IV. Des sacrements — Le 53e dimanche
The Double Sign of Grace
The Lord provides both bread and wine in the Supper to accommodate our weakness and ensure we seek our full nourishment in Him alone.
A double sign for our weakness. Minister: Why is there a double sign? E: Our Lord did it for our weakness, so that he might make us understand that he is not only food for our souls, but also drink, so that we would seek our full and complete nourishment in him, and nowhere else.1 352. Minister: Must everyone use this second sign—the cup—without exception? C: Yes, according to the commandment of Jesus Christ, against which it is not lawful to attempt anything.
The Reality of Communion
Christ truly gives Himself to us in the Supper, uniting us to His substance through the incomprehensible power of the Holy Spirit.
The truth is with the figure 353. M: In the Lord's Supper, do we simply have the testimony of the things mentioned above, or are those things truly given to us there? E: Insofar as Jesus Christ is the truth, we must not doubt that the promises he makes at the Supper are fulfilled there, and that what he figures there is made good there. So, just as he promises and represents it, I don't doubt that he makes us partakers of his own substance in order to unite us with himself in one life. That we receive Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper, and how. 354. M: But how can that be, seeing that the body of Jesus Christ is in heaven and we are on this earthly pilgrimage? E: It is by the incomprehensible power of his Spirit, which truly joins things that are separated by distance of place.2
Lifting Hearts to Heaven
We must seek Christ in heaven rather than in the elements, finding in the sacrament a pledge of our future resurrection.
What must be done to have the truth of the sacrament 355. M: So you don't mean that the body is enclosed in the bread, or the blood in the cup?3 E: No. On the contrary, to have the truth of the sacrament, we must lift our hearts up to heaven, where Jesus Christ is in the glory of his Father, and from where we await him for our redemption—and not seek him in these corruptible elements.4 A pledge of the resurrection.✦5 Minister: So you understand that there are two things in this sacrament: the material bread and wine that we see with the eye, touch with the hand, and taste, and Jesus Christ, by whom our souls are inwardly nourished. Child: Yes.6 And yet, in such a way that we also have in it a testimony, and as it were a pledge, of the resurrection of our bodies, insofar as they are made partakers of the sign of life.7
Read the original Latin
Double signe pour notre infirmité 351. M : Pourquoi est-ce qu'il y a double signe? E : Notre Seigneur l'a fait pour notre infirmité, afin de nous donner à connaître que non seulement il est viande à nos âmes, mais aussi breuvage, afin que nous cherchions en lui notre nourriture pleine et entière, et non ailleurs.
352. M : Tous doivent-ils user indifféremment de ce second signe, à savoir du calice? E : Oui, selon le commandement de Jésus-Christ, contre lequel il n'est licite de rien attenter.
La vérité est avec la figure 353. M : Avons-nous en la cène simplement le témoignage des choses dessus dites, ou si elles nous y sont vraiment données? E : En tant que Jésus-Christ est la vérité, il ne faut douter que les promesses qu'il fait à la cène n'y soient accomplies et que ce qu'il y figure n'y soit vérifié. Ainsi, selon qu'il le promet et représente, je ne doute pas qu'il ne nous fasse participants de sa propre substance pour nous unir avec soi en une vie. Que nous recevons Jésus-Christ en la cène, et comment
354. M : Mais comment cela se peut-il faire vu que le corps de Jésus-Christ est au ciel et nous sommes en ce pèlerinage terrien? E : C'est par la vertu incompréhensible de son Esprit, laquelle conjoint bien les choses séparées par distance de lieu.
Que c'est qu'il faut faire pour avoir la vérité du sacrement 355. M : Tu n'entends pas donc que le corps soit enclos dedans le pain, ni le sang dedans le calice? E : Non. Mais au contraire, pour avoir la vérité du sacrement, il nous faut élever nos coeurs en haut au ciel, où est Jésus-Christ en la gloire de son Père, et d'où nous l'attendons en notre rédemption, et non pas le chercher en ces éléments corruptibles.
Arrhes de la résurrection 356. M : Tu entends donc qu'il y a deux choses en ce sacrement : le pain matériel et le vin que nous voyons à l'oeil, touchons à la main et savourons au goût, et Jésus-Christ, dont nos âmes sont intérieurement nourries. E : Voire. Et en telle sorte néanmoins que nous y avons même témoignage, et comme une arrhe, de la résurrection de nos corps, en tant qu'ils sont faits participants du signe de vie.
Scripture echoes
- ↩2Cor.1.22;Eph.1.13-Eph.1.14 — who also sealed us and gave the guarantee of the Spirit in our hearts Eph.1.13 — In him you also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation—in him, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Eph.1.14 — who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
Notes
- 1 ↩French viande here means food/nourishment in the older sense (not modern “meat” alone); rendered as food to match Eucharistic usage for the soul.
- 2 ↩French vertu here means efficacious power, not moral virtue; rendered 'power' to keep the pneumatic sense clear.
- 3 ↩French entendre here means 'mean / take it that' in catechetical dialogue, not mere intellectual comprehension; enclos dedans rejects local enclosure of Christ's body and blood in the elements.
- 4 ↩vérité du sacrement = the true reality of the sacrament (the thing signified), not a bare verbal truth-claim; éléments corruptibles refers to the bread and wine as perishable signs.
- 5 ↩French arrhes (earnest/deposit guaranteeing full payment) is rendered as “pledge,” the natural modern English for the biblical arrhabōn sense rather than commercial “down payment.”
- 6 ↩Early French voire is a firm affirmative (“indeed / yes”); rendered as plain “Yes” for dialogue naturalness rather than stiffer “Indeed.”
- 7 ↩même témoignage taken as intensifying/also (“a testimony as well”), not “the same testimony.” arrhe kept in the same “pledge/earnest” register as the section heading.
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