Distinction II

GRATIAN.

Alexander, Bishop of the City of Rome, to all the orthodox, [letter I, c. 4]. PART I. In the offerings of the sacraments that are offered to the Lord among the solemnities of Masses, let only bread and wine mixed with water be offered in sacrifice. For neither wine alone nor water alone ought to be offered in the Lord’s chalice, but both mixed, because both are read to have flowed from his side in his Passion.

Likewise Cyprian, [book II, letter 2], greetings to brother Caecilius. Just as water alone cannot be offered in sanctifying the Lord’s chalice, so neither can wine alone. For if someone offers wine only, the blood of Christ begins to be without us. For when both are mixed and, united by a mingling with one another, are joined, then the spiritual and heavenly sacrament is effected. But so the Lord’s chalice is not water alone or wine alone unless both are mixed, just as the Lord’s body cannot be flour alone unless both have been united and joined and made firm by the coherence of one bread.

Scripture says that as often as we offer the chalice in commemoration of the Lord and his Passion, we are to do what it is established that the Lord did. But see, dearest brother: if any of our predecessors either ignorantly or in simplicity did not observe and hold this which the Lord taught us to do by example and instruction, pardon can be granted to his simplicity from the Lord’s indulgence; but we cannot be excused, who now have been admonished and instructed by the Lord to offer the Lord’s chalice mixed with wine, according to what the Lord offered.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [c. 45]. Nothing else ought to be offered in the sanctuary except wine and water, which are blessed in a type of Christ, because while he hung on the cross, blood and water flowed from his body. These three are one in Christ Jesus; this is the victim and offering of God as an odor of sweetness.

Likewise from the Third Council of Carthage, [c. 24]. In the sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood, let nothing more be offered than what the Lord himself handed down, that is, bread and wine mixed with water.

§ 1. Nor let anything more be offered in sacrifices than what comes from grapes and grains of wheat.

Likewise from the Sixth Synod, [c. 28]. We have learned that in certain churches priests join grapes, which according to custom are offered upon the altar, to the sacrifice of the offering, and thus distribute both together to the people. We therefore command that no priest do this further, but distribute the offering alone to the people for the remission of sins; and let the people who seek them receive the grapes separately after they have been blessed and give thanks for the fruits.

Pope Julius to the Bishops throughout Egypt. Since every crime and sin is blotted out by sacrifices offered to God, what henceforth will be given to the Lord for the expiation of offenses when error occurs in the very offering of the sacrifice? For we have heard that some, held by schismatic ambition contrary to the divine ordinances and apostolic institutions, dedicate milk in place of wine in the divine sacrifices; that others offer the dipped Eucharist to the people as the completion of communion; that some also offer expressed wine in the sacrament of the Lord’s chalice; but that others preserve throughout the whole year a linen cloth dipped in must and, at the time of sacrifice, wash a part of it with water and offer it thus. How contrary this is to evangelical and apostolic doctrine and opposed to ecclesiastical custom will not be difficult to prove from the very fountain of truth from which the ordered mysteries of the sacraments themselves proceeded. For when the teacher of truth commended the true sacrifice of our salvation to his disciples, we know that under this sacrament he gave no one milk, but only bread and the chalice. For it is read in the truth of the Gospel: “Jesus took bread and the chalice, and blessing them, gave them to his disciples.” Therefore let milk cease to be offered in sacrifice, because the manifest and evident example of evangelical truth has shone forth that it is not permitted to offer anything except bread and wine.

§ 1. But as for the fact that they hand the dipped Eucharist to the people as the completion of communion, they did not receive this either from the testimony brought forth from the Gospel, where he commended his body and blood to the Apostles. For the commendation of the bread is recorded separately, and that of the chalice separately. For we do not read that Christ gave dipped bread to others, except only to that disciple whom the dipped morsel would point out as the betrayer of the master, not signify the institution of this sacrament. For that the people communicate from an expressed cluster, that is, from the berries of grapes, is altogether greatly confused; but if it is necessary, let a grape-cluster be pressed into the chalice and mixed with water, because according to the precept of the canons the Lord’s chalice ought to be offered mixed with wine and water, because we see that the people are understood in the water, but the blood of Christ is shown in the wine. Therefore, when water is mixed with wine in the chalice, the people are united to Christ, and the assembly of believers is coupled and joined to him in whom it believes. This coupling and conjunction of water and wine is so mixed in the Lord’s chalice that the mixture cannot be separated. For if anyone offers wine only, the blood of Christ begins to be without us. But if there is water alone, the people begin to be without Christ. Therefore, when a grape-cluster alone is offered, in which only the efficacy of wine is signified, the sacrament of our salvation, which is signified by the water, is neglected. For the Lord’s chalice cannot be water alone or wine alone unless both are mixed.

