Christian Art | A Boy At Prayer With Jesus And The Trinity In The Eucharist
Office Of Readings | Eastertide Week 4, Wednesday | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Hilary Of Poitiers On The Trinity | Jesus And The Trinity In The Eucharist
‘The natural unity of the faithful in God through the incarnation of the Word and the sacrament of the eucharist.’
Historical Context | Saint Hilary And The Arian Controversy
Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367) was a bishop and doctor of the Church known primarily for his role in defending the Nicene faith against Arianism. This heresy denied the full divinity of Christ and therefore threatened the entire theological foundation of the Incarnation, Trinity, and Eucharist. In his principal theological work, De Trinitate (‘On the Trinity’), Hilary argues forcefully for the unity of the divine and human in Christ. The Eucharistic theology expressed in this passage reflects and supports that Christological argument.
In Hilary’s logic, the Eucharist becomes the concrete expression and continuation of the Incarnation: the eternal Word, having assumed human flesh, remains bodily present in the sacrament of his Body and Blood. Through our reception of that sacrament, we are united with him not merely symbolically or spiritually, but organically and substantially.
Theological Structure | Eucharistic Incarnation And Indwelling
Hilary’s main claim is that our unity with Christ is not merely moral or intellectual, but natural—a participation in his very being, made possible through the sacrament of the Eucharist. He writes:
‘If the Word has truly been made flesh and we in very truth receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that he abides in us naturally?’
This statement hinges on the premise of the Incarnation: if the eternal Word truly took on human nature, and if that human nature is truly received in the Eucharist, then we genuinely participate in the divine-human life of Christ. The term ‘naturally’ (naturaliter) here does not mean physically in a biological sense but refers to a real ontological union—a joining of being.
Hilary argues that this union is not only real but reciprocal: ‘He himself is in us through the flesh and we in him, and because we are united with him, our own being is in God.’ This reflects a classical patristic pattern of thought: the divine condescension (God becoming man) enables human exaltation (man sharing in divine life). This is the core of what Eastern theology calls theosis, and what Hilary, in Latin terms, expresses as indwelling and participation.
Eucharist As Fulfilment Of Christ’s Words
Hilary supports his theology by quoting Christ’s promise in John 14:
‘On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you.’
Hilary takes this not as a metaphorical statement about shared moral aims or mutual love, but as a theological statement about ontological unity—our being joined to Christ in the same real way that Christ is united to the Father.
This understanding culminates in John 6:56:
‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.’
Hilary is adamant that these words must be taken seriously: the Eucharist is not a symbol of Christ’s presence, but the means by which Christ remains present in us and we in him. This is why Hilary insists that Christ ‘abides in us naturally’—a union made possible only because of the hypostatic union (Christ’s full divinity and full humanity) and sacramentally communicated in the Eucharist.
Theological Implications | The Nature Of Unity
Hilary’s thought suggests a vertical chain of communion:
- Christ is in the Father by nature (as the eternal Son),
- We are in Christ by sacramental incorporation,
- Therefore, we are also united to the Father through Christ.
This ‘mediated unity’ does not dilute our relationship with God but secures it: because we receive Christ’s own humanity—permanently united to his divinity—we are drawn into the divine life. This is why Hilary argues that Christ’s statement is not reducible to a mere unity of will. If it were only about shared intentions or beliefs, the detailed progression Christ outlines (‘I in the Father, you in me, I in you’) would be unnecessary.
Hilary reaffirms this unity through another key Johannine text:
‘As I, who am sent by the living Father, draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.’
This creates a theological analogy: just as the Son receives life eternally from the Father (not created but begotten), we receive life from the Son by eating his Body and drinking his Blood. This is not mere imitation, but participation—our life is sustained by his indwelling presence.
Spiritual And Ecclesial Dimensions
For Hilary, this union is not only individual but ecclesial: all who share in the one Body are united with Christ and with each other. The Eucharist is the source of both personal sanctification and ecclesial unity. This early vision of the Church as the Body of Christ, united by the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, anticipates much later dogmatic theology, including the teachings of the Council of Trent and Vatican II.
