Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/68

 60 CAVENDISH MOXON

father felt by the child, i. c. dependence, inferiority in age and power as a son and at the same time equality as a rival. If the sonship of the second person of the Trinity was emphasised, his Godhead was lost; when his equality was recognised the divine unity was split by the rival son-God. By the victory of the Logos doctrine over Arianism, God the Son finally won the central place in orthodox Christian faith and practice. The Father sank into the background and the Son — the rtpresentative of man's in- ordinate ambition — became the centre of the cult

The hero is ever unconsciously identified with his worshipper. Hence Christocentric religion is in harmony with typical unconscious needs. The believer feels at home as a member of the holy family of God. The Holy Trinity is ever in the mental background and God himself is felt to be a society of three perfect lovers. The Father unobtrusively protects and guides his children from heaven; the motherly love of the Holy Spirit is ever vnthin their soul; and the example of the heroic Son is ever before their eyes as an example for imitation. If the i)elievcr finds this family symbolism too difficult and abstract, he can worship the more concrete Trinity of Joseph, Jesus, and Mary. Only the infantile type of Christian desires to think chiefly of dependence on the parental will; the more virile type wants to be at one with the heroic Saviour Son. Hence the normal Christian experience has ever been a communion with Christ. And the greatest sense of power aod joy has been secured by the mystical feeling of being one with him, copying his deeds, becoming sons of God, sitting on thrones and judging ordinary mortals and being judged of none. This mystic union with Christ is the conscious symbolism of the Eucharist which is regarded as the supreme act of worship. The unconscious satisfaction gained in this rite is primitive and sexual. In this mystery rite Jesus is the I'hallic Saviour, The Lord must enter into the soul as his bride in order that the communicant may have the incorruptible seed of immortality within. At times the sexual meaning of the rite even comes to expression in the New Testament. The believer who is born of God, the Epistle of St. John declared, cannot sin because (iod's seed is in him. The full joy of Iloly Communion thus depends on a belief in the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament — and so the Church naturally fought against any who denied the coming of this precious medicine of immortality from the very body of Christ in his Mass.