1. I am aware of my promise. I promised you who were baptized a sermon where I would expound the sacrament of the Lord’s Table, i.e. what you see now and of whom this past night you became participants. You ought to know what you received, what you will receive, what daily you ought to receive. That bread that you see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. The cup, or rather what the cup contains, sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. By these things Christ the Lord wanted to commend his body and blood which he poured out for us for the remission of sins. For the apostle says, “One bread, one body, we are many.” Thus he showed the sacrament of the Lord’s table, “One bread, one body, we are many.” In that bread it is commended to you how you ought to love unity. Can it be that this bread was made from one grain (alone)? Were there not many grains of wheat? But before they become bread, they were separate. By water they were joined after a certain grinding. Unless wheat is ground and sprinkled with water, it cannot come into that form called bread in any fashion. So too you are like being ground before the humiliation of fasting and the sign of exorcism. Baptism came and it is like you were sprinkled with water so as to become the form of bread. But there is not yet bread without fire. So, what fire signifies is the charism of oil. In fact, the sacrament is the supply of the Holy Spirit.
2. Listen carefully to the Acts of the Apostles when it is read. Now that book is beginning to be read. Today begins that book called the Acts of the Apostles. We are your books. Pay attention and see where the Holy Spirit will come at Pentecost. And he will come to show himself in tongues of fire. He inspires charity with which we burn for God and despise the world and our hay is burned up and our heart purged like gold. So the Holy Spirit comes as fire after water and you are made bread that is the body of Christ. And so unity is signified in a certain manner. You hold the sacraments in its order. First, after prayer, you are admonished to lift up your heart; this is fitting for the members of Christ. For if you were made a member of Christ, where is your head? Members have a head. If the head does not go before, the members do not follow. Where did our head do? What did you recount in the Creed? On the third day he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. So our head is in heaven. So when it is said, “lift up your heart’ you respond, “we lift them up to the Lord.” And lest what you have in lifting up your heart to the Lord you attribute to your powers, your merits, your labors — because it is the gift of God in lifting it up, so the bishop or priest who is offering it says, “let us give thanks to the Lord our God” because we have lifted our hearts to God, “let us give thanks” because unless he gave it, we would have our hearts on earth. And so you affirm, “it is right and just” that we may give him thanks who had us lift up our heart to our head.
3. Then after the sanctification of the sacrifice of God, we say the Lord’s Prayer which you received and repeated. This is said after that, “Peace be with you” and Christians give a holy kiss. It is a sign of peace: as the lips indicate, so the conscience comes, that is, how your lips approach the lips of your brother, so your heart does not go away from his heart. So the sacraments are great and very strong. Do you want to know how they are commended? The apostle says, “he who eats the body of Christ and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. What does it mean to receive unworthily? To receive with contempt, to receive mockingly. Let it not seem common to you because you see it. What you see passes away, but what is signified, i.e. invisible does not pass away but remain. Behold it is received, eaten, consumed. The body of Christ is not consumed, is it? The church of Christ is not consumed, is it? The members of Christ are not consumed, are they? May it never be! Here they are purified, there they are crowned. What is signified will abide even though what signifies may appear to pass away. So, receive that you may understand, that you may have unity in your heart, that you may fix your hearts above. Your hope is not on earth but in heaven. May your faith by firmly in God, acceptable to God. Because what you do not see here and now and yet believe, you will see there when you will have joy without end.
1. Memor sum promissionis meae. Promiseram enim vobis, qui baptizati estis, sermonem quo exponerem mensae Dominicae Sacramentum, quod modo etiam videtis et cuius nocte praeterita participes facti estis. Debetis scire quid accepistis, quid accepturi estis, quid quotidie accipere debeatis. Panis ille quem videtis in altari sanctificatus per verbum Dei, corpus est Christi. Calix ille, immo quod habet calix, sanctificatum per verbum Dei, sanguis est Christi. Per ista voluit Dominus Christus commendare corpus et sanguinem suum, quem pro nobis fudit in remissionem peccatorum. Si bene accepistis, vos estis quod accepistis. Apostolus enim dicit: Unus panis, unum corpus, multi sumus 1. Sic exposuit sacramentum mensae Dominicae: Unus panis, unum corpus, multi sumus. Commendatur vobis in isto pane quomodo unitatem amare debeatis. Numquid enim panis ille de uno grano factus est? Nonne multa erant tritici grana? Sed antequam ad panem venirent, separata erant; per aquam coniuncta sunt post quamdam contritionem. Nisi enim molatur triticum et per aquam conspergatur, ad istam formam minime venit, quae panis vocatur. Sic et vos ante ieiunii humiliatione et exorcismi sacramento quasi molebamini. Accessit baptismum et aqua quasi conspersi estis, ut ad formam panis veniretis. Sed nondum est panis sine igne. Quid ergo significat ignis, hoc est chrisma olei? Etenim ignis nutritor Spiritus Sancti est sacramentum.
