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The problem with saying that Jesus is only symbolically present in the Eucharist is that apparently nobody told this to the Early Church. Below are a collection of quotations from Christian documents of the 1st and 2nd Century. These demonstrate without a doubt that Christians have, from the earliest times, understood the Eucharist to be a sacrifice performed by priests in which Jesus Christ is truly present:

1. The Didache (c AD 50-100)
This Early Church manual says in very clear terms that the Eucharist is a sacrifice.

“On the Lord’s own day, assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks; but first confess your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure. However, no one quarreling with his brother may join your meeting until they are reconciled; your sacrifice must not be defiled. For here we have the saying of the Lord: ‘In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice…’”

2. St. Clement of Rome ( ?- c. AD 99)
Clement wrote to the Church in Corinth after they ejected their clergy. In his letter Clement says that it is these ministers who offer the sacrifice to God.

“[The Master] commanded us to celebrate sacrifices and services, and that it should not be thoughtlessly or disorderly, but at fixed times and hours. He has Himself fixed by His supreme will the places and persons whom He desires for these celebrations…Our sin will not be small if we eject from the episcopate those who blamelessly and holily have offered its Sacrifices.” – Epistle to the Corinthians

3. St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. AD 103-107)
Ignatius was being taken in chains for martyrdom in Rome. On his way he wrote letters condemning a form of Gnosticism (“Docetism”) which asserted that Jesus didn’t really have a body. Their denial of the Incarnation and Passion naturally excluded them from the Eucharist since Christians confessed that it was indeed the flesh of Christ:

“They [the Gnostics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again” - Epistle to the Smyrnaeans

Ignatius urged his readers again and again to remain with their bishop since that is where the Eucharistic sacrifice is offered:

“Take care, then who belong to God and to Jesus Christ – they are with the bishop… Do not err, my brethren: if anyone follow a schismatic, he will not inherit the Kingdom of God… Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: for there is one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of His Blood; one altar, as there is one bishop with the presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons.” -Epistle to the Philadelphians

“Come together in common… so that with undivided mind you may obey the bishop and the priests, and break one Bread which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ.” – Epistle to the Ephesians

3. St. Justin Martyr (AD 150-155)
Justin was a philosopher who converted to Christianity and whose martyrdom inspired many in the Early Church. Prior to his death, Justin wrote letters to the Emperor and Senate defending the Christian faith and in these letters he naturally speaks about the Eucharist. Basing his theology on the incarnation, Justin then describes the transformation of the bread and wine in the liturgy:

“For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh” - First Apology

 Because of this, not just anyone can receive the Eucharist:

“…no one is allowed to partake [of the Eucharist] but the man who believes [what we teach]…, …has been washed…for the remission of sins,…and who is living as Christ has enjoined“ - First Apology

 The other work we have from Justin is his dialog he had with a Jew called Trypho, in which he demonstrates that the Christian faith is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. Part of this fulfillment is the promise in the Old Covenant of the Messianic Age when pleasing sacrifices would be offered to God among the Gentiles. Justin says that this sacrifice is the Eucharist:

“God…announced in advance that all the sacrifices offered in His name, which Jesus Christ offered, that is, in the Eucharist of the Bread and of the Chalice, which are offered by us Christians in every part of the world, are pleasing to Him.” - Dialogue with Trypho

…God speaks through Malachi… ‘I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord; and I will not accept your sacrifices from your hands; for from the rising of the sun until its setting, my name has been glorified among the gentiles; and in every place incense is offered to my name…’ It is of the sacrifices offered to Him in every place by us, the gentiles, that is, of the Bread of the Eucharist and likewise of the cup of the Eucharist, that He speaks at that time; and He says that we glorify His name, while you profane it.” - Dialogue with Trypho

4. St. Irenaeus of Lyons (? – c. AD 202)
Irenaeus was a disciple of St. Polycarp who was, in turn, a disciple of St. John. Irenaeus wrote a major work against the Gnostics called “Against Heresies”. The Gnostics were dualists, thinking the spirit good and the body bad. Irenaeus rejects this, pointing to the Eucharist which nourishes our bodies and gives us hope of the Resurrection:

Irenaeus links the reception of the Eucharist with the Resurrection:

“[I]f the…cup and …bread receive the Word of God and become the Eucharist, that is to say, the Blood and Body of Christ, which fortify and build up the substance of our flesh, how can these [Gnostics] claim that the flesh is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life, when it is nourished by Christ’s Blood and Body…” - Against Heresies

“[T]he bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity” - Against Heresies

5. St. Clement of Alexandria (c. AD 150 – c. AD 215)
Clement was the head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria.

