'He is not here': the mystical eucharistic theology of Donne and Andrewes
this particle of argumentation, the angel opposes prophetically, and by way of prevention, both against that heresy of Rome, that the body of Christ may be in divers places at once, by the way of transubstantiation, and against that dream of the ubiquitaries, that the body of Christ must necessarily be in all places at once, by communication of the divine nature. For, if the angel argue fairly, logically, sincerely, he is not here, for he is risen, then there is no necessity, there is no possibility of this omnipresence, or this multipresence, for then the angel's argument might have been denied, and they might have replied, what though he be risen, he may be here too, for he may be in divers places; but the angel concludes us in this for, he cannot be here, for he is risen; because he is risen, he cannot be here in the sepulchre, so, as that you may embalm his body, because he is ascended, he cannot be here, here in the sacrament, so, as you may break or eat that body.
Donne here employs the text to state Reformed concerns in negative terms, challenging Tridentine and Lutheran accounts of the Sacrament. Lancelot Andrewes in his 1613 Easter Day sermon invoked the same text to articulate the classically Reformed understanding but in positive terms, and did so through the prism of the BCP's eucharistic liturgy:
Earth is the place whence He is risen. The Angels tell us ... seek Him not here now, but in the place whither He is gone, there seek Him in Heaven. Heaven is a great circle. Where in Heaven? In the chiefest place, there where God sits, and Christ at His right hand ...
He was found in the 'breaking of the bread:' that bread she breaketh, that there we may find Him. He was found by them who had their minds on Him: to that end she will call to us, Sursum corda, 'Lift up your hearts;' which, when we hear, it is but this text iterated, 'Set your minds,' have your hearts where Christ is. We answer, 'We lift them up;' and so I trust we do, but I fear we let them fall too soon again.
Therefore, as before so after, when we hear, 'Thou That sittest at the right hand of the Father;' and when again 'Glory to God on high,' all is but to have this. But especially, where we may ... ' taste of the heavenly gift,' as in another place he speaketh; see in the breaking, and taste in the receiving, how gracious He was and is; was in suffering for us, is in rising again for us too, and regenerating us thereby to 'a lively hope.' And gracious in offering to us the means, by His mysteries and grace with them, as will raise us also and set our minds, where true rest and glory are to be seen.
Sam Bray, in a superb essay on the coherence of the Book of Common Prayer eucharistic rite (contra Dix), has emphasised how this theology is given liturgical expression:
Another aspect of the shape of the Communion service is an ascent to and descent from the divine presence in heaven. In Archbishop Cranmer’s design, we lift up our hearts to heaven (Sursum corda); we enter, as it were, the divine throne room (Sanctus); in awe of God’s presence we respond as the prophet Isaiah did (Prayer of Humble Access); we partake of the bread and wine; and we descend with a song of the angels on our lips (Gloria).
When can see why Andrewes declares of "the blessed mysteries", "On earth we are never so near Him, or He us, as then and there". What appears to be a negative basis for sacramental theology - 'He is not here, for he has risen' - actually leads to a rich and mystical understanding of, in Donne's words, "when [we] feed upon the Lamb in the sacrament".
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