THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

Ironically, not one of these quotes bears mention of the Holy Spirit, and yet not
one of these quotes is duly understood without Calvin's conception of the work of the
Holy Spirit, the secret and incomprehensible power of the Holy Spirit. For it is by the
Spirit that we are prompted to gather at the Lord's Table, and prompted in faith to seek
Christ there. It is by the Spirit that Christ proffers to us the food and drink of our souls
under the gifts of bread and wine, and it is by the Spirit that we receive them. It is only
by faith, which we could not possibly conjure on our own behalf but is itself wholly a
gift of the Holy Spirit, that we have the capacity and desire to offer our hearts, promptly
and sincerely, to be sustained and to be of service. So none of these quotations is so rich
as it may be without a concept of the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.
In part, this is the point of the study that is now drawn to a conclusion. While it
is true that very little ink is needed to put Calvin's references to the Holy Spirit in his
liturgy to a printed page, it is also true that the Spirit imbues every element of its
celebration, of its ethos. In his expositions on the Lord's Supper—whether in
instructional works such as the catechisms, or polemical works such as his treatises
addressed to Westphal and Heshusius—Calvin does not speak long before the Spirit
enters into his discourse. For Calvin, in the sacrament, as in all creation, nothing good
transpires apart from the work of the Holy Spirit: Christ's invitation is not spoken and is
not heard, one's ears are not opened and heart is not moved, and the mouth of faith is
kept from tasting and seeing that the Lord is good—good indeed.
The question that prompts the study at hand is the provenance of Calvin's
emphasis on the Spirit's role regarding believers' participation in the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. It is that persistent, pneumatological impulse present in Calvin's
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