In the doctrine of the Eucharist, the decisive point was seemingly a matter of translation, but, in reality a matter of a different Spirit. The open discussion went around the statement: “This is my body,” about the meaning of the word “is. ” The humanists usually interpreted it by “signified.”m means.” Luther emphasized that it cannot mean this but must be taken literally: the body of Christ is literally present. For Zwingli it is present for the contemplation of faith, but not per essentiam et realiter (by essence and in reality) “The body of Christ is eaten when we believe that He is killed for us.” You see that everything is centered on the subjective side. It is the representation of a past event. The present event is merely in the subject, in the mind of the believer. He is certainly with His Spirit present in the mind, but He is not present in nature. Mind can be fed only by mind, or spirit by spirit, and not by nature.
Against Luther he says that the body of Christ is circumscripte (by circumscription) in Heaven, i.e., on a special definite place. Therefore it is a special individual thing; it does :not participate in the Divine infinity. As man with a body Christ is finite, and the two natures are sharply separated. Therefore the Lord’s Supper is a memory and a confession but not a personal communion with somebody who is really present. Luther emphasizes the reality of the Presence, and in order to do this he Invented the doctrine of the omnipresence of the body of the elevated Christ. The presence of Christ is repeated in every act of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
Historical person and sacramental person are identical. In order to do this, Luther said against this: “Where you put God, there you must put humanity: they cannot be severed or separated; it has become one person.” To say that the Divine character of the bodily Christ is only said in symbolic or metaphoric terms is from the Devil.
