In his work
defending the Roman Catholic dogmatic teachings about the Mass (i.e., it is a
propitiatory sacrifice and, related to such, Transubstantiation being the only
proper understanding of “Real Presence”), Robert Bellarmine, while a staunch defender
of Catholic Trinitarian theology (see Controversy 2, dedicated wholly to
Christology), offered an interpretation of John 4:23-24 which mirrors how LDS
apologists discuss the passage, that is, it is not about the ontological nature
of God (the Father) being “only” a spirit, but instead, it is about the worship of God and such informs how we
should understand “spirit” in this passage:
. . .the following words of verse 23,
"the true adorers will adore the Father in spirit and truth," have
this sense: True adorers, i.e. those who truly worship God, namely Christians,
will adore the Father, i.e. they will sacrifice to God; in spirit and truth,
i.e. in a spiritual, and true sacrifice, not a carnal sacrifice or a type as
the Jews did. For the spirit is opposed to the flesh and truth is to the
figure; the Jewish sacrifice were carnal, because they consisted in the
slaughter of flesh and the effusion of blood, and at the same time were types
and shadows of future things. Yet the Eucharist is a spiritual sacrifice
because (as we already said), it is effected by the Holy Spirit and the words
of consecration, and at the same time, it is true and the fulfillment of the
old figures. Even if it is a type in respect to the sacrifice of the Cross,
nevertheless, in respect to the sacrifices of the Jews, it is not a type, but
must be said to be true. In this way, Chrysostom, Cyril, and Euthymius explain
the phrase, "In spirit and truth" in their commentaries on this
passage. Nevertheless, they can also be so distinguished, as Theophylactus and
St. Thomas distinguish them, as a spiritual cult, opposed to the carnal cult of
the Jews; moreover, the true cult is opposed to the false cult of the
Samaritans, who really did not legitimately, and through this not truly worship
God in their sacrifices. (Robert Bellarmine, On the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass [trans. Ryan Grant; Post
Falls, Idaho: Mediatrix Press, 2020], 90)
For articles responding to the Roman Catholic dogmatic teachings on the Mass from both the Bible and patristic literature, see:
