(1) Your beloved has often heard before how one should oppose this time to receive the reverend Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. But because these days are ordained to be used, we must again speak of it as much as is necessary; for I am well aware that there are some who do not know. But I do not think it can be better understood than to hold the abuse of the sacrament against the right Christian evangelical custom, which Christ instituted and ordained.
2) First of all, it has been taught so far that one should believe confidently and firmly that under the bread is the true body and under the wine the true blood of Christ. This is the first thing that has been pushed to the highest level, and when it has been brought to the people so far away, it has been considered to be the most important thing.
*This sermon is also found only in the editions ade. Together with the following sermons to be mentioned, it was first published in 1523 under the following title: "Ordnung und Bericht, wie es fürderhin mit jenen, so das hochwürdige Sacrament empfahen wollen, gehalten werden soll" etc. Cf. Erl. A. 11, 197, D. Red.
would have been preached. After that, the people were asked whether they desired the sacrament, and they freely gave it to them and did not care any more. Thus it was written in the two parts, that they believed and desired the sacrament; but to what purpose they desired it, and what more belonged to it, no one perceived, and did not see that such a belief might well be and is in the devil and in all unbelievers; for it is easy to be persuaded that one believes this article. For if I can believe that Christ rose from the dead; if I can believe that he passed through the stone that lay before the sepulchre, and made no hole therein; if I can believe that it is true that he passed through the shut door, that he broke nothing, and did no harm; that wood and his body were in one place, and yet the flesh and blood were truly there; I can also believe that in the bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ.
3 Therefore it is still a small thing that one lets it remain and believes only so much. Although they have meant that they have
610 D-11, 192-201. Sermon on the reception of the holy sacrament. W. n. 834-836. 611
made it delicious with it. Such faith and desire is nowhere enough for the sacrament, and all who do not know more about it, and do not have higher faith and desire for it, should stay away from it; for it is not much different that you give the holy sacrament to this, than if you thrust it into the neck of a sow; it is a mockery and dishonor of the sacrament; therefore think that you become different, or do not go to it.
For this reason, it should be ordered from now on that no one should be allowed to go to the sacrament, unless he is asked first and inquired of him how his heart is, whether he also knows what it is and why he is going: One has looked through one's fingers long enough **) and let the old abuse go; but now that the gospel has been driven further into the world, one must †) do to the things and remedy the lack. So one should act in this as one acts with a child, or with another whom one baptizes. When one brings him to baptism, it is not enough that he believes that this is baptism and a sacrament instituted by Christ. Nor is it enough to ask him if he wants to be baptized, which is done at the very last; but at the first one asks him thus: Do you renounce the devil and all his works and creatures? then: Do you believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Then the Baptist asks whether he has a righteous faith and knows what he is looking for and why he is there, and for what purpose he needs the Sacrament. Rather, in this sacrament, one should act in such a way that no one goes to the sacrament, unless one first hears whether he is such a vessel that he can grasp it, so that it is not thrust down the throat of an unclean animal. For those who go with that faith alone think no further than that they only take it for a work, think it is enough, and do it only because it is so instituted and in use.
**) Instead of: Man etc. has b: It is enough that we once again look through the fingers and etc. D. Red.
is that it should be done, as if you asked someone why he was baptized, and he answered: I do not know, it is therefore appointed, therefore I will also do it, I think it is a good work.
(5) Now the reverend Sacrament cannot be reviled and profaned more highly than by considering it a good work. For a good work is that which I can do to another, and must be my work; but the sacrament is not my work, but God's, that I may serve myself only and receive benefit. Therefore, as far as God's work and my work are from each other, so far is this also separated from each other, that one considers this sacrament to be God's work and our work. So it is obvious that it is great dishonor to the sacrament and blasphemy if you do not consider it to be God's work.
