(Death, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell)
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
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THE CHURCH FATHERS UNDERSTOOD AND BELIEVED
THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS of the Church also assures us of the Real Presence in the Most Holy Eucharist. There is no writer or teacher of the Apostolic times who would doubt or would fail to affirm that truth.
The first to give such testimony is St. Andrew, the Apostle, Witnesses of his martyrdom tell us that the dying saint thus addressed Egeus, who ordered him to offer sacrifice to the gods: “I offer daily to the Almighty God, the Immaculate Lamb. Though he is really offered and the faithful eat his flesh, he remains whole and entire and alive.”
St. Justin, martyr, about the year 150 wrote: “Let us take unto our hand that blessed bread, not an ordinary bread, but the flesh and blood of Jesus, the Word made Flesh” (Apol. 2 ad Ant).
St. Irenaeus asks: “How can any one say that our bodies, which are nourished on the flesh and blood of Christ, are brought to perdition? Our bodies, tasting of the Eucharist are no longer corruptible, but has the hope of resurrection” (Lib I, cap. J4). The Blessed Sacrament therefore, is the food not only of the soul but of the body as well.
Again, St. Cyprian observes: As humanity made its appearance in the person of Christ while his divinity was concealed, so in the visible sacrament the divine essence is harbored” (Serm. De Eaeu.). In the Holy Eucharist, therefore, are present the humanity and divinity of Christ.
But of all the Doctors of the Church, St. Cyril of Jerusalem speaks most plainly of the Real Presence and of Transubstantiation in the Blessed Sacrament he writes: When Christ says: This is my body, who dares to doubt him? And when he affirms: This is my blood, who can say that it is not? Once he changed water into wine. Does he not therefore, deserve our faith in the changing of wine into his own blood? Under the appearance of bread is given his body, and under the appearance of wine is hidden his blood. Therefore, when we receive that body and blood, we become Christ-bearers and, as St. Peter teaches, partakers of the divine nature” (Cat. 4 myst).
The early Fathers of the Church always taught the miraculous change in the substance and wrote about it.
St. Cyprian says: The bread which Christ gave to his disciples was changed by the omnipotent word. It became flesh not in its appearance but in its nature” The saint lists under the appearances, which do not change, ail that comes under the human senses, namely, whiteness, taste, solidity. The substance, which dear change, he calls the nature,
Tertullian states: “Jesus Christ saying: This is my body, changed the bread into his body. He made the bread his flesh, not according to the visible appearances but according to the invisible substance.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of the Transubstantiation even more clearly. He writes: “Christ once changed water into wine. Doer he not then, deserve to be believed by us then he says he changes wine into his own blood?” Christ teaches, what all Catholics believe and teach, that under the appearance of breed is given his flesh, and under the appearance of wine his blood in another passage this Doctor of the Church instructs the beginner: “Do not regard the Blessed Sacrament as mere bread for according to the words of Christ, it is his flesh. Even though your senses do not convince you, let yr faith strengthen you that you judge not according to your tastes” Cath. 4). What sounder proof of our teaching could be desired?
Gregory of Nissa writes: “It is well for us to believe that the bread is changed into the Word made Flesh.” In another instance he repeats: “Jesus Christ changes the nature of the thing on which we look and converts it into his own flesh, by the power of his blessing” (Oratio Cath. 37). Another testimony is that of St. Gaudentius, who lived about the year 400. “The same Lord, the Creator of nature,” he says, “who makes bread to grow up from the earth, changes that bread into his flesh. He can do that and has promised that he would do it. And so, too, the Lord who changed the water into wine, mikes the wine his blood” (Tract 2 de Exod.
St. John Chrysostom explains: “It is not the power of man that functions In changing the gifts on the altar. We take the place of servants, but the power that consecrates and changes is he” (Hom. 83 in Matt.).
St. Augustine testifies: “Not every bread but that which receives the blessing becomes the body of Christ” (Citat. Beda in 10 Cor.).
The words of Cyril of Alexandria read: “That Christ’s flesh and blood be not loathsome to us, God, anticipating our frailty, pours the power of life into the gifts offered (that is into the bread and wine) and changes them into his own real flesh and blood that the flesh of his may be found in us. “(Epist ad Casirium).
Clearly, too, Emissemus writes: “When created things are placed on the altar, before they are consecrated by the invocation of the Most High; there is only the essence of bread and wine. But following the words of Christ, there are only his flesh and blood. Is it strange that he, who made all things from nothing by a mere word, can change one thing into another?” (Serm. de Corpore Domini)
St. Remigius wrote: The body which the Word made Flesh took upon himself and the bread consecrated on the altar is one and the same body of Christ.” (In cap. 10 ad Car.).
St. Gregory the Great, as the Deacon Paul informs us, taught: “Understanding our weakness, the Creator changed the bread and wine into his own flesh and blood leaving only their appearances. He did this by the some power thereby he made all things from nothing.” St. Gregory lived about the year 600.
Theophilactus, living about the year 800 wrote: “The bread changes into the body of Christ in virtue of the words of the blessing and the power or the Holy Ghost” (In Caput Joannis 6).
Yet you will say it is impossible for Christ’s flesh to be in heaven, on the altar, and in many places at the same time. St. Augustine replied to that: “When Jesus said:
‘This my body,’ he carried himself in his own hands” (Com. 1 in Ps. 33).
St. John Chrysostom wrote the following: “Elias left his cloak to his disciple; the Son of God ascending into heaven left his body to us. Yet Elias was left without his cloak. But Christ, leaving his body with us, ascended to heaven still possessing it.” (Hom. 2 ad. Pop.).
Christ’s body is in heaven and on earth. It is there in one manner and here in another. In heaven, he is present in his visible body; on earth, invisibly, under the appearances of bread and wine, according to his essence and not according to space or place.