"And a kind of resurrection there is in them": Resurrection and Eucharist

One chief corner-point of His was, 'when He joined the Lamb of the Passover and the Bread of the Eucharist, ending the one and beginning the other, recapitulating both Lamb and Bread into Himself' [quoting Jerome]; making that Sacrament, by the very institution of it, to be as it were the very corner-stone of both the Testaments.

No act then more fit for this feast, the feast of the Passover than that act which is itself the passage over from the Old Testament to the New. No way better to express our thanks for this Corner-stone, than by the Holy Eucharist, which itself is the corner-stone of the Law and the Gospel.

And there is in it a perfect representation of the substance of this verse and text set before our eyes. Wherein two poor elements of no great value in themselves, but that they might well be refused, are exalted by God to the estate of a divine mystery, even of the highest mystery in the Church of Christ.

And a kind of resurrection there is in them, and therefore fit for the day of the Resurrection, as ever in Christ's Church Easter-day hath pleaded a special property in them. Sown as it were, in weakness and dishonour; and, after they be consecrated, rising again in honour and power.

Lancelot Andrewes, sermon on Easter Day 1611, preaching on Ps.118:22, 'The stone Which the builders refused is become the Head-stone of the corner'.

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laudable Practice

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