The Eucharist and the Church Fathers 2

Apostolical Constitutions

“Instead of a bloody sacrifice, He has appointed that reasonable and unbloody mystical one of His body and blood, which is performed to represent the death of the Lord by symbols.”

-Apostolical Constitutions, 6.23

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-07/anf07-46.htm#P6537_2258042

“Be ye always thankful, as faithful and honest servants; and concerning the eucharistical thanksgiving…Do thou, O Lord Almighty, everlasting God, so gather together Thy Church from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom, as this corn was once scattered, and is now become one loaf. We also, our Father, thank Thee for the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed for us and for His precious body, whereof we celebrate this representation, as Himself appointed us, “to show forth His death.” For through Him glory is to be given to Thee for ever. Amen.”

-Apostolical Constitutions, 7.25

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-07/anf07-47.htm#P6811_2303173

Athanasius

“For virtues and vices are the food of the soul, and it can eat either of these two meats, and incline to either of the two, according to its own will. If it is bent toward virtue, it will be nourished by virtues, by righteousness, by temperance, by meekness, by fortitude, as Paul saith; ‘Being nourished by the word of truth.’ Such was the case with our Lord, who said, ‘My meat is to do the will of My Father which is in heaven.’ But if it is not thus with the soul, and it inclines downwards, it is then nourished by nothing but sin. For thus the Holy Ghost, describing sinners and their food, referred to the devil when He said, ‘I have given him to be meat to the people of Aethiopia.’ For this is the food of sinners. And as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being heavenly bread, is the food of the saints, according to this; ‘Except ye eat My flesh, and drink My blood;’ so is the devil the food of the impure, and of those who do nothing which is of the light, but work the deeds of darkness. Therefore, in order to withdraw and turn them from vices, He commands them to be nourished with the food of virtue; namely, humbleness of mind, lowliness to endure humiliations, the acknowledgment of God.”

-Athanasius, Festal Letters of Athanasius, Festal Letter 1.5

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-04/Npnf2-04-72.htm#P8789_3233194

[Notice that he interprets John 6 in the Protestant manner.]

Basil of Caesarea

“Of His own will He came to live the life of men. He did not say “I have lived because of the Father,” but “I live because of the Father,” clearly indicating the present time, and the Christ, having the word of God in Himself, is able to call the life which He leads, life, and that this is His meaning we shall learn from what follows. “He that eateth me,” He says, “he also shall live because of me;” for we eat His flesh, and drink His blood, being made through His incarnation and His visible life partakers of His Word and of His Wisdom. For all His mystic sojourn among us He called flesh and blood, and set forth the teaching consisting of practical science, of physics, and of theology, whereby out soul is nourished and is meanwhile trained for the contemplation of actual realities. This is perhaps the intended meaning of what He says.”

-Basil, Letters of Basil of Caesarea, Letter 8.4

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-08/Npnf2-08-26.htm#P2648_890276

Jerome

“…who forbids us to think of the morrow; who, though He is said to have hungered and thirsted, and to have gone frequently to various meals, except in celebrating the mystery whereby He represented His passion, or in proving the reality of His body is nowhere described as ministering to His appetite…”

-Jerome, Against Jovinanius 2.17

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-06/Npnf2-06-11.htm#P6582_2060348

Augustine

“And in the history of the New Testament by that so great and so wonderful forbearance of our Lord; in that He bore so long with him as if good, when He was not ignorant of his thoughts; in that He admitted him to the Supper in which He committed and delivered to His disciples the figure of His Body and Blood; finally, in that He received the kiss of peace at the very time of His betrayal; it is easily understood how Christ showed peace to.”

-Augustine, On the Psalms, Psalm 3:1

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-08/npnf1-08-10.htm#P271_36491

[In the next few quotes, notice how Augustine interprets John 6.]

“Wherefore, the Lord, about to give the Holy Spirit, said that Himself was the bread that came down from heaven, exhorting us to believe on Him. For to believe on Him is to eat the living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated invisibly, because invisibly is he born again. A babe within, a new man within. Where he is made new, there he is satisfied with food.”

-Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Tractate XXVI.1

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-07/npnf1-07-31.htm#P1260_796948

“But most of those who were present, by not understanding Him, were offended; for in hearing these things, they thought only of flesh, that which themselves were. But the apostle says, and says what is true, “To be carnally-minded is death.” The Lord gives us His flesh to eat, and yet to understand it according to the flesh is death; while yet He says of His flesh, that therein is eternal life. Therefore we ought not to understand the flesh carnally.”

-Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Tractate XXVII.1

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-07/npnf1-07-32.htm#P1308_827813

“”But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it,”-for they so said these things with themselves that they might not be heard by Him: but He who knew them in themselves, hearing within Himself,-answered and said, “This offends you;” because I said, I give you my flesh to eat, and my blood to drink, this forsooth offends you. “Then what if ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before?” What is this? Did He hereby solve the question that perplexed them? Did He hereby uncover the source of their offense? He did clearly, if only they understood. For they supposed that He was going to deal out His body to them; but He said that He was to ascend into heaven, of course, whole: “When ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before;” certainly then at least, you will see that not in the manner you suppose does He dispense His body; certainly then, at least, you will understand that His grace is not consumed by tooth-biting.”

-Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Tractate XXVII. 3

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-07/npnf1-07-32.htm#P1308_827813

“To answer for ourselves in the first place, while we consider it no longer a duty to offer sacrifices, we recognize sacrifices as part of the mysteries of Revelation, by which the things prophesied were foreshadowed. For they were our examples, and in many various ways they all pointed to the one sacrifice which we now commemorate. Now that this sacrifice has been revealed, and has been offered in due time, sacrifice is no longer binding as an act of worship, while it retains its symbolical authority…Before the coming of Christ, the flesh and blood of this sacrifice were foreshadowed in the animals slain; in the passion of Christ the types were fulfilled by the true sacrifice; after the ascension of Christ, this sacrifice is commemorated in the sacrament. Between the sacrifices of the Pagans and of the Hebrews there is all the difference that there is between a false imitation and a typical anticipation.”

-Augustine, Against Faustus the Manichaean 6.5, 20.21

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-04/npnf1-04-19.htm#P1255_654588

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-04/npnf1-04-33.htm#P1920_1086466

“Thus a true sacrifice is every work which is done that we may be united to God in holy fellowship, and which has a reference to that supreme good and end in which alone we can be truly blessed. And therefore even the mercy we show to men, if it is not shown for God's sake, is not a sacrifice. For, though made or offered by man, sacrifice is a divine thing, as those who called it sacrificemeant to indicate. Thus man himself, consecrated in the name of God, and vowed to God, is a sacrifice in so far as he dies to the world that he may live to God…Since, therefore, true sacrifices are works of mercy to ourselves or others, done with a reference to God, and since works of mercy have no other object than the relief of distress or the conferring of happiness, and since there is no happiness apart from that good of which it is said, “It is good for me to be very near to God,””

-Augustine, City of God 10.6

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-02/npnf1-02-16.htm#P1626_916422

“We have heard the True Master, the Divine Redeemer, the human Savior, commending to us our Ransom, His Blood. For He spake to us of His Body and Blood; He called His Body Meat, His Blood Drink. The faithful recognize the Sacrament of the faithful. But the hearers what else do they but hear? When therefore commending such Meat and such Drink He said, “Except ye shall eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, ye shall have no life in you” (and this that He said concerning life, who else said it but the Life Itself? But that man shall have death, not life, who shall think that the Life is false), His disciples were offended, not all of them indeed, but very many, saying within themselves, “This is an hard saying, who can hear it?” But when the Lord knew this in Himself, and heard the murmurings of their thought, He answered them, thinking though uttering nothing, that they might understand that they were heard, and might cease to entertain such thoughts. What then did He answer? “Doth this offend you?” “What then if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?” What meaneth this? “Doth this offend you?” “Do ye imagine that I am about to make divisions of this My Body which ye see; and to cut up My Members, and give them to you?’ What then if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?’” Assuredly, He who could ascend Whole could not be consumed. So then He both gave us of His Body and Blood a healthful refreshment, and briefly solved so great a question as to His Own Entireness. Let them then who eat, eat on, and them that drink, drink; let them hunger and thirst; eat Life, drink Life. That eating, is to be refreshed; but thou art in such wise refreshed, as that that whereby thou art refreshed, faileth not. That drinking, what is it but to live? Eat Life, drink Life; thou shalt have life, and the Life is Entire. But then this shall be, that is, the Body and the Blood of Christ shall be each man’s Life; if what is taken in the Sacrament visibly is in the truth itself eaten spiritually, drunk spiritually. For we have heard the Lord Himself saying, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, but the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken unto you, are Spirit and Life.””