“The Word is everything to a child: both Father and Mother, both Instructor and Nurse. ‘Eat My Flesh,’ He says, ‘and drink My Blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients. He delivers over His Flesh, and pours out His Blood; and nothing is lacking for the growth of His children. O incredible mystery!” - The Instructor of the Children

6. Tertullian (c. AD 160 – AD 225)
Tertullian is not technically a “Church Father”, but an important “Ecclesial Writer” of the Early Church. Like the Fathers before him, he speaks of the Eucharist as a sacrifice. Like today, the Eucharist was offered (with profound reverence) for the dead:

The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord commanded to be taken at meal times and by all, we take even before daybreak in congregations… We offer sacrifices for the dead on their birthday anniversaries…. We take anxious care lest something of our Cup or Bread should fall upon the ground… – The Crown

This is probably my favourite quotation from him concerning the Eucharist:

The flesh feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ, so that the soul too may fatten on God – Resurrection of the Dead

7. St. Cyprian of Carthage (c. AD 200 – AD 258)
Cyrpian was born in North Africa and died a martyr. In his great work “The Unity of the Catholic Church” he shows how the Exodus of the Jews and the slaying of the Paschal lamb points to the Eucharist:

“[T]he sacred meaning of the Passover lies essentially in the fact, laid down in Exodus, that the lamb – slain as a type of Christ – should be eaten in one single home. God says the words: ‘In one house shall it be eaten, ye shall not cast its flesh outside.’ The flesh of Christ and the Lord’s sacred body cannot be cast outside, nor have believers any other home but the one Church.” - The Unity of the Catholic Church

Cyprian describes how the priest acts in persona Christi:

“The priest who imitates that which Christ did, truly takes the place of Christ, and offers there in the Church a true and perfect sacrifice to God the Father.”  - Letter to the the Ephesians

In his document on “The Lapsed”, Cyprian tells many stories of those who unworthily handle the Eucharist. In these descriptions he speaks about “the divine presence”, ”Our Lord’s holy body”, the ”sacrifice offered by the bishop”.

Finally, when teaching on the Lord’s Prayer, Cyrpian naturally turns again to the Eucharist:

…And as we say ‘Our Father,’ because He is the Father of those who understand and believe, so too we say ‘our Bread,’ because Christ is the bread of those of us who attain to His body. Moreover, we ask that this bread be given daily, lest we, who are in Christ and receive the Eucharist daily as food of salvation, with the intervention of some more grievous sin, while we are shut off and as non-communicants are kept from the heavenly bread, be separated from the body of Christ as He Himself declares, saying: ‘I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If any man eat of my bread he shall live forever. Moreover, the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.’ Since then He says that, if anyone eats of His bread, he lives forever, as it is manifest that they live who attain to His body and receive the Eucharist by right of communion, so on the other hand we must fear and pray lest anyone, while he is cut off and separated from the body of Christ, remain apart from salvation, as He Himself threatens, saying: ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.’ And so we petition that our bread, that is Christ, be given us daily, so that we, who abide and live in Christ, may not withdraw from His sanctification and body.” - The Lord’s Prayer

If one were to suggest that the authors quoted above were not “real” Christians, then it begs the question: who were were the “real” Christians? Where were the people in the First and Second Century complaining about this “abomination”?

If the Apostles believed that Jesus was only symbolically present in the Eucharist then they did a pretty awful job of teaching their disciples and successors.

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A little a while ago I was conversing via email with a non-Catholic called Gerry. We spoke briefly about the Eucharist and he graciously agreed to allow me to post some of our conversation here. Here’s what he said:

“And the mother of it all, in my opinion, is the Eucharist. Transubstantiation. Utterly abominable. Christ was a “victim” once and it was sufficient forever!

The mass is as unholy as a thing can be. We eat His flesh and drink His blood in the spiritual sense, not literal. And to think they even bow down and worship and kiss that cracker because it is (supposedly) Christ in the flesh. And God won’t judge these abominations?!” – Gerry, Email #2

I’m not going to offer a complete defense of the Eucharist here, many other more capable than I have done that already. Instead, today I’d just like to ask a couple of questions concerning one Scripture passage and then on Friday to take a brief look at Christian history.

Below is part of the “Bread of Life” discourse given by Jesus in John’s Gospel:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh….Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.  - John 6:51-54

There are two main questions I’d like to raise here:

1. How did Jesus’ audience understand Him?
After giving this sermon, many people who had been following Jesus left Him. Why did they leave? It’s because they took Him at His word! They believed that He was saying that they had to actually eat His flesh and drink His blood.They took his words literally!

Souls were lost that day because they assumed Jesus wasn’t speaking metaphorically. This begs the question: if Jesus was speaking figuratively, why did He allow so many to leave Him over a something that was just a misunderstanding? Would God really be that cruel?