The implication is that Christian life is not primarily about abstract belief, but about being transformed through sacramental participation in Christ’s divine-human life. It is a mystagogical reality—something into which we are initiated and continually nourished.
Faith, Flesh, And Communion
Saint Hilary’s commentary reminds us that faith in Christ is not merely an intellectual assent but a physical and spiritual union, made possible by the Incarnation and enacted through the Eucharist. To eat the Body of Christ is to be taken into the divine communion shared between the Son and the Father. Hilary’s thought prefigures many later theological developments and remains one of the earliest and clearest expressions of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
In a world that often spiritualizes or reduces religion to moral teaching, Hilary’s theology calls us back to the radical mystery of the Word made flesh, and the astonishing claim that through receiving him in the sacrament, we are transformed and divinized.
A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Hilary Of Poitiers On The Trinity
If the Word has truly been made flesh and we in very truth receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that he abides in us naturally? Born as a man, he assumed the nature of our flesh so that now it is inseparable from himself, and conjoined the nature of his own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which his flesh is communicated to us. Accordingly we are all one, because the Father is in Christ and Christ in us. He himself is in us through the flesh and we in him, and because we are united with him, our own being is in God.
He himself testifies that we are in him through the sacrament of the flesh and blood bestowed upon us: In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. If he wanted to indicate a mere unity of will, why did He set forth a kind of gradation and sequence in the completion of that unity? It can only be that, since he was in the Father through the nature of Deity, and we on the contrary in him through his birth in the body, he wishes us to believe that he is in us through the mystery of the sacraments. From this we can learn the perfect unity through a Mediator; for we abide in him and he abides in the Father, and while abiding in the Father he abides in us as well – so that we attain unity with the Father. For while Christ is in the Father naturally according to his birth, we too are in Christ naturally, since he abides in us naturally.
He himself has told us how natural this unity is: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. No one can be in Christ unless Christ is in him, because the only flesh which he has taken to himself is the flesh of those who have taken his.
He had earlier revealed to us the sacrament of this perfect unity: As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. He lives because of the Father, and as he lives because of the Father so we live because of his flesh.
Every comparison is chosen to shape our understanding, so that we may grasp the subject concerned by help of the analogy set before us. To summarise, this is what gives us life: that we have Christ dwelling within our carnal selves through the flesh, and we shall live because of him in the same manner as he lives because of the Father.
Glossary Of Terms
Incarnation
The Christian belief that the eternal Son of God (the Word) became human in the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. This is foundational to understanding Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.
Eucharist
The sacrament in which Christians receive the Body and Blood of Christ under the forms of bread and wine. Saint Hilary insists this is not symbolic but real and substantial.
Ontological
Relating to the nature of being. When Hilary speaks of a ‘natural’ union with Christ, he means a real union at the level of our very being, not just emotional or intellectual agreement.
Real Presence
A term used especially in Catholic theology to affirm that Christ is truly, substantially present in the Eucharist—not just symbolically or figuratively, but in reality.
Hypostatic Union
A theological term describing the union of Christ’s divine and human natures in one Person. This union makes it possible for Christ’s humanity to be a vehicle of divine life to us.
Arianism
A 4th-century heresy that denied the full divinity of Jesus Christ. Hilary opposed it forcefully in his writings, especially De Trinitate.
De Trinitate
Latin for ‘On the Trinity,’ this is Hilary’s major theological work, defending the full divinity of the Son and the unity of the Trinity.
Theosis
A Greek term meaning ‘divinization’ or participation in the divine nature. Hilary expresses a similar idea in Latin by speaking of our natural union with God through Christ.
Mediated Unity
The idea that we come into union with God the Father through our union with Christ the Son, who is himself united to the Father. Christ acts as the bridge between God and humanity.
Mystagogical
Related to initiation into mysteries. In Christian theology, it refers to deepening understanding of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, through reflection and participation.
Ecclesial
Pertaining to the Church. Hilary’s teaching also implies that the Eucharist unites believers not just with Christ, but with each other in the Church.
