“Whoever Eats My Flesh and Drinks My Blood Remains in Me and I in Him”
Saint Thomas Aquinas on Sacramental and Spiritual Reception of the Eucharist
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53439/stdfyt48.24.2021.241-265Keywords:
Thomas Aquinas, Eucharist, sacrament, grace, faith, charityAbstract
This study exposits Thomas’s teaching on Eucharistic reception, giving particular attention to his treatment of spiritual and sacramental eating as well as the res et sacramentum of the sacrament. It traces the theology of spiritual and sacramental reception in the Summa theologies’ magisterial teaching on the Eucharist, and it argues that, far from acting merely as an esoteric or artificial heuristic intended to manage theological tensions in his doctrine of the Eucharist, Thomas identifies spiritual eating as vital for understanding three significant biblical accounts of receiving the body and blood of Christ. Thomas’s biblical commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew’s Last Supper Narrative (26:26-30), the Gospel of John’s Bread of Life Discourse (John 6:22-71), and Saint Paul’s I Corinthians discussion of worthy reception (I Cor. 11:23-34) observe that the very truth of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist –perfect in itself– makes sacramental and spiritual eating a decisive and scripturally operative difference for progress in the Christian life.
Downloads
References
Ashwort, E. J. (1991). Signification and Modes of Signifying in Thirteenth-Century Logic: A Preface to Aquinas on Analogy. Medieval Philosophy and Theology, 1, 39-67.
Colberg, S. (2016). Aquinas and the Grace of Auxilium. Modern Theology, 32(2), 187-210. https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12238
Colberg, S. (2020). The Wayfarer’s End: Bonaventure and Aquinas on Divine Rewards in Scripture and Sacred Doctrine. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press.
Dauphinais, M. (2005). And They Shall Be Taught By God: Wisdom and the Eucharist in John 6. In M. Dauphinais & M. Levering (Eds.), Reading John with Saint Thomas Aquinas: Theological Exegesis and Speculative Theology (pp. 312-17). Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt32b22q.22
Elders, L. (1990). Aquinas on Holy Scripture as the Medium of Divine Revelation. In La doctrine de la revelation divine de saint Thomas d’ Aquin, (pp 132-52). Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Emery, G. (2004). The Ecclesial Fruit of the Eucharist in Saint Thomas Aquinas. Nova et Vetera, 2(1), 43-60. https://stpaulcenter.com/03-nv-2-1-emery/
Healy, N. (2005). Introduction. In T. Weinandy et al., (Eds.), Aquinas on Scripture: An Introduction to his Biblical Commentaries (pp. 1-20). London: T&T Clark.
Holmes, J. (2005). Aquinas’s Lectura in Matthaeum. In T. Weinandy et al., (Eds.), Aquinas on Scripture: An Introduction to his Biblical Commentaries (pp. 73-97). London: T&T Clark.
Keating, D. (2005). Aquinas on 1 and 2 Corinthians: The Sacraments and Their Ministers. In T. Weinandy et al., (Eds.), Aquinas on Scripture: An Introduction to his Biblical Commentaries (pp. 139-58). London: T&T Clark.
McGuckin, T. (1993). Saint Thomas Aquinas and Theological Exegesis of Sacred Scripture. New Blackfriars, 74(870), 197-213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-2005.1993.tb07306.x
Prügl, T. (2005). Thomas Aquinas as Interpreter of Scripture. In R. Nieuwenhove & J. Wawrykow (Eds.), The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (pp. 386-416). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Rocca, G. (1991). The Distinction between Res Significata and Modus Significandi in Aquinas’s Theological Epistemology. The Thomist, 55(2), 173-197. https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.1991.0017
Roszak, P. & Vijgen, J. (Eds.). (2015). Reading Sacred Scripture with Thomas Aquinas: Hermeneutical Tools, Theological Questions, and New Perspectives. Turnhout: Brepols.
Roszak, P. & Vijgen, J. (Eds.). (2018). Towards a Biblical Thomism: Thomas Aquinas and the Renewal of Biblical Theology. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Sabra, G. (1987). Thomas Aquinas’ Vision of the Church. Mainz: Matthais-Grunewald-Verlag.
Spezzano, D. (2015). The Glory of God’s Grace. FL: Ave Maria Sapientia Press.
Thomae Aquinatis. (1941-45). Summa theologiae. 5 vols. Ottawa: Institute of Medieval Studies.
Thomae Aquinatis. (1951). Super Evangelium Sancti Matthaei Lectura. (5th ed). R. Cai (Ed.), Rome-Turin: Marietti.
Thomae Aquinatis. (1953). Super epistolas Sancti Pauli lectura, vv. 1 & 2. (8th ed). R. Cai (Ed.), Rome: Marietti.
Thomae Aquinatis. (1971). Super Evangelium Iohannis reportatio. R. Cai (Ed.), Rome: Marietti.
Torrell, J. P. (1996). Saint Thomas Aquinas. V.1: The Person and His Work. (Robert Royal, trans.). Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press.
Valkenberg, W. (2000). Words of the Living God: Place and Function of Holy Scripture in the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. Leuven: Peeters.
Walsh, L. (1993). The Divine and Human in St. Thomas’s Theology of Sacraments. In C. J. P. Olivera, et al. (Eds.), Ordo sapientia et amoris (pp. 321-52) Fribourg: Universitatsverlag Freiburg Schweiz.
Walsh, L. (2005). Sacraments. In R. Nieuwenhove & J. Wawrykow (Eds.), The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (pp. 326-64). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Wawrykow, J. (2015). “The Sacraments in Thirteenth-Century Theology”. In H. Boersma & M. Levering (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology (pp. 218-34). London: Oxford University Press.
Yocum, J. (2004). Sacraments in Aquinas. In T. Weinandy et al. (Eds.), Aquinas on Doctrine: A Critical Introduction (pp. 159-81). London: T&T Clark, 2004.