(6) Therefore, if someone wants to go to the sacrament, they should ask: First, what is the sacrament? Then he should answer, "The words are the sacrament, which Christ spoke in the supper: "Receive, this is my body, which is offered for you; this is my blood, which is poured out for you for the remission of sins. After that, that he hath instituted for the words the bread and the wine, under which is his flesh and blood, for a sign and seal that the words are true. Ask then further, To what end are these words good, which Christ speaketh, and putteth a seal unto them? Answer: They are good for this, that I may believe them, not that I may do a good work on them, so that my faith may hang on them with my heart, and I may not doubt, so long as the words are true. What are the words? Thus, "This is my body, which is offered for you." These words he says to all those who have received the sacrament, therefore you must adhere to them with faith, saying, "Therefore I come and desire the sacrament, that I may believe that his body is given for me, that his blood is poured out for me, that my faith may be strengthened thereby, and I will receive the sign. Whoever cannot do this, or does not believe, should certainly not go there; for if there is no such faith in the heart, all is lost.
(7) Behold then, how far apart are that faith and this faith. For if you believe that the sacrament is the flesh and blood of Christ, what good is it to you? and what use is it to you? The devil also believes it, but what does it help him? You do no more than a work with it, and enjoy it no more than a monstrance in which it is put, or a cloth on which it is laid; for you are not a vessel made for him to work in. But when faith comes, which takes hold of the word, and says: "Christ has spoken these words, and I believe them to be true, and will die on them, and am sure and certain that they are there, that they have been given to me and are mine, so that I accept them as my own property, which God has given me, this is very far from that faith; for the latter gives you nothing, but this gives you and brings you, as you believe, all the treasure of which the words say.
(8) For this reason enough has been spared up to now; (*) but henceforth it must be so that no one is given the sacrament unless he knows how he believes and that he is such a vessel that can hold it, and knows how to show his faith. It is also very necessary that the sacraments be instituted externally for the purpose of confessing and demonstrating faith, so that it may be revealed before the world. For in the sight of God we would have enough to believe in the gospel; but now he wants us on earth to serve the people, and to confess the faith we have in our hearts before the world with some signs; these are baptism and this sacrament. With the mouth we must confess the gospel and then take the sacrament as a sign, so that the world may know that we are Christians. And so I am certain for myself that I have a gracious God, and I have done enough in the eyes of the world. If you do not do this, what will you do at the Sacrament? What will you do if it is to apply to your neck and to the cross? item, if it comes to it that you
*) Therefore also I will have said this before: this year we will spare you; but etc. (b) D. Red.
die, and the devil shall dispute thee? If you will then say: Yes, I believe that I have taken the sacrament, I believe that it is truly the flesh and blood of Christ; then the devil will say again: Yes, I believe that too. So your faith is of no help to you, the devil has won and will push you so far that you can never be helped.
009 But if thou say, Behold, thou tyrant, or devil, or death, I have received the sacrament, in which my Lord Christ comfortably assures me by his word that his body and blood are mine, I believe, not only as thou dost, that it is his flesh and blood; but that all things are given me which are in the words. Therefore I set this faith against thee and against all calamity, and stand fast on the words: they will not lie to me; for they are God's words and God's signs. So you must be prepared if you are to die; neither I nor any man will be able to help you, even if all the priests stand by you with the sacrament; as has been done until now, and no more has been accomplished than that one has made a work out of it, and thought it should help. Yes, it should help.
010 We read in the books of the kings, 1 Sam. 4:3 and following, that when the children of Israel fought against the Philistines, and they were smitten, and put to flight, the elders of Israel said unto the people, This shall be the iniquity that God hath caused us to perish, that we have not the ark of God with us. So they went and fetched the ark; and when it was come, they cried out in hostility, so that their enemies were almost afraid, and thought that they had now won; but when they met together, they were smitten again. What was the matter then? The ark or the ark was there, since God was as certain as in the sacrament; why did he not want to help them? Therefore, that they also made a work of it. For then they stood alone, and had not faith; therefore also God punished them, and they were smitten worse than before. So do we, standing only on the work of receiving the sacrament, and going without faith. So also the
Devil, when it comes to the meeting, much more annoying than before.