2. In Actibus Apostolorum advertite quando legitur; modo enim incipit liber ipse legi: hodie coepit liber qui vocatur Actuum Apostolorum. Qui vult proficere, habet unde. Quando convenitis ad ecclesiam, tollite fabulas vanas; intenti estote ad Scripturas. Codices vestri nos sumus. Attendite ergo et videte, qua venturus est Pentecoste Spiritus Sanctus. Et sic veniet: in linguis igneis se ostendit. Inspirat enim caritatem qua ardeamus in Deum et mundum contemnamus et foenum nostrum exuratur et cor quasi aurum purgetur. Accedit ergo Spiritus Sanctus, post aquam ignis et efficimini panis quod est corpus Christi. Et ideo unitas quodam modo significatur. Tenetis sacramenta ordine suo. Primo, post orationem, admonemini sursum habere cor; hoc decet membra Christi. Si enim membra Christi facti estis, caput vestrum ubi est? Membra habent caput. Si caput non praecessisset, membra non sequerentur. Quo ivit caput nostrum? Quid reddidistis in Symbolo? Tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit in caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris. Ergo in caelo caput nostrum. Ideo cum dicitur: Sursum cor, respondetis: Habemus ad Dominum. Et ne hoc ipsum quod cor habetis sursum ad Dominum, tribuatis viribus vestris, meritis vestris, laboribus vestris, quia Dei donum est sursum habere cor, ideo sequitur episcopus, vel presbiter qui offert et dicit – cum respondent populus: Habemus ad Dominum sursum cor -: Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro, quia sursum cor habemus. Gratias agamus, quia nisi donaret in terra cor haberemus. Et vos attestamini dicentes: Dignum et iustum est, ut ei gratias agamus qui nos fecit sursum ad nostrum caput habere cor.
3. Deinde post sanctificationem sacrificii Dei, quia nos ipsos voluit esse sacrificium suum, quod demonstratum est, ubi impositum est primum illud sacrificium Dei et nos – id est signum rei – quod sumus; ecce ubi est peracta sanctificatio dicimus Orationem Dominicam, quam accepistis et reddidistis. Post ipsam dicitur: Pax vobiscum et osculantur Christiani in osculo sancto. Pacis signum est: sicut ostendunt labia, fiat in conscientia, id est, quomodo labia tua ad labia fratris tui accedunt, sic cor tuum a corde eius non recedat. Magna ergo sacramenta et valde magna. Vultis nosse quomodo commendentur? Ait Apostolus: Qui manducat corpus Christi aut bibit calicem Domini indigne, reus est corporis et sanguinis Domini 2. Quid est indigne accipere? Contemptibiliter accipere, irridenter accipere. Non tibi videatur vile, quia vides. Quod vides transit, sed quod significatur invisibile non transit, sed permanet. Ecce accipitur, comeditur, consumitur. Numquid corpus Christi consumitur? numquid Ecclesia Christi consumitur? numquid membra Christi consumuntur? Absit. Hic mundantur, ibi coronantur. Manebit ergo quod significatur, quamquam transire videatur illud quod significat. Sic ergo accipite ut vos cogitetis, unitatem in corde habeatis, sursum cor semper figatis. Spes vestra non sit in terra, sed in caelo; fides vestra firma sit in Deum, acceptabilis sit Deo. Quia quod modo hic non videtis et creditis, visuri estis illic, ubi sine fine gaudebitis.