Treatise IV: On the Most Holy Eucharist

(cc. 801-869)

Reason of the order. - Having mentioned, in c. 801, the threefold benefit of his presence, his sacrifice, and communion, by which Christ gives himself to us in the most holy eucharist, the Code treats, in the prior chapter, of the sacrifice of the Mass, then, in the other, of the sacrament of the most holy eucharist. Moral theologians indeed were accustomed to explain the eucharistic argument in the inverse order. Yet the order of the Code seems more logical, since in the very sacrifice of the Mass the sacrament is confected, and it is of itself more fitting to treat the cause before the effect. Therefore let there be: