticum: hence it is that our reparative principle gave this Sacrament of the eucharist as a *sacrifice* of oblation and a *Sacrament* of communion and a *viaticum* of refection.

But because our reparative principle is not only most sufficient but also *most wise*, whose part it is to do all things in an ordered way; therefore he so gave and disposed to set forth for us the *sacrifice, the Sacrament* and the *viaticum* as befits *the time of revealed grace, the state of the wayfarer* and *our capacity*. — First then, since *the time of revealed grace* requires that there be no longer offered *an oblation* of just any kind, but one *pure, pleasing* and *plenary*; and no other is such except that which was offered on the cross, namely the body and blood of Christ: hence it is that necessarily it behooves the body of Christ to be contained in this Sacrament not only figuratively but also truly, as the *oblation* due to this time. — Likewise, because it accords with *the time of grace* that the *Sacrament* of communion and of love should not only be signifying communion and love, but also enkindling unto it, so that it may « effect what it figures »; and that which most of all enkindles us to mutual love and most of all unites the members is the unity of the head, from whom, by the diffusive, unitive and transformative power of love, mutual love flows into us: hence it is that in this Sacrament there is contained the true body of Christ and his immaculate flesh, as diffusing itself to us and uniting us to one another and transforming us into itself through that most ardent charity by which he gave himself to us, offered himself for us and restored himself to us and abides with us unto the end of the world. — In this manner also the *refection* befitting *the state of grace* is a *spiritual, common* and *salutary* refection. But the refection of the spirit is the word of life, and through this the spiritual refection which is *spirit in flesh* is the Word incarnate, or the flesh of the Word, which is food *common* and *salutary*, because, although it is one, yet all are saved through it. Since therefore no other food *spiritual, common* and *salvific* can be given except the true body of Christ itself; hence it is that it is necessary that it be truly contained in this Sacrament, this being required by the perfection of the propitiatory *sacrifice*, of the unitive *Sacrament* and of the refective *viaticum*; which ought to be in the time of the new testament and of revealed grace and of the truth of Christ.

Again, because it does not befit *the state of the wayfarer* to see Christ openly, on account of the veil of the enigma and on account of the merit of faith; nor is it fitting to handle the flesh of Christ with the teeth, both on account of the horror of rawness and on account of the immortality of that body: therefore it was necessary that the body and blood of Christ be handed over veiled under most sacred symbols and under congruous and expressive likenesses. And since nothing is more suited to *refection* than the food of bread and the drink of wine; nothing also is more suited to the *signification* of the unity of the body of Christ, the true and the mystical, than bread made of the purest grains and wine pressed out of the cleanest berries gathered into one: therefore under these species rather than under others ought this Sacrament to be set forth. And because Christ had to be under those species not according to a change made in *himself*, but rather in *them*; therefore, at the utterance of the aforesaid twofold word, in which the existence of Christ under those species is intimated, there takes place a conversion of the substance of each into his body and blood, only the accidents remaining, as signs both containing and also expressing that body.

But because the blessed and glorious body of Christ cannot be divided into its parts nor separated from the soul nor from the supreme Divinity; therefore under each species there is one Christ, whole and undivided, namely body and soul and God; and through this in both there is *one* and most simple Sacrament containing the whole Christ. And since any part whatever of the species signifies the body of Christ; hence it is that the whole is so

in the whole species that it is in any part of it whatever, whether it be entire or divided; and through this he is not there as circumscribed, as occupying a place, as having position, as perceptible through any bodily and human sense, but as lying hidden from every sense, that faith may have place and merit. On account of which also, that he may not be detected, those accidents have every operation which they had before, although they are without a subject, so long as they contain the body of Christ within themselves; which indeed is so long as they endure in their natural properties and are fit for feeding.

Lastly, since *our capacity* for receiving Christ efficaciously is not in the flesh but in the spirit, not in the belly but in the mind; and the mind does not attain Christ except through knowledge and love, through faith and charity, so that faith illumines unto recollection, and charity enkindles unto devotion: therefore, for this, that anyone may approach worthily, it is required that he eat *spiritually*, so that thus through the recollection of faith he may chew, and through the devotion of love receive; by which things he does not transform Christ into himself, but he himself is rather translated into Christ's mystical body. — On account of which it is manifestly gathered that whoever approaches tepidly, undevoutly and inconsiderately *eats and drinks judgment to himself*, because he does an outrage to so great a Sacrament. And therefore the counsel is given to those who feel themselves less clean in mind, or in flesh, or even undevout, that they defer, until, prepared for the eating of the true Lamb of the world, they approach devout and circumspect.

On account of which also this Sacrament is commanded to be celebrated with a special solemnity as much as regards *place* as also as regards *time* and as regards *words* and *prayers* and as regards *vestments* in the celebration of Masses; that both the priests themselves who consecrate and also those who receive may take the gift of grace, through which they may be purged, illumined, perfected, refreshed, vivified, and through excessive love most ardently transferred into Christ himself.

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