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

1.4 Coda
under the symbols of bread and wine. I do not doubt that he himself truly
presents them, and that I receive them. 103
Christ invites his own to his table, and there, under the symbols of bread and
wine, by his Spirit, truly offers (exhibere) his flesh and blood as spiritual food for the
spiritual journey. Having lifted up their hearts and minds to heaven by faith, believers
are truly nourished with his flesh; eating with the mouth of faith, they truly feed on his
body and blood under the symbols of bread and wine. In his sacred Supper, Christ truly
communicates his body and blood to those who gather there, and believers truly receive
it—all owing to "the secret and incomprehensible virtus of the Holy Spirit," the bond of
our union with Christ, as Calvin so often puts it. As suggested at the outset of this
chapter, in Calvin's understanding, the role of the Holy Spirit is manifold on the
occasion of a celebration of the Lord's Supper, dynamic with respect to both the
"communication" of Christ's body and blood, and the "reception" of that spiritual food
by believers.
* * * * *
Calvin's emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit with respect to believers'
nourishment in the Lord's Supper is prominent—even preeminent—in treatises he
composed and published late in life. But was it always so? Did he always emphasize the
103 Institutio 1543, as in Inst. 1559 LCC 4.17.32. (LCC includes an interpolation of a reference to
John 6 that does not appear in the original printings.) "Itaque veritatem Dei in qua acquiescere tuto licet,
hic sine controversia amplector. Pronuntiat ille carnem suam esse animae meae cibum, sanguinem esse
potum. Talibus alimentis animam illi meam pascendam offero. In sacra sua coena iubet me sub symbolis
panis ac vini corpus ac sanguinem suum sumere, manducare ac bibere. Nihil dubito, quin et ipse vere
porrigat, et ego recipiam" (CO 2:1032).
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