(11) I know well that this abuse, alas, is deeply entrenched; therefore we must work to root out the error, and to frighten away those who think that it is enough to believe that in the sacrament is the body and blood of Christ. It is true that the food is there, but you eat it and do not enjoy it. But then you enjoy it, if you believe that it is given to you, as we have said. Christ does not speak in the words, Behold, there it is, there it lies; but thus he says, Take, it shall be thine. It is not in the Sacrament that we should have it lying there, but that we should have need of it.
012 Now therefore there is no right custom, but that thou shouldest believe that this body is given for thee, and that this blood is shed for thee: as thou hast believed, so hast thou. If then thy conscience presseth thee, saying, Thou hast sinned here and there, and wouldest be free from it; go thou unto the sacrament, and say, If I have sinned, this body hath not sinned, it is innocent; this body is offered for me, and this blood is shed for me for the remission of sins; this I believe, and for a sign will I take the sacrament. If you do this, your sin is gone and no more harm can come to you. For who can do anything to you? Everything here must shut up and fall silent. In spite of the devil and all misfortune; for I am now a cake with Christ, and no harm can come to me, I am sure of it; and so I have won.
(13) This is necessary for every Christian to know, so that he can tell it when he is asked why he is taking the sacrament. For this reason I say once again, although up to now*) according to the old custom, everyone was allowed to go to the Sacrament whoever came; but now from now on it shall not remain so, but shall be ordered in this way, whoever wants to take the Sacrament.
that he may be asked henceforth what the sacrament is, and what he seeks there; and that he may answer, as we have indicated above: First, that the words of Christ and the sign of the body and blood of Christ are the sacrament. Second, that in it he may seek to strengthen his faith and comfort his conscience, that we may come out of ourselves and come to Christ. Therefore, you must make sure that you know how to use the sacrament; if you cannot do this, the sacrament should not be given to you.
14. yet take care that you do not make a false faith for yourself, even if you believe that Christ has been given to you and is yours; and if faith alone is a human thought that you have made, then stay away from this sacrament. For it must be a faith that God makes, you must know and feel that God works in you, so that you undoubtedly believe it to be true that this word and sign has been given to you, and are so courageous that you think you want to die over it. And if you still fidget and doubt, kneel down and ask God to grant you grace, so that you may renounce yourself and come to the righteous faith. Then you would see how few Christians there are and how few of them would go to the Sacrament.
(15) But so it might be done and brought to pass, as I would have it, that they which believed rightly might be known in one place, and before others. I would have liked to do it long ago, but it has not been done, because it has not yet been preached and practiced enough. So Christ also did: he let the sermon go out in multitudes to everyone, as afterwards also the apostles, so that all heard it, believers and unbelievers, whoever caught it, caught it. So must we also do. But the Sacrament should not be thrown into heaps among the people, as the pope did. When I preach the Gospel, I do not know whom it will strike; but here I am to take it for granted that it has struck the one who comes to the Sacrament: there I must not cast doubt on it, but be sure that the one to whom I give the Sacrament has grasped the Gospel and is righteous.
believe it, as when I baptize one; neither shall he doubt it that receiveth it, or that is baptized. So now you have the right way and Christian use of receiving the sacrament. Further we shall speak of the fruits that follow when the sacrament is rightly used. Now, let us look at it.
(16) You have two fruits of the holy sacrament. One is that it makes us brothers and joint heirs with the Lord Christ, so that he and we become one cake. The other is that we also become common and one with all other believers where they are on earth, and are also all one cake. These two fruits were mentioned by St. Paul in the epistle to the Corinthians, which words we should all know, as those that Christ instituted the sacrament. Thus St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 10:17: "We many are one bread and one body, inasmuch as we are all partakers of one bread." Item, in the same place, he speaks v. 16: "The cup of libation, which we celebrate, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" These words should be common and well known in Christianity, since much is at stake. When we eat the bread, he says, we all have the same food, you have just that I have, and there is no difference that you are man or woman; and in that we all have it in common in the Sacrament, we receive all that Christ has and is. If I believe that his body and blood are mine, then I have the Lord Christ completely, and all that he is able to do, so that my heart becomes joyful and defiant, because I do not rely on my piety, but on the innocent blood and the pure body that I take.
