White Robed Monks of St. Benedict

The Eucharist and Contemplations

Contemplation before the14th century simply meant, reading, study, thought or any other way of becoming aware of the truth. The phrase contemplative prayer was unknown before then and would have seemed like a contradiction in terms. Prayer meant asking for things, contemplation meant taking a look. For St Augustine, contemplation was the ultimate source of happiness. Heaven was Gaudium de Veritate. Joy over the truth. The truth was the discovery of the ultimate meaning of our lives, of all that is. A vision of what is true which by its very nature delights us, because it is a vision of why we exist, why anything exists. It is the vision of God.

Beata quippe vita est gaudium de veritate. hoc est enim gaudium de te, qui veritas es, deus, inluminatio mea, salus faciei meae, deus meus. hanc vitam beatam omnes volunt, hanc vitam, quae sola beata est, omnes volunt, gaudium de veritate omnes volunt. Confessions Book. 10. 'The blessed life is doubtless joy over the truth. For this is joy over you, who are truth, God, my inward light, the salvation of my face, my god. All want this blessed life, this life which alone is blessed, all want, all want joy over the truth.'

Commentating on the Gospel of John, Chapter 6:56 St Augustine says that

'This is, therefore, to eat that food and to take that drink, to remain in Christ and to have him remain on one's self. Moreover, because of this, who does not remain in Christ and in whom Christ does not remain, beyond doubt does not swallow spiritually his flesh, nor drink his blood, although he carnally and visibly he presses with his teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.'

Note that the sacrament can be taken in a physical sense without acknowledgement of what is taken by this logic. An unbeliever might really receive Christ if he accidentally ate a host, though it would be the sacramental presence that was received. The spiritual reception is the acknowledgement that Christ is being received, which requires both faith and charity.

The reformers were confused at this point. Chapter 6 of John was the key text on both sides at the reformation when the nature of the Eucharist was discussed. Augustine though clearly believes that even without faith, Christ is received physically but he also believes that this physical reception would be pointless. Zwingli interpreted the key text of John 6:63, 'It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.' as meaning that there was a spiritual reception of Christ's body which did not need a physical reception. Augustine, on the other hand believed that the spiritual reception of Christ was the acknowledgment that Christ was physically received. Yet it was a living flesh which is received, alive in itself and the source of life. In his gloss on the passage, he accuses those who understand the flesh as it is torn from a body or sold in the butcher and not as it brought to life by the Spirit. The flesh is of no avail on its own but valuable in itself because the Spirit which is the giver of life is present to it. The flesh is necessary for St Augustine, because it is the flesh of Christ which is alive through the Spirit. Contemplation is therefore a contemplation of the reality of the Eucharist that is the source of life for the whole mystical body.

Lanfranc, the great opponent of Berengarius develops the idea of two receptions of the Eucharist in a different way. Like Augustine, he acknowledges that we must receive the Eucharist consciously but this is not to deny the physical reality of the Eucharist. Instead the physical reality is the basis of the spiritual reception. For Lanfranc, the Eucharist because of its physical reality becomes a source of contemplation of the whole life of Christ. It is best to quote the passage I am thinking of, from Chapter 15 of 'De Corpore et Sanguine Domini' at length. Berengarius quotes from a letter to Boniface in which he says that 'Christ in himself is immolated only once' Lanfranc replies (Words in brackets are mine)

In himself, Christ is immolated once because in the manifestation of his body in distinction from of all his members, the true God and true human being, offering himself to the Father as a living victim, susceptible, mortal, cause of the redemption of the living and the dead, those, that is, whom the depths of the divine counsel had judged, foreknown, predestined, and called to be redeemed in the ways and times in which it was suitable for this to happen. In the sacrament which the Church frequently repeats in memory of this event, the flesh of the Lord is immolated every day, divided, eaten and his blood drink by the mouths of the faithful. Both are true, both are taken from the Virgin. The flesh is taken per se, the blood is drunk per se, though with a certain mystery understood. Although in another way of speaking, the whole Christ is said and believed to be eaten, precisely when eternal life, which he is, is yearned for with a spiritual desire, when the memory of his commands is held in the mind as sweeter than honey, when fraternal love, a sign of which is borne by this sacrament, is a delight because of the love of Christ. When in a sweet and healthy way, there is stored in the memory that he was subject to insults for the salvation of humanity, suspended on the cross, held on by nails and wounded by a spear. Both eating's are necessary, both are fruitful. One needs the other so that some good may done. For if the first (contemplation) was absent, the second not only fails to purge sins but even increases them and judges the presumptuous. 'For who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgement for himself. 1 Cor 11:29' However the second (physical reception) cannot and out not to be without the first. From this the bread is called daily by the Lord, as is expounded by the blessed Ambrose and Saint Cyprian and as is read in the Gospel 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you' John 6:54. The Sacred Canons order that someone is not to be include among Catholic who does not share in (communicate) in the sacrament of the body of Christ, unless by chance in the manner of a penance and by the judgement of the bishop, they abstain.