-Augustine, Sermons of St. Augustine, Sermon 131.1

Theodoret of Cyrrhus

“Orth.-Tell me now; the mystic symbols which are offered to God by them who perform priestly rites, of what are they symbols? Eran.-Of the body and blood of the Lord. Orth.-Of the real body or not? Eran.-The real. Orth.-Good. For there must be the archetype of the image. So painters imitate nature and paint the images of visible objects. Eran.-True. Orth.-If, then, the divine mysteries are antitypes of the real body, therefore even now the body of the Lord is a body, not changed into nature of Godhead, but filled with divine glory. Eran.-You have opportunely introduced the subject of the divine mysteries for from it I shall be able to show you the change of the Lord's body into another nature. Answer now to my questions. Orth.-I will answer. Eran.-What do you call the gift which is offered before the priestly invocation? Orth.-It were wrong to say openly; perhaps some uninitiated are present. Eran.-Let your answer be put enigmatically. Orth.-Food of grain of such a sort. Eran.-And how name we the other symbol? Orth.-This name too is common, signifying species of drink. Eran.-And after the consecration how do you name these? Orth.-Christ's body and Christ's blood. Eran.-And do yon believe that you partake of Christ's body and blood? Orth.-I do. Eran.-As, then, the symbols of the Lord's body and blood are one thing before the priestly invocation, and after the invocation are changed and become another thing; so the Lord's body after the assumption is changed into the divine substance. Orth.-You are caught in the net you have woven yourself. For even after the consecration the mystic symbols are not deprived of their own nature; they remain in their former substance figure and form; they are visible and tangible as they were before. But they are regarded as what they are become, and believed so to be, and are worshipped as being what they are believed to be. Compare then the image with the archetype, and you will see the likeness, for the type must be like the reality.”

-Theodoret, Dialogue 2: The Unconfounded

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-03/Npnf2-03-20.htm#P3414_970722

Pope Gelasius I

“The sacrament which we receive of the body and blood of Christ is a divine thing. Wherefore also by means of it we are made partakers of the divine nature. Yet the substance or nature of the bread and wine does not cease to be. And certainly theimage and likeness of the body and blood of Christ is set out in the celebration of the mysteries . . . Thus, as the elements pass into this, that is, the divine substance by the Holy Ghost, and none the less remain in their own proper nature, so they show that the principal mystery itself, the efficacy and virtue of which they truly make present (represent) to us, consists in this, that the two natures remain each in its own proper being so that there is one Christ because He is whole and real.”

-Pope Gelasius I, On the Two Natures of Christ

Others who did not believe in transubstantiation are:

Eusebius of Caesarea

Eustathius of Antioch

Macarius of Egypt (the elder)

Ambrosiaster

In fairness, I will list those who did believe in a form of transubstantiation (to the best of my knowledge):

Cyril of Jerusalem

Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory Nazianzen

Hilary of Poitiers

Ambrose

Glaudentius

Chrysostom (It must be noted, however, that he interprets John 6 as Protestants do*.)

Theodore of Mopsuestia

A vast majority of the fathers did not believe in the modern Roman doctrine of transubstantiation. However many believed in this or that, the amount of diversity within the prominent figures of the early church is enough to prove that the claims of the Council of Trent (a supposedly infallible council) are false.

*“His meaning is, “Ye must hear spiritually what relateth to Me, for he who heareth carnally is not profited, nor gathereth any advantage.” It was carnal to question how He came down from heaven, to deem that He was the son of Joseph, to ask, “How can he give us His flesh to eat?” All this was carnal, when they ought to have understood the matter in a mystical and spiritual sense. “But,” saith some one, “how could they understand what the ‘eating flesh’ might mean?” Then it was their duty to wait for the proper time and enquire, and not to abandon Him. That is, they are divine and spiritual, have nothing carnal about them, are not subject to the laws of physical consequence, but are free from any such necessity, are even set above the laws appointed for this world, and have also another and a different meaning. Now as in this passage He said “spirit,” instead of “spiritual,” so when He speaketh of “flesh,” He meant not "carnal things," but "carnally hearing," and alluding at the same time to them, because they ever desired carnal things when they ought to have desired spiritual. For if a man receives them carnally, he profits nothing. “What then, is not His flesh, flesh?” Most certainly. “How then saith He, that the flesh profiteth nothing?” He speaketh not of His own flesh, (God forbid!) but of those who received His words in a carnal manner. But what is “understanding carnally”? It is looking merely to what is before our eyes, without imagining anything beyond. This is understanding carnally. But we must not judge thus by sight, but must look into all mysteries with the eyes within. This is seeing spiritually. He that eateth not His flesh, and drinketh not His blood, hath no life in him. How then doth “the flesh profit nothing,” if without it we cannot live? Seest thou that the words, “the flesh profiteth nothing,” are spoken not of His own flesh, but of carnal hearing?”

-John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily XLVII (v.63 and 64)

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-14/npnf1-14-51.htm#P2539_859776

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Also, some helpful audio on this topic can be found at:

http://www.straitgate.com/webster/

Some helpful online reading can be found here:

http://members.aol.com/jasonte3/rceuch.htm