709. From what has been said it can now be established what the Lord's flesh and blood, and what bread and wine mean in their threefold sense, the natural, spiritual and celestial senses. Everyone who has had a religious upbringing in a Christian country can know - or if he does not know, can learn - that there is natural nourishment and spiritual nourishment, natural nourishment for the body and spiritual nourishment for the soul. For Jehovah the Lord says in the works of Moses:
It is not by bread alone that a person lives, but it is by everything that comes out of Jehovah's mouth that a person lives. Deut. 8:3.
Now since the body dies, and the soul lives after death, it follows that spiritual nourishment must be for everlasting salvation. Can anyone after that fail to see that these two kinds of nourishment must by no means be confused? If anyone does confuse them, he cannot help taking to himself natural and sensual notions about the Lord's flesh and blood, and about bread and wine; and since these ideas are derived from matter, the body and the flesh, they smother spiritual notions about this most holy sacrament.
[3] But should anyone be so simple-minded as to be unable to think with his understanding about anything other than what he sees with his eyes, I advise him, when he takes the bread and wine, and then hears the Lord's flesh and blood mentioned, to think to himself about the Holy Supper that it is the holiest act of worship, and to remember Christ's passion and His love for man's salvation. For He says:
Do this in remembrance of me. Luke 22:19.
And:
The Son of Man came to give his soul as a ransom for many. Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45.
I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10: 15, 17; 15:13.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church