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AND THEIR REFUTATION. 239
laudem Deo deferunt ; oratio praemittitur pro Popolo, pro
Regibus, pro ceteris; ubi venitur ut conficiatur venerabile Sacramentum,
jam non suis sermonibus Sacerdos, sed utitur sermonibus
Christi." St. John Chrysostom (17), speaking of the
same words, says :
" Hoc
verbum Christi transformat ea, quae
"
Dixit
proposita sunt." And St. John of Damascus says :
pariter Deus, Hoc est corpus meum, ideoque omnipotenti ejus
praecepto, donee veniat, efficitur."
49. The same Council (Cap. 3) says :
" Et
semper haec fides
in Ecclesia Dei fuit, statim post consecrationem verum Domini
nostri Corpus, ver unique ejus sanguinem sub panis et vini
specie existere ex vi verborum." Therefore, by the
power of the words that is, the words mentioned by the Evan
gelists instantly after the consecration, the bread is converted
into the body, and the wine into the blood, of Jesus Christ.
There is a great difference between the two sentences,
my body," and " We
may be made for us," or, as the Greeks say,
the body of Christ ;"
"
This is
beseech thee that the body of Jesus Christ
" Make this bread
for
the first shows that the body of Christ
is present at the very moment in which the sentence is expressed,
but the second is only a simple prayer, beseeching that the
oblation may be made the body, not in a determinative, but a
suspended and expectative sense. The Council says that the
conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of
Christ takes place vi verborum, not vi orationum, by the power
of the words, and not by the power of the prayers. St. Justin
Eucharistiam confici per preces ab ipso Verbo Dei
says (18) :
but
"
;" profectas and he afterwards explains that these prayers are :
"
This is ;" my body
the prayer in the Canon was not pro
nounced by the Word of God himself. St. Iraeneus(19) says,
also :
"
Quando mixtus calix, et factus panis percipit verbum Dei,
fit Eucharistia corporis Christi." We do not find that Christ, in
This is my body,
consecrating, used "
any other words but those :
and this is blood." my Taking all this into consideration, we
must decide that the opinion of Le Brun has not a sound founda
tion of probability.
50. Several Fathers (say the supporters of this opinion)
(17) St. Chrisost. Horn. 1 cle Prod. (18) St. Justin, Apol. 2.
Judse. 09) St. Ircn. /. 5, c. 2.