Now what does our Lord Jesus Christ have and what is he able to do? His body and blood are without sin, full of grace, yes, the bodily dwelling of the divine majesty. Finally: all that God the Lord has, that is Christ's, these goods are all mine here. But that I may have a sign and assurance that so many precious, unspeakable goods are mine, I take the Body and the
Blood of Christ JEsu to me. Therefore no sin is ever blotted out by my work, as the poor, foolish people under the papacy lied; but by my truly believing that the body and the blood have been given to me. Therefore I am quite sure and certain that the Lord Christ gives me all the goods he has and all his power and might. So his wisdom, truth and piety take away and destroy all my sin; his eternal life eats away my death; by his strength and power I overcome the devil. Then a Christian man becomes an heir of eternal life and of all goods, and a ruler over all things, so that nothing can harm him.
(18) Such great goods you cannot obtain by any works, even if you say a thousand masses every day. Christ is such a person, who gives himself for you, so that it is impossible that sin, death, hell and the devil can remain before him, let alone that they should suppress the high majesty. Wherever his flesh and blood are, he will undoubtedly keep an eye on them, and will not allow them to be trodden underfoot; therefore, since you have his flesh and blood, you have all the authority that God himself has; that is, that we become one cake with the Lord Christ, that we enter into the fellowship of his goods, and he into the fellowship of our misfortunes. For here his piety and my sin meet together, my weakness and his strength, and so all things become common. What is mine is his, and what is his I have also. This is a great, unspeakable grace, from which the heart must become glad and courageous. If then you are one cake with Christ, what more do you want? You have it all abundantly, what your heart desires, and now you sit in paradise.
19 This is what one should have done if one had dealt with the Sacrament. But it has gone down so completely that not a word has been heard about it. If one wanted to make it good what fruits and benefits the sacrament would bring, then one taught: Whoever hears a mass one day, will not have it bad the day after *); thus they have
*) and similar monkey business (b). D. Red.
They drew on outward fortune and misfortune. They did even more, hiding and covering up the words so that no one in Christendom would hear them or speak them except the priests, because they are the most sacred words in the mass. Who has spoken and instigated this, but the worst devil in hell, to cover up and conceal that which should be said and done most in Christendom, and which should be known best of all? If this means that Christianity is governed, then God have mercy on it. Now this is the first fruit of the Sacrament.
The other is that we also become one bread, as Paul says, and one drink among ourselves. These are strange words, and come from a way that is not understood; which is all the fault of making a work of the Sacrament. How is it then that we are all one bread and eat one another? So it goes: when I eat the Sacrament, it eats me again: outwardly I eat the Sacrament; but inwardly and spiritually I take all the goods of Christ and Himself, just as when I eat bodily bread, which strengthens me inwardly in the body. Again, when I take the sacrament, Christ takes me and consumes me also, and eats me and my sin, and I enjoy his righteousness: so his piety and riches devour my sin and misery, so that afterward I have righteousness *).
021 So it is among us also, that we all become one cake, and eat one another. You know that when one makes bread, one grinds and crushes all the grains; then each grain becomes the other grain's flour, is mixed together in such a way that in a sack full of flour one sees all the grains crushed together, and that each has become the other's flour, and none retains its shape, but each gives its flour to the other, and each loses its body, so that many grains become the bodies of one bread. In the same way, when wine is made, each little grape mixes its juice into the juice of the other grape, and each loses its shape, so that it becomes one drink. So it shall be with us also. When I
*and have vain riches (b). D. Red.