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We process. Glass exhibition cases, old reliquaries. A forearm here; here a nun’s fingertip. In chapel, at a glance, there are the usual faces. But they all stand to attention. Jonathan breaks from the procession to – fire the organ with oomph and dignity: Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. When we’ve done the readings, the Arch holds that tree in his hands to deliver the homily. He rocks quietly on his feet, some few seconds, as if balance defeated it. A way you might affect as the Spirit moves… Copying. Then he says: ‘Our palm fronds may seem to us today rather dry. I mean this not in a literal sense, but by the standards of those who originally lined the roadways in order to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, as they proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would be clambering up and ripping their palm branches fresh from off the trees. I think perhaps also our faith is somewhat distant from that of the people there on that highroad into Jerusalem, and something of our sense of the meaning has shifted in vividness from what it was then. And of course the expectation of all those many people is markedly different, but in many important respects the same. There are the same essential qualities to all our faith in God, which springs complete from our humanity, and that is one and the same in value for all of us, and time is consistent on this point. So then, let us renew the fullness of Catholic faith, and let us ask the Lord’s blessing as we embark upon our Holy Week. ‘Our Lord enters into Jerusalem in order to refresh us. He is to die in order that we may have life. There is a living reality here, both spiritual and as entangled in the joy of our daily living. We have Ladies’ Day where I grew up. They still have it, and they close the roads off, and little children parade, dressed-up like spring brides. When I was a boy, there was a May Day festival, and there was a May pole on the field, with the people dancing, like Morris dancers might be one way of visualizing this if you’ve never seen it, with their ribbons tied onto the top of the May pole, and they would weave around each other, dressing the pole, which is what we called it. It was like a dance with red and white and blue ribbons all hung off of the top of the May pole, which stood there all year, only like a telegraph pole, but it was concreted in, and then there was a slide, and swings – one baby-swing and two you could have a go at – terrible health and safety but that’s what it was in those days. ‘There was a round-a-bout – we used to run it round and round to try to get it off its central axis. It were rusty as anything and creaked like mad – on concrete. And climb up where it was all greased up at the top. Ruth, who was big as the next four of us, used to sit there sucking on the lollipops we nicked for her from Raddies, and she’d direct matters. We were trying to destroy it, and get it to dislodge from its central axis, and fly away – roll off into that farmer’s field, which he only ever kept for silage, but we never succeeded. There was a car someone had left there so we spent forever smashing that up, until someone who lived in one of the houses there took exception to our doing that, so he put thick grease under the door handles and gave us a right talking to. ‘It would only be a few stands, hot-dogs and things like that. The man selling the hot dogs would have his records on full blast. There’d be a couple of set-up stalls. Air-rifles – that sort of thing. But we all had them, and we all went shooting, of course, if not with twelve bores then with smaller gauge. Or pay a pound – I have no idea how much it was in actual fact then – it might have only been a few pennies – and we’d get all that time smashing up the crockery the man would put up for us to smash on the dressers. That was my particular favourite thing to do at these festivals, by the way, in case you were wondering. You got a little bucket of so many cricket balls. ‘I dread to think what went into those hot dogs. Probably EE rules would forbid it now. But it was a fair mix in those days. A lot of young people then were C of E. We’ve done a lot to hang onto our young people, which is a tremendous encouragement when you consider how things are, while in recent decades the Church of England hasn’t been so successful. People still want it on feast days and what are essentially now civic celebrations. It’s strange to see, though, how all the little stands there people have are run by the police and people like that along those lines. There’s no May pole. That was a sort of faith that ran and ran beneath all the theoreticals of it in the 1960s and the 1970s and into the 1980s. The May pole isn’t there now in the particular place I’m thinking of. Considering May poles were officially suppressed hundreds of years ago – as a part of the protestant reformation. One or two of you are probably thinking I’m remembering things from that time! ‘I should have liked to say that those processionals were so hardwired into us, that even after the last thirty years, when I became a bishop, they are still with us. They were […]
