Pope
Benedict begins "Sacramentum Caritatis" with the statement that
"the Holy Eucharist is the gift Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus
revealing to us God's infinite love for every man and woman".
Sometime
in the early 1980s my grandmother gave my siblings and I two works of fiction
by John White: The Tower of Geburah and The Iron Sceptre, both of
which I read and re-read. In one of those books one of the main characters is
captured by an evil jinn. The jinn is able by magic to make food and even a
bathroom with a shower. But the magical food conjured up by the jinn does not
satisfy one's appetite, and the soap does not ever get one clean. The jinn
admits that he cannot make food that truly satisfies, or soap that truly
cleans. He says that only Gaal [Christ] can make food that truly satisfies, and
soap that truly cleans.
That
made an impression on me, and the metaphysical underpinnings became clearer
only later when I started studying Augustine, who shows pace the Manicheans
that evil is not only a privation of good, but also a privation of being. One
can find this principle throughout Aquinas, and also throughout the works of
C.S. Lewis. We more readily perceive the ways in which Lewis opposes gnosticism
in his affirmation of the goodness of matter, but his opposition to Manicheanism
tends to be less noticed, although it is no less prevalent.
Voluntarism
is Manichean insofar as it denies the intrinsic relation of being and goodness.
Voluntarism treats evil as merely a formal negation, not as an ontological
privation. Voluntarism is relevant to discussions of the Eucharist because
voluntarism typically underlies the treatment of the Eucharist as merely
symbolic. What unites me to Christ, given voluntarism, is fundamentally either
God's will or my will, or some conjunction of God's will and my will, hence the
merely symbolic notion of baptism as well. What constitutes union with Christ,
given voluntarism, is formal unity, i.e. an alignment of wills. The idea that
one is saved by "saying a sinner's prayer", for example, treats
salvation as entirely a formal union between God and man. As adding time and
motion to pure mathematics gives us what Maritain calls physico-mathematical
knowledge, so likewise adding time and motion to voluntarism gives us forensic
conceptions of salvation. There is nothing wrong with physico-mathematical
knowledge; it is simply incomplete. Likewise, there is nothing wrong with
forensic notions of salvation; they are simply incomplete, being yet only
formal.
The
traditional position of Augustine and the Church, does not deny formal unity,
but it does not reduce salvation merely to a formal union of God and man. The
union of God with man is also ontological, as is the union of the Son and the
Spirit with the Father, and as is the union of the Son with human nature in the
miracle of the incarnation. A greater unity can become a lesser unity only by
taking up that lesser unity into itself, otherwise the greater unity ceases to
exist. The ontological unity between God and man effected in the incarnation
can be achieved only by way of an incarnation. (The principle of causality
shows the impossibility of an incarnationally-independent apotheosis in which
man becomes God, and anything less than "becoming God" falls short of
the unity of God and man effected in the incarnation.) Yet there are not
multiple incarnations; there is only one. Thus our ontological union with God
cannot bypass the incarnation of Christ Jesus, but must take place through the
one hypostatic union. That is why we cannot come to the Father except through
the man Christ Jesus. To be ontologically united to God, I must be
ontologically united to Christ through becoming ontologically (not merely
formally) united to His human nature. In other words, I must become one flesh
with Him. The marriage of Christ and His bride is not the consequence of our
salvation; it is our salvation.
How
then do I become one flesh with Christ? First, through the mystery of baptism.
Paul tells us that we are "baptized into Christ Jesus". We are
baptized "into His death", "buried with Him through
baptism". In Romans chapter 6 we see that in baptism we are united to
Christ in His death and resurrection. This is not merely figurative language;
in baptism we are ontologically united to Christ's death and resurrection in
such a way that the character effected in our soul by our baptism is indelible.
