God the Food and Drink of All.
1. AND it came to pass as he sat at supper with his disciples one of them said unto him:
Master, how sayest thou that thou wilt give thy flesh to eat and thy blood to drink, for it is a hard saying unto many?
2. And Iesus answered and said:
The words which I spake unto you are Spirit and they are Life. To the ignorant and the carnally minded they savour (of bloodshed and death) but blessed are they who understand.
3. Behold the corn (which groweth up into ripeness and is cut down) and ground in the mill, and baked with fire into bread! Of this bread is my body made, which ye see: and lo the grapes (which grow on the vine unto ripeness) and are plucked and crushed in the winepress and yield the fruit of the vine! Of this fruit (of the vine and of water) is made my blood.
4. For of the fruits (of the trees) and the seeds (of the herbs) alone do I partake, and these are changed by the Spirit into my flesh and my blood. Of these alone and their like shall ye eat who believe in me, and are my disciples, for of these, in the Spirit come life and health and healing unto man.
5. Verily shall my Presence be with you in the Substance and Life (of God) manifested in this body, and this blood; and of these shall ye all eat and drink who believe in me.
6. For in all places I shall be lifted up for the life of the world, as it is written in the prophets; From the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same, in every place a pure Oblation with incense shall be offered unto my Name.
7. As in the natural so in the spiritual. My doctrine and my life shall be meat and drink unto you, —the Bread (of Life) and the Wine (of Salvation).
8. [As] the corn and the grapes are transmuted into flesh and blood, so must your natural minds be changed into spiritual. Seek ye the Transmutation of the natural into the Spiritual.[1]
9. Verily I say unto you, in the beginning, all creatures (of God) did find their sustenance in the herbs and the fruits (of the earth) alone, till the ignorance and the selfishness (of man) turned many of them from the use which God had given them to that which was contrary to their original use, but even these shall yet return to their natural food, as it is written in the prophets, and their words shall not fail.
10. Verily God ever giveth of the Eternal Life and Substance to renew the forms of the universe. It is therefore of the flesh and blood, even the Substance and Life of the Eternal, that ye are partakers unto life, and my words are spirit and they are life.
11. And if ye keep My commandments and live the life (of the righteous) happy shall ye be in this life, and in that which is to come. Marvel not therefore that I said unto you, Except ye eat of the flesh and drink the blood (of God) ye have no life in you.
12. And the disciples answered saying:
Lord, evermore give us to eat of this bread, and to drink of this cup, for thy words are meat and drink indeed;. By thy Life and by thy Substance may we live forever.
LECTION 32. 4,5, 8. -The true significance of the bread and the wine in the Holy Eucharist is here taught by anticipation -the substance and life of the Eternal One given and shed for the sustenance of the universe, and this does not exclude, but contains, all other mystical significations which piety suggests, as good, beautiful, and true -each in its place.
Read: Romans 12:2