Brian Hamilton

You are the mystery on the table

If you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the apostle telling the faithful “You, though, are the body of Christ and its members” (1 Cor 12:27). So if it’s you that are the body of Christ and its members, it’s the mystery meaning you that has been placed on the Lord’s table; what you receive is the mystery that means you. It is to what you are that you reply Amen, and by so replying you express your assent. What you hear, you see, is The body of Christ, and you answer, Amen. So be a member of the body of Christ, in order to make that Amen true.—Corpus ergo Christi si vis intelligere, apostolum audi dicentem fidelibus, “vos autem estis corpus Christi, et membra.” Si ergo vos estis corpus Christi et membra, mysterium vestrum in mensa dominica positum est: mysterium vestrum accipitis. Ad id quod estis, Amen respondetis, et respondendo subscribitis. Audis enim, corpus Christi; et respondes, Amen. Esto membrum corporis Christi, ut verum sit Amen.

—St. Augustine, Sermon 272

(Note: this is one of the sermons where Augustine utters his famous phrase: “Become what you see; receive what you are.—Estote quod videtis, et accipite quod estis.”)

1 May 2008 |
tags: Augustine, Ecclesiology, Lord's Supper