THE FOOD OF THE SAINTS
‘As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.’
These words, simply and naturally, imply, first of all, the idea simply of eating. It is not, I think, amiss for us from time to time to recollect on what our convictions rest.
I. We know that it was by eating, transgressing God’s command, that man fell, and we know something of the result of that fall. To us who have the revealed truth made clear, we, when we hear of the Holy Eucharist as being the food of the saints, should be thankful. It is passing strange that so much good should come to us through eating; but if I believe the Word of God, I ought to be able to get experience enough round about me of the result eating has produced. When I hear of the Eucharist being the food of the saints, instead of being, in the first instance, tempted to doubt, I reflect—this is not then something out of harmony with what God has told me, it is not an accident, as it were, in God’s dealing with mankind, but it does represent to me God’s will and purpose carried on now—still the old purpose.
II. And then when it speaks of the Holy Eucharist as the food it suggests that it is intended for all; it is for all, as we all need food; none can do without it. And we, if we are believers, have no real right to expect to be able to live—live, I mean, in the sight of God, without the Holy Eucharist. ‘Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.’ ‘As I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me shall live by Me.’ It is the appointed means by which we draw into ourselves the Divine life; we are made one with Him there, and He with us. At the first institution of the Holy Eucharist, all the Apostles, as the symbol of the Church, partook of it. With the early Christians all were communicants, all took their part in breaking of bread. According to the rule of the Church of England, every parishioner should receive the Holy Communion three times a year at the least.
III. But yet again, it is called the food of the saints, and not the medicine of the saints.—By calling it food and not medicine, it seems to speak of life without sickness and without pain. It might have been called the medicine of the saints. It is so in one sense; we do pray that our bodies may be made clean by His Body, and our souls washed through His most precious Blood; but I take it that when I call the Holy Eucharist the food of the saints, I do really look at it in a more inner, and more central, and more true aspect than if I call it the medicine of the saints.
IV. The Holy Eucharist is the bond of union and a cause of union.—We, being partakers of one Bread, become one. And the Holy Eucharist should be regarded as being the food of the family—the chief and best means of family union, unity and love.
Bishop Edward King.
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‘If the Eucharist is to be the food of the family, there must be a very considerable advance in mutual accommodation, so as interchangeably to provide that now one and then another can go to partake of this holy food. It would be an advance and a blessing if all those who are employed either in domestic service, or in the great employments of our manufactories, or scattered about in our country villages, if there were a real understanding; just as they desired their fellow-servants to have their food to support their bodies, so they did really see that the Holy Eucharist is the appointed food of the saints, the food of the family; so that there should be an exceeding zeal shown by one member for another, so that all in the family, in their turn and in their way, should not be deprived of their food, without which, as believers, we have no reason to suppose that the soul can be kept from starvation.’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
CHRIST’S GIFT
Christ gives Himself to us to be the food of our souls. We must receive Him in His Holy Sacrament. In His Holy Sacrament He comes to us. He comes into us. He takes up His abode in the cleansed chamber of our souls, and where He is no ill can come. “He that eateth Me even he shall live by Me.”
I. But people have doubts about the Holy Sacrament.—Look, then, at a few points in this history, and see how it is arranged so as to help our faith in the Sacrament. You will observe that Christ’s Apostles and all these five thousand people were far away from all supplies of food, and were, as we should say, in danger of starvation. Just in the same way any one of us who has come to Christ and been set free from his old sins, and is trying to follow Christ, is in danger of falling back into sin for want of strength to persevere. A couple of barley loaves and a few small fishes were all the food that was to be got in that wilderness. If there had been no more found for them, all those people must have fainted from starvation. Christ’s Apostles could not get any more for them. The people could not get any more. So it is with you. You cannot keep up your own strength. We—that is, Christ’s servants and ministers—we cannot keep up your spiritual strength for you. You must each for himself receive Christ, feed on His Body and His Blood as He has commanded you. This shall be your spiritual strength; Christ’s Presence in your soul, which Satan will see and fear, so that that Wicked One toucheth you not.
