Letters to the Editor
THE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —Mc language employed at the Institution of the Eucharist is misunderstood unless it is-remembered that it is the language. of sacrifice—" body," " blood," " covenant." These are all words steeped in sacrificial associations. Christ, in His Passion, is inaugurating the new covenant between God and men ; old things are passing away, the old worship, the old sanctuary, the old sacrifices. He is conscious of Himself as the Way to the Father, whose self-offering cul- minating in His death is to bring to others that communion with the Father which has been ever His ; communion for Ilium, and for His, is achieved through sacrifice.
Looking into the future, He says " This is my Body ; this is my Blood of the Covenant ; do this " ; and the meaning of those words is surely not reached by asking " are they
literal' or arc they ' spiritual' ? " ; their primary meaning is " as often as ye eat and drink ye show forth the Lord's death " ; " you draw near to the Father, find communion with Him, through Christ your Sacrifice." Body and Blood can only mean Body and Blood of the Victim. " Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us ; therefore let us keep the feast."
The elements, blessed and given and received, are what they are because of the place given to them by Christ ; any further analysis is surely unmeaning. They cannot be taken out of their setting, and that setting is more than " a solemn supper in His memory " ; it is the sacrament of our redemp- tion, of communion through redemption ; and it pledges us, who also are the Body of Christ, to the same sacrificial life.
The Eucharist is " the new sacrifice of the new law " ; questions as to " the mode of Christ's presence " therein arc subordinate : quite possibly they should never have been raised ; if they are raised, is any answer safe except the answer that here all is His ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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