One of my favorite things to talk about is the Holy
Eucharist. But on this day that we
celebrate The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, I thought I would share some favorite
things said by our friends.
Saint Justin Martyr: This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake
except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the
washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed
down to us. For we do not receive these
things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being
incarnate by God's Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have
been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from
him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the
flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.
"First Apology", Ch. 66, 148-155
A.D.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Keep these traditions inviolate, and preserve yourselves from offenses.
Do not cut yourselves off from
Communion, do not deprive yourselves, through the pollution of sins, of these
Holy and Spiritual Mysteries. -"Mystagogic Catechesis [23 (Mystagogic
5), 23]" ca. 350 A.D.
St. John Chrysostom: I wish to add something that is plainly awe-inspiring, but do not be
astonished or upset. This Sacrifice, no
matter who offers it, be it Peter or Paul, is always the same as that which
Christ gave His disciples and which priests now offer: The offering of today is
in no way inferior to that which Christ offered, because it is not men who
sanctify the offering of today; it is the same Christ who sanctified His own. For just as the words which God spoke are the
very same as those which the priest now speaks, so too the oblation is the very
same. "Homilies on the Second Epistle to Timothy," 2,4, ca. 397 A.D.
Saint Augustine of
Hippo: He who made you men, for your sakes was
Himself made man; to ensure your adoption as many sons into an everlasting
inheritance, the blood of the Only-Begotten has been shed for you. If in your own reckoning you have held
yourselves cheap because of your earthly frailty, now assess yourselves by the
price paid for you; meditate, as you should, upon what you eat, what you drink,
to what you answer 'Amen'. "Second
Discourse on Psalm 32". Ch. 4. ca. 400
A.D.
Saint Leo the Great: For when the Lord says, “unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man, and drunk His
blood, you will not have life in you John 6:53,”
you ought so to be partakers at the Holy Table, as to have no doubt whatever concerning
the reality of Christ's
Body and Blood. For that is taken in the
mouth which is believed
in Faith, and it is vain for them to respond Amen who dispute that
which is taken. -"Sermons" [91,3] ante 461 A.D.
St. Thomas Aquinas: Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a
consequence, restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual
food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus
the effect proper to this Sacrament is the conversion of a man into Christ,
so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him; consequently, it has
the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength he had lost by his sins
and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues.
Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences, d.12, q.2, a.11 ca. 1260 A.D.
Let the Church say, “Amen!”
Monsignor Smith