II. People say they cannot understand it.—They never will be able to understand it. The people were in a wilderness: i.e., a place which could not supply any food; a place where Christ’s Apostles could not get them any. Whatever food was to be got there must be miraculous. Nothing that the wilderness could produce would support life. Now, the wilderness stands for this world; it stands for this life, and all that belongs to it. Since the Fall of Man, this world and this life, have been a wilderness. Nothing that this world can produce can keep up your spiritual strength. Nothing that we can get for you out of this world can do it. It must be something from the other world, from God and Christ and Heaven, and not from here. You will observe that the Apostles themselves could not get anything out of the wilderness for the people, and what they had of their own was not enough. So neither can we either get you or give you anything of our own which will be enough to help you. But we can do as the Apostles did. And what was that? Why, we can obey our Lord, and we can give you the food He gives us to distribute; and we can tell you that the Bread from Heaven shall preserve your bodies and your souls unto Eternal Life. You cannot understand, but—
(a) By faith; and
(b) By obedience,
you shall know that Christ Himself gives that spiritual food which can carry you safe and harmless through this world’s wilderness to the Heaven where there shall be no more temptation or sin or trial.
III. The food is Christ Himself.—Look now, at what this means. When you were baptized you were made a member of Christ. You were, so to speak, grafted upon Him. Your spiritual life, i.e., all your power to be good or to do right, all your power to resist temptation and to shut out evil thoughts—comes to you from Christ. But how? A person may, if he likes, harden himself to Christ. He may think he can do very well alone. Christ does not force Himself upon any one. If the newly-grafted twig does not receive the sap from the tree, or if at any time it becomes diseased so that the sap does not flow into it, it will die. So with you, you must receive Christ. Just as our food gives us strength for all kinds of needs, so when you come to Holy Communion you should consider with yourself what is it that you are needing now. Whatever it is, that Christ is waiting to give you. This is what we mean when we say that Christ is all in all to the Christian. He is your life; that is, He keeps up your livingness, in whatever way it wants keeping up, at any particular time. You cannot need anything—you cannot ask anything—but He comes to you to give you that particular thing, be it perseverance, or strength, or warmth of love to God, or self-denial, or what not.
IV. People are far too much in the habit of thinking about Holy Communion as a special privilege for advanced Christians, and those alone.—Depend upon it that Satan wins more souls by making penitents shrink back from Holy Communion— persuading them to wait until they have grown fit—than by any other device. For thereby he very often prevents their ever growing fit. Therefore, you who do truly repent you of your sins, and earnestly desire to lead a new life, draw near with faith and take this Holy Sacrament to your comfort. It is meant for you in your present state of spiritual faintness, and weakness, and exhaustion. It is meant to strengthen and revive you; and, believe me, if we could only hear the words which angels and blessed spirits utter as they see well-meaning penitents go away from the precious Body and Blood which Christ offers them—our chancels would ring to the mournful cry of, ‘Why will ye die, O House of Israel?’ while our Lord Himself is saying of you, ‘They will not come to Me that they might have Life.’
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‘As food presupposes life and requires a healthy condition of the recipient if it is to profit, so food gives internal strength. Food is not an external prop on which we lean; it is an internal sustaining power. So with Holy Communion. We feed on Christ’s Body and Blood that He may dwell in us. He told His Apostles that it was “expedient for them that He should go away”; i.e., that He should be withdrawn from their sensible recognition of Him as an external presence in order that He might, by the Holy Spirit, come to them in a better, nearer way as an internal sanctifying presence. Do we thus cherish the presence of “Christ in us, the hope of glory”? Do we seek to be conformed more and more to His likeness as we feed on Him? So are we to be recognised as living members of His mystical body, bringing forth “the fruits of the Spirit.” ’