The Church teaches that Christ is contained whole and entire under each species; so that whoever communicates under the form of bread or of wine receives not a mutilated Sacrament or a divided Savior, but shares in the whole Sacrament as fully as if he participated in both forms. Hence, the layman who receives the consecrated Bread partakes as copiously of the body and blood of Christ as the officiating Priest who receives both consecrated elements.
Our Lord says: “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world.... He that eateth Me the same also shall live by Me. He that eateth this bread shall live forever.”[377]
From this passage it is evident that whoever partakes of the form of bread partakes of the living [pg 301] flesh of Jesus Christ, which is inseparable from His blood, and which, being now in a glorious state, cannot be divided; for, “Christ rising from the dead, dieth now no more.”[378] Our Lord, in His words quoted, makes no reference to the sacramental cup, but only to the Eucharistic bread, to which He ascribes all the efficacy which is attached to communion under both kinds, viz., union with Him, spiritual life, eternal salvation.
St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: “Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.”[379] The Apostle here plainly declares that, by an unworthy participation in the Lord's Supper, under the form of either bread or wine, we profane both the body and the blood of Christ. How could this be so, unless Christ is entirely contained under each species? So forcibly, indeed, did the Apostle assert the Catholic doctrine that the Protestant translators have perverted the text by rendering it: “Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink the chalice,” substituting and for or, in contradiction to the Greek original, of which the Catholic version is an exact translation.
It is also the received doctrine of the Fathers that the Eucharist is contained in all its integrity either in the consecrated bread or in the chalice. St. Augustine, who may be taken as a sample of the rest, says that “each one receives Christ the Lord entire under each particle.”[380]
Luther himself, even after his revolt, was so clearly convinced of this truth that he was an uncompromising advocate of communion under one kind. “If any Council,” he says, “should decree or permit both species, we would by no means [pg 302] acquiesce; but, in spite of the Council and its statute, we would use one form, or neither, and never both.”[381]
Leibnitz, the eminent Protestant divine, observes: “It cannot be denied that Christ is received entire by virtue of concomitance, under each species; nor is His flesh separated from His blood.”[382]
As the same virtue is contained in the Sacrament, whether administered in one or both forms, the faithful gain nothing by receiving under both kinds, and lose nothing by receiving under one form. Consequently, we nowhere find our Savior requiring the communion to be administered to the faithful under both forms; but He has left this matter to be regulated by the wisdom and discretion of the Church, as He has done with regard to the manner of administering Baptism.
Our Redeemer, it is true, has said: “Drink ye all of this.” But it should be remembered that these words were addressed not to the people at large, but only to the Apostles, who alone were also commanded, on the same occasion, to consecrate His body and blood in remembrance of Him. Now we have no more right to infer that the faithful are obliged to drink of the cup, because the Apostles were commanded to drink of it, than we have to suppose that the laity are required or allowed to consecrate the bread and wine, because the power of doing so was at the last Supper conferred on the Apostles.
It is true also that our Lord said to the people: “Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye shall not have life in you.” But this command is literally fulfilled by the laity when they partake of the consecrated bread, which, as we have seen, contains Christ the Lord in all [pg 303] His integrity. Hence, if our Savior has said: “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath everlasting life,” He has also said: “The bread which I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world.”