XI. Explanation of the words, "Do this in remembrance of Me."

Having given the mind of the Church on these words, " This is My Body," we proceed to consider what she teaches on those which our Lord added, " Do this in remembrance of Me." We see, evidently, that He here intended us to remember the death He submitted to for our salvation ; and St. Paul draws the same conclusion from them when he says " Ye do shew His death " in this Mystery. We are not to suppose that this remembrance of our Lord's death need exclude the necessity of His Real Presence, for if we consider what we have just said we shall see that the commemoration is based upon the real presence. For in the same way that the Jews by eating the peaceofferings were reminded that they were slain for them, so likewise we in eating the flesh of Jesus, our Peace-Oifering, are thereby reminded that He was slain for us, in particular ; and far from imagining that this solemn commemoration which Jesus Christ commands us to make, excludes the presence of His Body, we are on the contrary convinced that to enable us to realize that vivid recollection of His Sacrifice, at His Holy Table, as He would have us, we must feel that what we eat there is really and truly His Flesh. For by the very act of giving us His Body daily for our food He facilitates our belief in His having given it once for us as our ransom.

How can Christians go away with the idea that in order to celebrate this commemoration aright they must divest it of all its life and beauty ; they seem to lose sight of half our Lord said as well as nearly all He meant, for He does not simply bid us remember Him, but to remember Him by eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood. Let us look to the intention and force of His words. He does not say simply (as these Reformers seem to think) that the Bread and the Wine are to be a " Memorial" of His Body and His Blood, but He admonishes us that in doing what He prescribes, i. e., in eating His Flesh and His Blood, we are remembering Him. Can any other means act so forcibly on us as this whereby we might remember Him ? If children are quickened in their love for an earthly parent as they approach the tomb where his body lies, will not our love and tenderness be excited when we touch these sacred Grave-clothes, and receive in this Mystic Tomb the very Flesh of our dear Lord who was sacrificed for us, that Living bread and Life-giving Flesh, and that Blood still warm with love, imparting grace and health to all around ? If yet our adversaries persist in objecting to us that He who bids us remember Him, did not give us His real Body, we must beg them at least to agree among themselves. They protest that they do not deny a real Communion of the very Substance of the Son of God in the Holy Eucharist. Thus, if they are really in earnest, if they attach any meaning to the words they use, they must allow with us, that this remembrance of our Lord does not preclude His being present there in any way, but only in such a way as would be perceptible to the senses.

Their answer must coincide with our own. For where we say Jesus ( hrist is present, we acknowledge at the same time that it is in a way that can be discerned by Faith only. And if they here ask us, how we, believing as we do that the senses have no part in these Holy Mysteries, yet do not allow it to be sufficient to believe that Jesus Christ is present by faith ? we easily answer and silence this mere quibble, and reply, It is one thing to say that the Son of God is present to us by faith ; and another that by faith we know Him to be present.

The first mode of expression implies only a virtual Presence, but the second signifies to us a very actual Presence, because whatever is of faith is truth. And this actual Presence known and realized by faith, works in the " just who live by faith," all the effects we have noted above.