§ 2. And therefore, because a very great and manifold judgment of our forebears has already flowed forth concerning this, henceforth every such error and presumption ought to cease, lest the disordered coherence of the perverse enervate the state of truth. And therefore it will henceforth be permitted to no one to offer anything else in the divine sacrifices except, according to the judgment of the ancient councils, bread alone and the chalice mixed with wine and water. One who henceforth acts otherwise than was commanded shall cease from sacrificing for as long as, corrected by lawful satisfaction of penance, he returns to the office of the grade that he lost.

Likewise Pope Alexander, fifth from Peter, [letter I]. PART II. Nothing can be greater among sacrifices than the body and blood of Christ, nor is any offering more excellent than this; rather, this surpasses all, and is to be offered to the Lord with a pure conscience, received with a pure mind, and venerated by all; and just as it is more excellent than the others, so it ought the more to be cultivated and venerated.

Likewise Pope Innocent, greetings to Decentius, Bishop of Gubbio, [letter I, c. 1]. PART III. You assert, therefore, that some command the peace to the people before the mysteries have been confected, or that priests hand it among themselves, although after all those things—which I ought not disclose—the peace must necessarily be proclaimed. Through it, it is established that the people have given their consent to all that is enacted in the mysteries and celebrated in the church, and it is shown that these things have been finished by the seal of the concluding peace.

Likewise Pope Anacletus, [letter I]. When the consecration has been completed, let all communicate who do not wish to be deprived of the thresholds of the Church. For so the Apostles also established, and the holy Roman Church holds.

Likewise from the Twelfth Council of Toledo, [c. 5]. PART IV. It has been reported to us that some priests do not receive the grace of holy communion as many times as they are seen to offer sacrifices in one day; rather, if they offer many sacrifices to God on one day, in all the offerings they withhold themselves from communion, and receive the grace of holy communion only in the offering of the final sacrifice, as though that true and singular sacrifice were not to be participated in as many times as the immolation of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is established to have taken place. For behold, the Apostle says: “Are not those who eat the victims participants in the altar?” It is certain that those who sacrifice and do not eat are guilty concerning the Lord’s sacrament. Therefore, whichever of the priests henceforth approaches the divine altar to offer sacrifice and withholds himself from communion, let him know that for one year he is repelled from that grace of communion of which he indecently deprived himself. For what sort of sacrifice will it be in which even the one sacrificing is not known to be a participant? Therefore it must be maintained in every way that as many times as the one sacrificing immolates upon the altar the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, so many times he is to make himself a participant in receiving the body and blood of Christ.

Likewise Pope Gelasius to Bishops Majoricus and John. We have discovered that some, having received only a portion of the sacred body, abstain from the chalice of the consecrated blood. These, without doubt—since they are said to be bound by I know not what superstition—must either receive the sacraments in their entirety or be barred from them in their entirety, because a division of one and the same mystery cannot occur without great sacrilege.

Likewise Augustine, [On Ecclesiastical Dogmas, c. 53]. PART V. I neither praise nor censure receiving communion of the Eucharist daily, yet I exhort that one communicate on every Lord’s day. If, however, the mind is disposed toward sinning, I say that it is burdened by receiving the Eucharist rather than purified. And therefore, although someone is being gnawed by sin, nevertheless let him not have a will to sin henceforth; and when about to communicate, let him make satisfaction by tears and prayers and, trusting in the Lord’s mercy, approach the Eucharist intrepid and secure. But I say this concerning one whom mortal sins do not burden.

