A Sacramentality of the Body

I suppose any partial observer, comparing the religious ceremonies of the Jews with ours, would be struck by this fact - that the Jews expressed their religion n sacrifices, and we in sacraments. And he would notice this, that whereas sacrifice means the destruction of the body ... our Christian sacraments do not mean the destruction of the body at all. They mean, rather, the consecration of our bodies to God, with the understanding that such consecration symbolises, and effects, a consecration of our souls as well. God in Christ has abolished the old, destructive sacrifices; e has prepared for us instead a redeemed body in which and through which the sanctification of our souls can take place. The body is washed, and the soul is made clean; the body is anointed, and the soul is strengthened; a little circle of gold is put round one finger, or the hands are tied with a plain strip of linen, and the soul enter, thereupon, into a new state of life.

Consider how, at the three most solemn moments of his career, the ordinary Christian comes before God to receive the sacramental grace which those moments require, and can take upon his lips, without irreverence, the very words which our Lord himself uses in the greatest of all his sacraments, Hoc est corpus meum - This is my body.

The infant presents itself before God at the font with the words, Hoc est corpus meum, this is my body. What other words can it use? There is no other thought of which it can be directly conscious. The troubled eyes, looking out on a world altogether strange to it, are already beginning to isolate one set of phenomena from the rest, those white things, its own hands and feet. If one of those white things comes in contact with the edge of the cradle, feeling results, feeling that communicates itself to the mind; somehow then, these white things are part of itself. The first judgment we are capable f making is simply the identification of the body as something belonging to us; hoc est corpus meum. Soul is there, to be sure, as well as body, in the newly born infant; but the soul has not yet found its own means of expression, has not yet begun to grasp life by experience; it is dumb, inarticulate, has not reached the knowledge of itself. The body is something that has already begun to be known; that, then, must be offered to God, and that is enough; God will cleanse and sanctify this new soul, enable it to partake of eternal life, through the body which he has prepared.

Man and woman present themselves before the altar to dedicate their lives in mutual fidelity; and once gain it is the body that is uppermost in our thoughts. Hoc est corpus meum, the bridegroom says to the bride; with my body I thee worship. For here it is, in the fullness of its powers, that body which was carried, years before, tiny and helpless to the font. It is strong enough to work, now, and to make a livelihood for itself; and not for itself only, but for a household. It is strong enough to defend others besides itself against attack. And it is capable now, if God so wills, of continuing its kind, of begetting new life. With all these powers the bridegroom does worship to the bride; yet these are only the symbol of that love whose true sphere is in the soul. And the bride in her turn puts out her finger to receive the ring: hoc est corpus meum, she seems to say, here is my body, for you to hold; yet her soul goes out with it. As they offer the bodies he has prepared for them to him and to one another, God finds his opportunity to breather sacramental grace into their souls.

And once again, at the last scene of all, when a man lies on his death-bed, it is through the body that sacramental grace comes to heal him. His body is closer to him than ever; he is conscious of little except its labouring breath, its fevered pulses - this body of which he must take leave so soon, this body which now means so little. Hoc est corpus meum, he says, this is my body, still mine for a little, before it returns to its parent earth. This is my body, in which I have taken such pride, to which I have devoted so much attention, in which and through which I have sinned. This is my body; come, holy oil, and anoint it - these eyes that have seen and coveted what was unlawful, these ears that have been open to evil communications, these lips that have lied, detracted, blasphemed, these hands and feet that have been the ministers of my wicked passions. This is my body, which will be soon cold clay, now giving access to my soul, for the last time, through the gateways of sense; let these last sense-impressions of mine be all of holy things, seal them, holy oil, and shut them against the echoes of earth. So God's grace comes to him, for the last time, through his body and his soul is healed.

From The Mass and the Ritual in the Pastoral Sermons of Ronald A Knox