709. From all this it can now be seen what is meant in a threefold sense, natural, spiritual, and celestial, by the Lord's flesh and blood, also by bread and wine. Every man in Christendom imbued with religion may know, and if he does not know may learn, that there is natural nourishment and spiritual nourishment, and that natural nourishment is for the body, and spiritual nourishment is for the soul; for Jehovah the Lord says in Moses:
Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live (Deut. 8:3). And as the body dies and the soul lives after death, it follows that spiritual nourishment is for eternal salvation. Who cannot see from this that these two kinds of nourishment ought by no means to be confounded, and that if anyone does confound them, he must needs adopt natural and sensual ideas, which are material, corporeal, and carnal, respecting the Lord's flesh and blood, and the bread and wine, which ideas suffocate spiritual ideas respecting this most holy sacrament? But if anyone is so simple as to be unable to think from his understanding of anything except what he sees with the eye, I advise him, when he takes the bread and wine and hears them called the Lord's flesh and blood, to think within himself of the holy supper as the holiest thing of worship, and to call to mind Christ's passion, and His love for man's salvation; for He says:
This do in remembrance of Me (Luke 22:19). Also, The Son of man came to give His life 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