Dist. 10, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 1
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/4/d/10/q/bon-sent-IV-d10-p1-a1-q1
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### Article Unique. *On the truth and mode of the presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the altar.*
### Question I. *Whether Christ is in the Sacrament of the altar according to truth.*

That he is on the altar according to truth seems to be the case:

1. *Because* the Lord said: *This is my body*: therefore, since he could not lie, what he indicated was his body; and he gave that rite according to which he himself consecrated: therefore, since it is now consecrated according to that rite, the true body of Christ is on the altar. If you say that this is not to be understood by *identity*, but by *signification*, like that text: *The Rock was Christ*; then accordingly, by *signification*, the same could likewise be said of the manna, the paschal lamb, and the sacrifice of Melchizedek: then therefore there will be no difference between the Sacrament of the new law and that of the old.

2. Likewise, in the first to the Corinthians, the tenth: *The bread which we break, is it not the participation of the body of the Lord?* therefore etc. *If you say* that this too is said by signification: *on the contrary*: the Apostle afterwards adds in the eleventh chapter: *Therefore whoever eats and drinks unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.* But if this were true because it is a *sign*; then likewise, since this word *Christ* is a *sign*, whoever should utter it in sin would be guilty of the body and blood; which is false.

3. Likewise, in the last [chapter] of Matthew: *Behold, I am with you until the consummation of the age.* It is established that he does not say this with respect to the Apostles, since they died beforehand: therefore with respect to believers; but not with respect to the effect of divinity and grace — since according to divinity he is with all men, and according to grace he is not always with all the faithful — therefore he understands it according to his humanity. But this not visibly, but under the Sacrament: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, it seems so by reason: because the flesh of Christ is truly food; but food which is not set forth for feeding is in vain: therefore if the flesh of Christ is not in vain, it is set forth for feeding. But not in itself nor visibly, lest it generate horror: therefore the true flesh of Christ is under the Sacrament.

5. Likewise, Christ for our salvation set forth his true flesh to suffer, while we were still unjust: therefore if he ought to love the just much more, he will then set forth his true flesh for refreshing, not merely signs: therefore etc.

6. Likewise, «*art and power are concerned with the difficult*», and the more difficult it is to believe, the more meritorious: but that Christ should be in the Sacrament only as in a sign has no difficulty; whereas that he should be in the Sacrament truly, as in heaven, has the greatest difficulty: therefore to believe this is most meritorious. Therefore if he ought to do what would be more meritorious; it is clear etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. It is shown that he is not there according to truth, first by *impossibility*: because the body of Christ was not before on the altar, and now is: therefore it has been changed by some kind of motion; but not by local motion, since then it would depart from heaven: therefore by some other kind of change. But the other species of motion fall only about what is changeable and alterable; but it is impossible for the glorified body of Christ to be varied: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, nothing is nor can be outside the boundary of its own substance; but the body of Christ existing in heaven has there the boundary of its substance: therefore it is impossible for it to be anywhere but in heaven: therefore it is impossible for it to be according to truth in this Sacrament: therefore if it is there, it is only as in a sign.

3. Likewise, this same thing is shown on account of *congruity*: because the Sacraments were instituted on account of humiliation, that man might seek and find salvation in lower things: therefore since the true body of Christ is not lower, it is not congruous to the Sacrament.

4. Likewise, all the Sacraments are for the honoring and reverence of God; but if the true body of Christ were there; since reverence is to withdraw from the place in which it is, as was said to Moses, in the third [chapter] of Exodus: *Loose your sandal* etc., no one ought to approach this Sacrament. If therefore it was instituted that man should approach, with reverence preserved; the true body is not there.

5. Likewise, this same thing is shown also on account of *uselessness*: because in the sixth [chapter] of John it is said: *The flesh profits nothing*: therefore the flesh according to its truth does not refresh: therefore if there ought not to be in this Sacrament anything that does not profit, then Christ is not there according to the flesh.

6. Likewise, the grace which is given in this Sacrament is from God; but God-Christ works equally well where he is not according to bodily presence, as where he is, — as is clear in the case of the ruler's son, whence the ruler is reproached because he sought a bodily presence — therefore there would be no usefulness there.

> **Conclusion.** That Christ is in the Sacrament of the altar according to truth, both the piety of faith teaches and the dignity of the Sacrament requires.

**I respond:** As the Master touches upon, the opinion of certain men was — and a most wicked error — that Christ was not on the altar except only as in a sign; and he is said to be eaten because his sign is received and eaten. And they wish to support this by a likeness in other things, since in the water of baptism grace is not present as contained, but only as in a sign. And to this indeed they seem to be moved by piety, as if no one were worthy to touch, much less to eat, the true flesh of God. — But this is a most wicked error and against the *piety of faith*, which acknowledges so great a benefit given to it by God and gives thanks, that he is with us in his own flesh and proper nature. — It is also against the *dignity of the Sacrament* and its excellence, in which the divine *power*, *wisdom*, and *goodness* shine forth more loftily than in the other Sacraments; whence it surpasses the other Sacraments and is, as it were, the consummation of all the others, as charity is of all the virtues.

First, therefore, here is manifested the *power* of God in the singularity of the work. For when the bread is converted into the true and whole body of Christ on many altars, with nothing common remaining, and this happens suddenly: God shows himself to be able beyond all operative power in the conversion, beyond the *imaginative* [power] in this, that the same thing is in several places, beyond the *intellective* [power] in this, that he makes so great and whole a thing to exist uncontracted in so small a species.

1. From this is clear the response to the objection raised concerning *impossibility*. — For it must be said that, although nature cannot do this nor reason understand it, yet God can convert many things into the body of Christ; and from this the body of Christ is in many places, not by a change which occurs in Christ, but in the bread, which is converted into him.

2. The other [objection] is likewise clear. For although the body of Christ has its boundary in heaven with respect to natural existence, yet it does not have it with respect to the power of conversion, according to which the body can be converted into him elsewhere: and therefore by that supernatural power it comes to be elsewhere, by which another thing is converted into him; and this will be made clearer in the third problem.

But *wisdom* shines forth in the congruity. For Christ our Lord had acquired a sufficiently great people for the Lord, by uniting them in his mystical body. But in this body, which is the Church, there are *many* and diverse, there are *wayfarers* and the infirm, there are also those *surrounded by daily sins*. Because they are *many* in one body, they need *connection*; because they are *wayfarers*, they need *refreshment*; because they are entangled in *daily sins*, they need *oblation*; and these things were to be done not only *interiorly* through the grace of the virtues, but *exteriorly* through the grace of the Sacraments. — It was therefore congruous that they should have one *exterior connecting [thing]*, just as they had one *interior [thing]*; but that one thing had to be where the members were, and so, since the members are in many places, it had to be such as was congruous to be in many places. But this is none other than God, or what is united to the Divinity; but God is interior, and the body of Christ is united to the Divinity: therefore the body of Christ had to be given in an exterior Sacrament, which is one, in which all the faithful are united in eating one and the same food. — It was also congruous that they should have an *exterior refreshing [thing]* in the Sacrament; but what refreshes the soul is none other than God, or what is united to God; and this is the true body of Christ: and so it was congruous that the true body of Christ should be in this Sacrament. — It was also congruous that they should have an *exterior oblation*; but the Lord, by offering himself in a single oblation, had emptied out all other oblations: therefore if he ought not to restore what he had destroyed, he had to give us that same thing which he offered, and not another. Therefore just as the true body of Christ was offered on the cross, so it is sacrificed on the altar.

3. And from this is clear that the objection from *congruity* does not hold. — As to what it objects, that man is not humbled in this Sacrament; it must be said that, on the contrary, [he is], because in the exterior visible sign there is humiliation. Moreover, in this above all things the intellect of man is humbled and made captive, because it is compelled to believe what it can in no way comprehend. Besides this, in this Sacrament there is also an example of all humility, since the Lord of majesty is still clothed in so small and poor a cloak, as an example of humility and poverty.

4. To the objection concerning reverence, it must be said that reverence is shown to God not only by withdrawing, but also by humbly approaching him, especially when he himself calls, since, if a man did not go when called, it would not be reverence, but folly.

There appears also, thirdly, the divine *goodness* in usefulness. For from this, that Christ is there bodily present, the merit of faith is increased, while it believes what it in no way knows by reason. The devotion of charity is also kindled, when it senses the Lord present to it in the flesh; for just as at the presence of fire cold is driven out, so at the presence of the flesh of Christ lukewarmness is driven out. Whence Damascene says that «the flesh of Christ is as a burning coal». Likewise, the confidence of hope is raised up; for while one offers to the Father that very same one who was offered on the cross; who is there who would not trust to be heard?

5. By this is also clear what it objects concerning *uselessness*, namely that what the Lord says: *The flesh profits nothing*, he understands: *to one understanding carnally*. But he understands carnally, not who understands the flesh to be present, but who understands that Christ is eaten in the way the flesh of any animal is eaten in pieces. But nevertheless it greatly profits the one truly receiving it under the Sacrament.

6. The other [objection] is likewise clear, since the presence of the body does not increase the power of God; but it is congruous that the Lord from his bodily presence should bestow some more special gift; and although it is of no avail to the one who believes that he cannot work except where he is bodily; yet to the believer it is of great avail, just as the presence of his body availed much to Zacchaeus.