Dist. 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/4/d/9/q/bon-sent-IV-d9-littera
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DISTINCTION IX.

### Chap. I. *On the two modes of eating.*

And just as the realities of that Sacrament are two, so also there are two modes of eating: one *sacramental*, namely by which both the good and the wicked eat; the other *spiritual*, by which the good alone eat. — Whence Augustine: «What is it to eat Christ? It is not only to receive his body in the Sacrament — for many receive it unworthily — but to abide in him and to have him abiding in oneself. For he eats spiritually who abides in the unity of Christ and of the Church, which the Sacrament signifies». «For he who is at variance with Christ neither eats the flesh of Christ nor drinks his blood, even though he daily receive the Sacrament of so great a reality unto his own judgment». Distinguishing spiritual eating from the sacramental, Augustine says: «Why do you make ready your tooth and your belly? Believe, and you have eaten». «For to believe in him, this is to eat the bread and wine; he who believes in him eats him». — Likewise: «How is Christ to be eaten? In the manner he himself says: *He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him*. If he abides in me, and I in him, then he drinks; but he who does not abide in me, nor I in him, even though he receive the Sacrament, acquires a great torment». Likewise: «It is to be doubted by no one that anyone is made a partaker of the body and blood of the Lord at that moment when he is made a member of Christ; nor is he estranged from the fellowship of that bread and chalice, even if, before he eat that bread and drink the chalice, he depart from this world established in the unity of the body of Christ; because he is not deprived of the benefit of that Sacrament, when he is found to have that which that Sacrament signifies». For in that Sacrament he entrusted his body and blood to us, which he also made to be ourselves. For we too have been made his body. Likewise: «He who is at variance with Christ does not eat his flesh nor drink his blood, even though he daily receive the Sacrament of so great a reality unto his own judgment».

### Chap. II. *On the error of those who say that the body of Christ is taken by the good alone.*

These words and others of this kind, where spiritual eating is treated, certain men, reading with a dulled heart, have become enveloped in the darkness of error, to the point that they presumed to say that the body and blood of Christ are taken only by the good and not by the wicked. — But it is to be held without doubt that it is taken by the good not only sacramentally but also spiritually; whereas by the wicked it is taken only sacramentally, that is, under the Sacrament, namely under the visible species — the flesh of Christ taken from the Virgin and the blood poured out for us is taken, but not the mystical reality, which belongs to the good alone. This is proved by the testimonies subjoined. Gregory: «There is indeed in sinners and in those who receive unworthily the true flesh of Christ and the true blood, but in essence, not in salutary efficacy». Likewise, Augustine: «Many receive the body of the Lord unworthily, of whom the Apostle says: *He who eats and drinks the chalice of the Lord*

unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself». By which we are taught how greatly one must beware of receiving the good thing badly. For behold, a good thing has been made an evil, when it is received badly; just as on the contrary an evil was made a good for the Apostle, when an evil is received well, namely when the sting of satan is patiently borne. Therefore both evils profit the good, as the angel of satan profited Paul; and holy things harm the wicked: to the good they are unto salvation, to the wicked unto judgment. Whence he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself, not because that reality is evil, but because the wicked man receives badly what is good». The same: «One who takes the body of Christ unworthily does not bring it about that, because he is evil, what he receives is evil; or that, because he does not receive it unto salvation, he receives nothing. For the body and blood of the Lord were nonetheless in those of whom the Apostle says: *He who eats unworthily*» etc. — By these and many other passages it is openly shown that even by the wicked the true body and blood of Christ is taken, but sacramentally, not spiritually.

### Chap. III. *On the understanding of certain ambiguous words.*

According to these two modes of taking, the understanding of certain ambiguously stated words must be distinguished. For Augustine says: «The good man receives the *Sacrament* and the *reality of the Sacrament*; but the wicked man the *Sacrament* and not the *reality*». By *Sacrament* he here means the proper body of Christ, born of the Virgin; by *reality* the spiritual flesh of Christ. The good man therefore receives both [aspects of] the flesh of Christ, but the wicked man only the *Sacrament*, that is, the body of Christ under the Sacrament, and not the *spiritual reality*. — Likewise: «He who does not eat eats, and he who eats does not eat; because he who does not eat *sacramentally* sometimes eats *spiritually*», and conversely. And those who eat spiritually are said to take the *truth* of the flesh and blood, «because they have its very efficacy, that is, the remission of sins», for which it seems prayer is made, when it is said: «May your Sacraments accomplish in us, we beseech you, O Lord, what they contain; that what we now perform in appearance we may receive in the truth of the realities». By *the truth of the realities* he means that very efficacy, as if [to say]: through these Sacraments grant that, just as we take the flesh of Christ sacramentally, so we may take it spiritually. Or the priest asks that Christ, who is now taken under the species of bread and wine, may at some time be grasped in manifest vision, as he is in the essence of the divinity. — It is established, therefore, that the body of Christ is taken both by the good and by the wicked, but by the good unto salvation, by the wicked unto destruction.

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