IV. Des sacrements — Le 51e dimanche
The Meaning of the Supper
The Lord's Supper is instituted as a sign to assure believers of the spiritual nourishment found in Christ's body and blood.
On the Lord's Supper 340. M: Let's talk about the Lord's Supper. And first of all, what does it mean? E: Our Lord instituted it to assure us that by partaking of his body and blood, our souls are nourished in the hope of eternal life.✦1 Through the bread, Christ represents his body to us, and through the wine, his blood. 341. M: Why does the Lord represent his body to us through the bread, and his blood through the wine? E: To show that just as bread has the property of feeding and sustaining our bodies in this mortal life, so his body does the same for our souls: it nourishes them and gives them spiritual life. Likewise, just as wine strengthens, refreshes, and gladdens the body, so his blood is our joy, our refreshment, and our spiritual strength.2 Confidence of our salvation, wherein it lies3
Union with Christ
True participation in Christ requires receiving him personally, as our salvation depends on possessing him and his imputed obedience.
342. Minister: Do you understand that we must truly partake of the body and blood of the Lord? Student: That’s how I understand it. Since all our confidence for salvation rests on the obedience he rendered to God his Father—insofar as it is imputed to us as if it were our own—we must possess him.4 For his goods are not ours unless he first gives himself to us. 343. M: But didn't he give himself to us when he exposed himself to death to reconcile us to God his Father and deliver us from damnation?✦ C: Yes, indeed.5 But that is not enough unless we receive him, so that we may feel in ourselves the fruit and the efficacy of his death and passion.6
Receiving Christ by Faith
Faith is the means by which we receive Christ, recognizing him as our living Head who dwells within us to share his graces.
How We Receive Jesus Christ 344. M: Isn't the way of receiving him by faith? E: Yes. Not only by believing that he died and rose again to deliver us from eternal death and to win life for us, but also that he lives in us and is joined to us in such a union as the head with its members, so that he may make us partakers of all his graces by virtue of this joining.
Read the original Latin
De la cène 340. M : Disons de la cène. Et premièrement, quelle est la signification d'icelle? E : Notre Seigneur l'a instituée pour nous assurer que par la communication de son corps et son sang nos âmes sont nourries en espérance de la vie éternelle.
Christ par le pain nous représente son corps et par le vin son sang. 341. M : Pourquoi est-ce que le Seigneur, par le pain, nous représente son corps et par le vin, son sang? E : Pour signifier que telle propriété qu'a le pain envers nos corps, c'est de les repaître et sustenter en cette vie mortelle, aussi a son corps envers nos âmes, c'est de les nourrir et vivifier spirituellement. Pareillement, que comme le vin fortifie, réfectionne et réjouit l'homme selon le corps, aussi que son sang est notre joie, notre réfection et vertu spirituelle. Fiance de notre salut, en quoi gît
342. M : Entends-tu qu'il nous faille communiquer vraiment au corps et au sang du Seigneur? E : Je l'entends ainsi. Car puisque toute la fiance de notre salut gît en l'obéissance qu'il a rendue à Dieu son Père, en tant qu'elle nous est imputée, comme si elle était nôtre, il faut que nous le possédions. Vu que ses biens ne sont pas nôtres, sinon que premièrement il se donne à nous.
343. M : Mais ne s'est-il pas donné à nous quand il s'est exposé à la mort pour nous réconcilier à Dieu son Père et nous délivrer de damnation? E : Si est bien. Mais il ne suffit pas de cela, sinon que nous le recevions, pour sentir en nous le fruit et l'efficace de sa mort et passion.
Comment nous recevons Jésus-Christ 344. M : La manière de le recevoir est-ce point par foi? E : Oui. Non seulement en croyant qu'il est mort et ressuscité pour nous délivrer de la mort éternelle et nous acquérir la vie, mais aussi qu'il habite en nous et est conjoint avec nous en telle union que le chef avec ses membres, afin de nous faire participants de toutes ses grâces en vertu de cette conjonction.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.26.26-Matt.26.28;1Cor.10.16 — While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and having blessed it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." Matt.26.27 — And taking a cup, and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. Matt.26.28 — For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 1Cor.10.16 — The cup of blessing that we bless — is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break — is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
- ↩Rom.5.10;2Cor.5.18-2Cor.5.19;Eph.5.2 — For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 2Cor.5.18 — All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 2Cor.5.19 — that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. Eph.5.2 — and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma
Notes
- 1 ↩French communication de son corps et son sang is Calvin’s technical term for sacramental participation/communion; rendered as “partaking of” to keep the Reformed sense without archaic diction.
- 2 ↩vertu spirituelle rendered as 'spiritual strength' (power/efficacy), not moral virtue; réfection/réfectionne as refreshment/refreshes.
- 3 ↩Fiance = trust/confidence/reliance (not modern 'engagement'); gît = lies/rests. Appears to be a heading fragment continued in the next section.
- 4 ↩French fiance is confidence/trust/assurance of salvation; rendered as confidence to keep the relational trust sense without modern psychological overtones. Imputée is kept as imputed for the forensic theological force.
- 5 ↩Middle French 'Si est bien' is the affirmative reply to a negative question (si = yes, contrary to the implied doubt); rendered as natural modern affirmation rather than a calque.
- 6 ↩'L'efficace' keeps the older technical sense of effective power/working (not mere 'effectiveness' as success); 'sentir' is experiential knowing of that fruit in us, not bare intellectual assent.
Catechism of the Church of Geneva (Le catéchisme de l'Église de Genève) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit