698. CHAPTER 13
THE HOLY SUPPER.
I. WITHOUT SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE CORRESPONDENCES OF NATURAL WITH SPIRITUAL THINGS, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW WHAT THE USES AND BENEFITS OF THE HOLY SUPPER ARE.
This has been partially explained in the chapter on Baptism, where it was shown that without a knowledge of the spiritual sense of the Word it cannot be known what the two sacraments, baptism and the holy supper, involve and effect (see n. 667-669). It is now said, without some knowledge of the correspondences of natural with spiritual things, which is the same thing, since by means of correspondences the natural sense of the Word is changed into a spiritual sense in heaven; and because of this these two senses are mutually correspondent; therefore he who has a knowledge of correspondences is able to understand the spiritual sense. But what correspondences are, and the nature of them, can be seen in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture from beginning to end; also in the explanation of the Decalogue from the first to the last commandment, and particularly in the Apocalypse Revealed.