What Is Going on in Holy Communion? the Anglican Way of Theology

Home , Consubstantiation, Memorialism, Receptionism, Sacramental bread

9/26/2019

What is going on in Holy Communion? The Anglican Way of Theology – Session 3

“On nothing is [Cranmer] clearer than that it is Christ Himself who in the Communion is giving Himself to us. In every celebration the true Celebrant is the risen and living Savior.”

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Local Real Mode of Presence Presence Presence in in H.C. Heaven Roman Y Y substantial change; transubstantiation

Lutheran ~N Y substantial presence in and under the elements; consubstantiation Zwinglian Y N symbol or token; memorialism

Calvinist Y Y substantial presence in worthy reception through the Holy Spirit; receptionism

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“Forasmuch as the truth of man’s nature requireth, that the body of one and the selfsame man cannot be at one time in diverse places, but must needs be in one certain place: Therefore the body of Christ cannot be present at one time in many and diverse places….[A] faithful man ought not, either to believe, or openly to confess, the real and bodily presence (as they term it) of Christ’s flesh and blood in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.” (Article XXIX of the Forty-Two Articles)

“And although Christ in his human nature, substantially, really, corporally, naturally, and sensibly, be present with the Father in heaven, yet sacramentally and spiritually, he is here present.”

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First, this word “sacrament” I do sometimes use (as it is many times taken among sacrament writers and holy doctors) for the sacramental bread, water, or wine; as when they say, that sacramentum est sacrœ reí signum, “a sacrament is the sign of an holy thing.”

And sometime by this word “sacrament” I mean the whole ministration and receiving of the sacraments, either of baptism, or of the Lord’s supper: and so the old writers many times do say, that Christ and the Holy Ghost be present in the sacraments; not meaning by that manner of speech, that Christ and the Holy Ghost be present in the water, bread, or wine, …but that in the due ministration of the sacraments according to Christ’s ordinance and institution, Christ and his holy Spirit be truly and indeed present by their mighty and sanctifying power, virtue, and grace, in all them that worthily receive the same.

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And they be no vain or bare tokens, as you would persuade, (for a bare token is that which betokeneth only and giveth nothing, as a painted fire, which giveth neither light nor heat;) but in the due ministration of the sacraments God is present, working with his word and sacraments.

The scripture is plain, and you confess also that it was bread that Christ spake of when he said, “This is my body.” And what need we any other scripture to encounter with these words, seeing that all men know that bread is not Christ’s body, the one having sense and reason, the other none at all? Wherefore in that speech must needs be sought another sense and meaning, than the words of themselves do give, which is… that the bread is a figure and sacrament of Christ’s body. And yet, as he giveth the bread to be eaten with our mouths, so giveth he his very body to be eaten with our faith. And therefore I say, that Christ giveth himself truly to be eaten, chewed, and digested; but all is spiritually with faith, not with mouth.

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But to express the true effect of the sacraments: As the washing outwardly in water is not a vain token, but teacheth such a washing as God worketh inwardly, in them that duly receive the same; so likewise is not the bread a vain token, but sheweth and preacheth to the godly receiver, what God worketh in him by his almighty power secretly and invisibly. And therefore as the bread is outwardly eaten indeed in the Lord’s supper, so is the very body of Christ inwardly by faith eaten indeed of all them that come thereto in such sort as they ought to do, which eating nourisheth them into everlasting life.

“We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.”

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“The marvelous alteration to an higher estate, nature and condition, is chiefly and principally in the persons, and in the sacramental signs it is none otherwise but sacramentally and in signification.”

“On nothing is [Cranmer] clearer than that it is Christ Himself who in the Communion is giving Himself to us. In every celebration the true Celebrant is the risen and living Savior.”