Although baptism is the first step in our union with Christ, it is by its
nature an initializing step, and thus a step that can never be repeated. Unlike
the Eucharist, baptism is not a form of union that deepens the union upon
repetition. In 1 Corinthians 15 we see that Christ is the second Adam. The
blood and water that flowed from Christ's pierced side are the rib out of which
the Bride of Christ is made. In baptism we are immersed into the water that
flowed from His side, and thus buried with Him and then reborn in His
resurrection; this is why the baptism of catechumens takes place on Easter, for
in baptism we are joined to Him in His death and resurrection.[1]
The
second sacramental step in our union with Christ is confirmation, also called
chrismation. Like baptism, this is a non-repeatable sacrament. It is also, in a
certain respect, a continuation of our baptism. The Eastern Orthodox typically
apply chrismation immediately after baptism. And the Catholic Catechism says
that confirmation is "necessary for the completion of baptismal
grace", hence the term "confirmation" used in the West. How does
the sacrament of confirmation unite us to Christ? In confirmation we are filled
with the Holy Spirit. In this way we are united to Christ, who is Himself
filled with the Holy Spirit. In John 20:22 the resurrected Jesus breathes on
His disciples and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit". In confirmation by
the imposition of the hands of the bishop (whose anointing comes from the
Apostles through apostolic succession) we are united to Christ by receiving His
very breath, that is, the Holy Spirit. If one thinks of being
"filled" with the Holy Spirit as a cup is filled with water, then it
will seem that being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a means of union with
Christ, for two cups filled with water are not thereby made one. But 'filled'
is only an analogy; the reality is much richer. Nor is our union with the
Spirit akin to demonic possession, where our freedom is restricted. Nor again
is our union with the Spirit merely formal, as though we merely have the same
mind as the Spirit (e.g. we both believe that 2+2=4 and the murder is wrong,
etc., etc.). Our union with the Holy Spirit is ontological, not in a way that
destroys or blots out our human nature, but one that elevates and fulfills our
human nature. Our resurrected bodies, for example, are spiritual and yet
material. The hypostatic union overflows into our human nature, as we are
joined to Christ, and we find that our resurrected bodies take on spiritual
characteristics. Similarly, being filled with the Holy Spirit truly gives us
the mind and heart and life of Christ. We become one with Him in Spirit.[2]
The
most important sacrament in Christian initiation is the third and last, the
Eucharist. The Eucharist is not like the first two sacraments, in that it is
intended to be repeated, as our regular spiritual nourishment. How are we
united to Christ in the Eucharist? We feed on His flesh and blood (cf. John 6).
When a lesser unity is joined to a greater unity, the lesser unity becomes part
of the greater unity. So likewise, in partaking of the Eucharist, it is more
accurate to say that we become joined to Him, incorporated into His Body. St.
Paul tells us that because we eat one bread, therefore we are one body.
"Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all
partake of the one bread." (1 Cor 10:17) That only makes sense because the
bread is Christ. Christians are joined to each other in the "communion of
the saints", into the mystical body of Christ, through our partaking of
the body of Christ in the Eucharist. We are made one with each other, and with
the Father and the Spirit, by physically partaking of the flesh of the Son who
is, according to His divine nature, Pure Unity. In partaking of the Eucharist, as with all the sacraments, we enter heaven across that bridge than which none is greater: the hypostatic union. In the Eucharist, Pope Benedict says, Christ gives us Himself. "Take, eat, this is my body." His flesh is our daily bread, the true manna. His blood is our eternal life, for the life is in the blood. Unlike the Eutychians, we do not confuse Christ's two natures. But we are much more prone to Nestorianism than to Eutychianism. The hypostatic union does not diminish Christ's divine nature, but it does elevate His human nature. The asymmetry should not surprise us; it is the necessary outcome of the union of the infinite and finite. The fullness of deity dwelt in every cell in His body;
more precisely, every cell in His body was fully (not partially) divine, because
His body was fully divine, because that human was fully divine, because that Person is the fully divine Logos.[3]
[1]� For some helpful quotations from the fathers on the relation between baptism and the water that flowed from Christ's side, see here.
[2]� Regarding baptism and confirmation Tertullian writes (De resurr, carnis, n, 8): "The flesh is washed that the soul may be made stainless. The flesh is anointed [ungitur] that the soul may be consecrated. The flesh is sealed [signatur] that the soul may be fortified. The flesh is overshadowed by the imposition of hands that the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit, The flesh is fed by the Body and Blood of Christ that the soul may be fattened of God." And (Adv, Marcion., i, n. 14): "But He [Christ], indeed even at the present time, neither rejected the water of the Creator with which He washes clean His own, nor the oil with which He anoints His own; . . . nor the bread with which He makes present [repr�sentat] His own very body, needing even in His own sacraments the beggarly elements of the Creator."
[3]� I am reminded of Fr. Kimel's "Eleventh Law": "It doesn�t matter how vigorously you protest your belief in the eucharistic real presence: if you are not willing and eager to prostrate yourself before the Holy Gifts and adore, worship, and pray to the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, present under the forms of bread and wine, you really do not believe in the real presence."