Today is the feast of St. Roberto Bellarmino, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. From one of his sermons on the Eucharist:
...a man's last will and testament should surely be drawn up in the straightforward speech of everyday life. No one but a madman, or one who desired to make trouble after his death, would employ metonymy and metaphor in such a document. When a testator says, 'I leave my house to my son John,' does anybody or will anybody ever understand his words to mean 'I leave to my son John, not my house itself standing four-square, but a nice, painted picture of it.' In the next place, suppose a prince promised one of you a hundred gold pieces, and in fulfilment of his word sent a beautiful sketch of the coins, I wonder what you would think of his liberality. And suppose that when you complained, the donor said, 'Sir, your astonishment is out of place, as the painted crowns you received may very properly be considered true crowns by the figure of speech called metonymy,' would not everybody feel that he was making fun of you and your picture ? Now Our Lord promised to give us His flesh for our food. The bread which I shall give, He said, is my flesh for the life of the world.
[Quoted in James Brodrick, S.J., The Life and Work of Blessed Robert Francis Cardinal Bellarmine, S.J., 1542-1621, Volume I, Burns Oates and Washbourne, Ltd. (London: 1938), p. 84.]
