Aquinas: Christ’s Love in the Eucharist
Excerpt
This belongs to Christ’s love, out of which for our salvation He assumed a true body of our nature. And because it is the special feature of friendship to live together with friends, as the Philosopher says (Ethic.ix.), He promises us His bodily presence as a reward, saying (Matth. 24:28): Where the body is, there shall the eagles be gathered together. Yet meanwhile in our pilgrimage He does not deprive us of His bodily presence; but unites us with Himself in this sacrament through the truth of His body and blood. Hence (John 6:57) he says: He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. Hence this sacrament is the sign of supreme charity, and the up-lifter of our hope, from such familiar union of Christ with us.
Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne. Print.
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