Today’s Readings Podcast Description

Augustine distinguishes the sacrament from the matter of the sacrament. Sign and thing can be separated. The cup was poison to Judas, not because he received what was evil, but because he wickedly received what was good. Christ is the substance of every sacrament. Out of him they promise nothing. The ordinance remains what God made it even when the wicked receive it without fruit: “If you receive carnally, it ceases not to be spiritual, but it is not spiritual to you.” Two faults are to be avoided: treating the signs as empty, and stopping at the visible sign as if it were the gift. Sacraments offer Christ as the word offers him. They pour no grace from themselves. The Spirit must open the vessel. The term sacramentum covers every sign God stamps with his word—the tree of life,  ...