I am your food, just as when you eat bread when you are hungry, it helps and gives strength to your body and hungry stomach; therefore, if I help and serve you in all need, I am also your bread. Again, if thou art also a Christian, do thou also so, that with all that thou hast thou serve me, that it may all be for my good, and that I may enjoy the same, as of meat or drink. If I am a sinner and you are pious by the grace of God, you will approach me and share your piety with me, pray for me, appear before God on my behalf, and take care of me as if it were yourself. So you consume my sin with your piety, as Christ did for us. So you eat me, and I eat you again.
(22) Then behold, what an exceedingly great thing it is about this sacrament, if one needs it rightly, that a man would have to be frightened to death at it, if he were to understand it rightly, because no reason can not comprehend it. Is it not great that the high majesty comes before me and also gives itself to me? after that, that all the saints come before me and stand there, take care of me, and serve and help me? Thus God places us in the fellowship of Christ and all His elect; there we have a great comfort to rely on. If I am a sinner, Christ stands there and says: "The sinner is mine, I will attack him with my holy fingers, who will murmur against him? So my sin falls away and I enjoy his righteousness. So we Christians also do among ourselves, one taking care of another, that one may bear another's sin and infirmity, and serve him with his piety. We do not understand this, and though we hear and understand it often, we do not believe it: therefore we go on forever, and feel neither fruit nor improvement.
23) These are the fruits of the reverend Sacrament, and this is the right Christian custom, and it is recently (that we conclude) that one should perceive the words that belong to the Sacrament, and then follow them.
and confess that one is a Christian. After that, one could feel and see whether those who take the sacrament also proved that fruits followed afterwards and showed love to others; if they did not want to do so, they could be excluded from the congregation. Thus, it would be possible to know which Christians are righteous and which are not.
(24) That has been said for this time about the sacrament; now let us also say a little about confession and conclude recently. In confession a word is also spoken, so that the priest absolves you in God's stead; these words are not to be despised here. We do not want to force anyone to tell all his sins, but no one should go to the sacrament in such a way that he despises confession. We have often preached about this, but now we want to say it and admonish: If thou wilt confess, take care that thou look and think rather on thy future life than on the former life; and do not do thus, as has been done hitherto, that one went to confession because it was commanded to confess every year, so that one greatly troubled the consciences, and especially that one had to tell all the pieces, with all the circumstances, when, how, and where? They only thought that confession was done, and did not think about how to improve their future life. Therefore, turn it around, so that you may even put it on the future; for it is now forgiven that you have sinned before. Therefore see to it that thou begin another life, and that thou feel thyself to be sick of the former life, and to be full of it.
025 Then see if thou be of this mind; if thou be not, it profiteth thee not to confess thy life. For this shall be the-
*) go, take the sacrament and (d). D. Red.
When you go to confession, you are absolved and think of starting a new life; you may now say that your sins are gone and God is pleased with you. The pope has thus commanded and decreed that one must confess every year on the feast of Easter, when one goes to the sacrament, and there confess everything that one has done the whole year, and thus every year again; so that it should remain free, only for the good of those who find themselves able to begin a new life; then each one may confess at whatever time he wishes. They thought that it was in our power and free will to repent of sin and start a new life; therefore they made laws about it. But they make people lie and say that they are sorry for sin, and that it is not true; therefore see to it that you understand the matter.
The other thing, which also belongs here, is that you hear the absolution with true faith, and do not doubt that these words spoken by the one to whom you confess are spoken by God Himself. For God has thus humbled Himself and lowered Himself to put His holy divine word into the mouth of man, so that he who confesses should not doubt at all that God Himself is saying it. Therefore, we should accept it as if he did it himself. He has done it for your benefit, for you might not like it if he spoke to you himself: how would you run, yes, to the end of the world, if you heard that God himself was speaking? You have it at home in front of the door; why do you not see it? And it is just as certain as there, even more certain; for there I have his promise, there I would not have it. Therefore make thee believe, and think to lead a different life thereafter; otherwise it is better that thou stay away from confession and the sacrament. Let us leave it at that for this time and call upon God for mercy.