2. What would He have had to say if He wanted to speak literally?
When speaking with people who interpret John 6 figuratively, I propose the following thought experiment. Firstly, I assume that they are correct in their interpretation of John 6. Jesus was speaking figuratively. However, I then offer the following challenge: if you wanted to go back and alter John 6 to make Jesus speak literally about His flesh, what would you change? Or, put another way, if Jesus had wanted to speak of his flesh literally, what could He have said to convince you that he was speaking literally and not figuratively? I mean, how could His language have been any more extreme than “my flesh is real food“?

So that’s an extremely brief look at John 6. On Friday we’ll look at the Christian witness of the Eucharist in the first two centuries.

 The article Real Food, Real Drink first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net

“In the last analysis, no love is ever driven out; it is only conquered by another love. One cannot overcome a love of alcohol until he finds some other love which is more compelling”

- Fulton Sheen, Guide to Contentment

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#112 (1) Be especially attentive “to the content and unity of the whole Scripture”. Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.

#113 (2) Read the Scripture within “the living Tradition of the whole Church”. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God’s Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture (“. . . according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church”81).

#114 (3). Be attentive to the analogy of faith.82 By “analogy of faith” we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

But what do each of these mean? Here’s my paraphrase:

1. Be especially attentive “to the content and unity of the whole Scripture”
Does my interpretation fit within the overall context of the passage, that particular book of Scripture and all the books of the Bible?

2. Read the Scripture within “the living Tradition of the whole Church”
Is my interpretation in line with the consensus of the Early Church Fathers, the Saints, the councils and popes throughout the centuries?

3. Be “attentive to the analogy of faith”.
The “analogy of faith” is sometimes called the “rule of faith” and refers to the standard for belief. For the Catholic this means: does my interpretation logically and coherently fit into the Catholic Faith, which is the complete revelation of Jesus Christ as revealed in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and taught by the Magisterium of the Church?

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Long before there was the Nicene Creed or the official Biblical canon, there was the worship of the Church. Ever since Pentecost, Christians have gathered together to pray and to celebrate the Sacraments. Therefore, when issues arose in the Church, such as when the canon was being solidified or the creeds were being written, the Bishops would look to the worship of the Church to provide their theological framework in which to address these issues.

It is to this principle that “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi” refers. It is a Latin phrase which means:

“The law (‘lex’) of prayer (‘orandi’) is the law of belief (‘credendi’)”

This phrase is first found in the works of a Fifth Century Christian writer called Prosper, who was a disciple of St. Augustine:

“Let us consider the sacraments of priestly prayers which, having been handed down by the apostles, are celebrated uniformly throughout the whole world and in every catholic Church so that the law of praying might establish the law of believing“ – Prosper of Aquitaine

It’s a bit like the phrase “You are what you eat”, maybe something like “You believe what you pray”.  This is why liturgy was so important to the ancient Church and it’s why it’s important today.

I’ll admit, it took me a long to really wrap my head around why Catholics put such an emphasis on what happens on Sunday mornings. It was only when I started studying the worship of the Early Church that I began to realize its importance and begin to understand the teaching and creedal role of the liturgy.  Our liturgy demonstrates what is important to us. It expresses (among other things) what we believe about God, how we understand ourselves and the Church.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, yesterday afternoon I went to Vespers at my Byzantine parish and noticed a couple of things in  the liturgy that got me excited which I wanted to share…

(i) God Save The Pope!

During the liturgy of Vespers there are some prayers said in the “narthex” (foyer) of the church. At this point in the liturgy yesterday I noted that our priest prayed for Pope Francis, both for his health and for his salvation.

It struck me that such a prayer would sound very strange to many of the non-Catholics I speak to online. Unfortunately, many have cultivated an idea that Catholics think that the Pope is some kind of all-perfect, super Catholic with God-like powers. However, yesterday’s prayer for the Pope’s salvation shows very clearly that the Church understands he is a man like any other, dependent upon the grace of God.

(ii) Why were there tongues at Pentecost?

The other moment came when we sang the Aposticha Doxastikon hymn for Pentecost Vigil:

Aposticha Doxastikon
In the days of old, pride brought confusion to the tongues to the builders of the Tower of Babel, but now the diversity of tongues enlighted the minds and gave knowledge for the glory of God. Then, God punished the impious for their sin; now, Christ enlighten fishermen through his Spirit. Then, confusion of tongues was for the sake of punishment; now, there was variety so that voices could be joined in harmony for the salvation of our souls

How rich is this text?! It expresses an ancient teaching of the Church which sees a parallel between the cacophony of voices at the Tower of Babel and the proclamation of the Gospel in many tongues at Pentecost.

So, if you want to grow in your Catholic faith, I’d invite you to pay close attention to the prayers which are prayed in the liturgy. They are profound and insightful, revealing the riches of the Catholic Church: Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi.

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