And this is what is said [Is 30.23]: “The bread of the
grain of the land shall be most plentiful, and rich.” For the land filled with
the blessings of all graces is the earthly body of Christ, which he drew from
the Virgin. This bread grew and was made from the grain of the Trinity in the
womb of the Virgin. And it is most plentiful, since there is in it full
refreshment of body and soul. And it is rich with the sweetness of all
devotion, since the sweetness and richness of the divinity fills both. And so every
one of the faithful finds full, sweet, and rich refreshment in this food. And
this is what is said [Jn 6.63], “It is the spirit that gives life: the flesh
profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” For
the Lord said this to the disciples when they thought this food was corporeal
and not spiritual food that would refresh the spirit by spiritual eating and
would refresh the senses by sacramental eating. And the Lord points them to the
universal power, which also refreshes the senses from the fullness of the
Spirit’s gifts, which it has in itself.
Therefore, this bread refreshes [us] in three ways that
it has in common with material food, and three ways that it has in common with
spiritual food, in which it differs from material food. For it refreshes from
heavenly power and from the purity of its substance and from the principles of
life which are in it, and it has these in common with material food. It also
refreshes because it is the root of immortality, and because it has power to
overcome and change others to itself, and because it is a general food for both
soul and body. And it has these three in a special way, since it is a unique
food, different from other foods. (Albert the Great, On the Body of the Lord
Distinction 3, Chapter 5 [trans. Albert Marie Surmanski; The Fathers of the
Church Medieval Continuation 17; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2017], 141-42)
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