10 February 2010
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
But if it be granted that the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Supper is one which is fixed, absolute, and unchanging; then it must be substantial, and not imaginary; not a thing of our minds, but of His wonderful person; not ideal, but true; faith does not make it, but finds it, unto life; unbelief does not unmake it, but, to its condemnation, fails to discern it. The sacramental presence is fathomless, like the Incarnation; like it, also, it is in the sphere of supernatural reality, to which the natural is as the shadow. - C. P. Krauth, Conservative Reformation p. 64
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4 comments:
"...fixed, absolute, and unchanging..."
It certainly sounds like Krauth doesn't hold that the Real Presence would disappear if everyone left the room.
No, I don't think he'd hold that, but he also defends the "outside the use" to mean that the Body and Blood of our blessed Savior are present from the beginning of the Supper to its end; but that this presence, in his words, is *voluntary* not mechanical. It hinges upon DOING that which the Words of Institution command: taking, eating, drinking. He concludes that "if the object of the external act precludes the communion, if the elements are *merely* to be reserved or carried about in procession for worship, there is no reason to believe that there is any sacramental presence of Christ's body whatever." (p. 823)
What sorts of things could preclude the communion? Does adoration, in itself, preclude the communion? I tend to think it's not the adoration itself, or even the possibility of a procession, but specifically the withholding of the distribution that precludes, well, the distribution.
Oh, by no means was he denying adoration within the use. He was denying consecration for the purpose of obtaining that which is then stored for adoration.
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