'We must confide in these promises of mercy': on the role of the Comfortable Words in Prayer Book Communion

Today we resume readings from John Shepherd's notes on the 1662 Holy Communion, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801). Having discussed his commentary on the rubric requiring the general confession to be said by the communicants "kneeling humbly upon their knees", we turn to the Comfortable Words following the absolution. What is striking about Shepherd's commentary at this point is his understanding of the serious and weighty role of the Comfortable Words. Rather than merely being a rhetorical flourish to underline the absolution, they have a distinct role in the Prayer Book Holy Communion. Echoing the Catechism's teaching that those who approach the Sacrament must have "a lively faith in God's mercy", he states:

Repentance and contrition for former offences, with steadfast purposes of amendment of life, are not alone sufficient to make us worthy partakers of the Holy Communion. To approach the Lord's Table with comfort, and to receive all the benefits of this Sacrament, it is requisite that we should have a lively faith in God's mercy, and a mind undisturbed by either doubt or fear.

This emphasis can also be found elsewhere in the Prayer Book rite. The first exhortation, for example, declares "that no man should come to the Holy Communion, but with a full trust in God's mercy". In the Prayer of Humble Access, we express trust "in thy manifold and great mercies". The Prayer of Consecration opens by referring to "thy tender mercy". In the post-Communion Prayer of Thanksgiving, we offer thanks for the assurance in the Sacrament "of thy favour and goodness towards us". 

The Comfortable Words have a particular role, however, following the general confession and absolution. As Shepherd has reminded us, it is not with repentance alone that we are called to partake of the holy Sacrament. A "lively faith in God's mercy" is therefore encouraged and confirmed by the words of Our Lord, "thy holy Apostle", and the Beloved Disciple:

The Church has therefore subjoined these sentences, and appointed them to be read immediately after the absolution is pronounced. The general promises of "mercy and forgiveness" made in the absolution "to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith, turn unto Almighty God," are here confirmed by the express declarations of our Lord himself, and of two of his Apostles: and if we do not doubt the divine word, we must confide in these promises of mercy.

It is a beautiful description of the Comfortable Words: "these promises of mercy". From this flows our expression of trust in God's mercy through Christ in the Prayer of Humble Access and the Prayer of Consecration. They bring us, therefore, to partake of the holy Sacrament with faith in that "tender mercy" in Christ, proclaimed by the apostolic testimony. Thus understood, we can see why the absence of the Comfortable Words from contemporary eucharistic rites is no minor matter but a serious loss, undermining the call to receive the Sacrament with "a lively faith in God's mercy".

Shepherd continues by contrasting the Comfortable Words with the sentences which followed the absolution in the pre-Reformation rites:

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord;

R. Who made heaven and earth.

V. Blessed be the name of the Lord;

R. From this time, now, and for ever.

Shepherd rightly points out how inferior this provision is to the Comfortable Words:

The Missals of Sarum and of York had likewise sentences, but they were commonly taken from passages of the Old Testament, and had little relation to the Redeemer, through whose merits alone pardon of sin is obtained.

This is the other great virtue of the Comfortable Words - they are thoroughly, robustly Christocentric. They proclaim to us Solus Christus, as we prepare to partake of the Lord's Supper, the "Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death". 

We see, therefore, the great loss that is the absence of the Comfortable Words from contemporary Anglican eucharistic rites - and why their presence in 1662 and related rites is a gift to be received with joy and thanksgiving.