Calvin and the Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper

This is how Selderhuis summarizes Calvin’s effort at seeking to grapple with the presence of the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper in the midst of the differences between Luther and Zurich:

“Calvin tried to resolve things by combining the elements that both Luther and Zwingli insisted on. He thus arrived at a belief in the real presence of Christ through the Spirit, a solution through which some kind of unity was established both with the Wittenbergers and with the Swiss. Unfortunately, a three-party consensus was never achieved. Calvin was honest enough to admit that he did not fully understand Christ’s presence. ‘If someone were to question me as to its mode, I would without shame admit that the mystery is too great to be grasped by my understanding or to be expressed in words. To be honest, I experience it more than I understand it’” (John Calvin: A Pilgrim’s Life p94 – Calvin’s quote is from the Institutes 4.17.32)