The same, [letter 118, c. 3]. § 1. One person may say that the Eucharist is not to be received daily; another affirms that it is daily: let each do what according to his faith he piously believes is to be done. For Zacchaeus and that centurion did not quarrel with one another, nor did either place himself above the other, when one of them joyfully received the Lord in his house and the other said: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” Both honored the Savior, although not in one manner; both were wretched in sins; both obtained mercy. To this pertains the fact that the manna tasted in each person’s mouth according to his own will.

Likewise Ambrose, [book IV On the Sacraments, final chapter]. If, as often as the blood of Christ is poured out, it is poured out for the remission of sins, I ought always to receive it. I, who always sin, ought always to have medicine.

Likewise Bishop Hilary. If the sins are not so great that someone is to be excommunicated, he ought not to separate himself from the medicine of the Lord’s body. Likewise Pope Fabian says:

Even if not more frequently, let persons communicate at least three times a year, unless perhaps someone is impeded by any greater crimes: namely, at Easter, Pentecost, and the Nativity of the Lord. Likewise Pope Soter:

At the Supper of the Lord the reception of the Eucharist is neglected by some. Ecclesiastical usage demonstrates that it is to be received on that same day by all the faithful—except those for whom it has been prohibited because of grave crimes—since even penitents are reconciled on that same day for receiving the sacraments of the Lord’s body and blood.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, c. 83. If anyone enters the Church of God and hears the sacred Scriptures, but because of his wantonness turns himself away from communion of the sacrament and departs from the established rule of discipline in observing the mysteries, we decree that such a person is to be cast out of the Catholic Church until he does penance and shows the fruit of his penance, so that by receiving communion he may merit indulgence.

Likewise from the Council of Agde, [c. 18]. Secular persons who have not communicated at the Nativity of the Lord, Easter, and Pentecost shall not be believed to be Catholics, nor be regarded among Catholics.

From the Council of Toledo, [I, c. 13]. Those who enter the church and are discovered never to communicate shall be admonished. So that if they do not communicate, they shall approach penance; if they do communicate, they shall not always abstain; if they have not done so, let them abstain.

Likewise from the Council of Elvira. Every person ought to abstain from his own wife for three, four, or seven days before holy communion; nor will one be numbered among Catholics who has not communicated at these times, namely Easter, Pentecost, and the Nativity of the Lord. Likewise Pope Sergius:

PART VI. The body of the Lord is threefold. The part of the offering placed into the chalice shows the body of Christ that has already risen. The part consumed shows the body still walking upon the earth. The part remaining on the altar until the end of the Mass shows the body in the tomb, because until the end of the age the bodies of the saints will be in tombs. Clement, [letter II]:

PART VII. The sacraments of the divine secrets have been entrusted to three grades, that is, the presbyter, the deacon, and the minister, who must guard with trembling and fear the remnants of the fragments of the Lord’s body.

The same. § 1. Certainly, let as many holocausts be offered upon the altar as ought to suffice for the people. But if any remain, let them not be preserved for the next day, but consumed with the fear, trembling, and diligence of the clerics. But those who consume the remnants of the Lord’s body that have been left in the sacristy shall not immediately assemble to receive ordinary foods, lest they appear to mix with the holy portion food that, digested through the intestines, is discharged into the privy. Therefore, if the Lord’s portion is eaten in the morning, let the ministers who consumed it fast until the sixth hour; and if they have received it at the third or fourth hour, let them fast until evening. Thus are the sacraments to be guarded by an eternal, secret sanctification.

§ 2. We also command that portions of the Lord’s offerings never be given at table to an outside cleric of the church or to a layperson. How do you know, you who indiscriminately dispense the sanctuary’s loaves to the unworthy—how do you know whether they are clean from women? Hence David too, when he sought bread for himself to eat, was questioned by Abimelech the priest, and when he professed himself to have been clean for three days, he ate the loaves of proposition.

Likewise Isidore, [book I On the Highest Good, c. 24]. PART VIII. Let those who live wickedly in the Church and do not cease to communicate, thinking themselves to be cleansed by such communion, learn that it profits them nothing toward cleansing, as the Prophet says: “Why has my beloved committed many crimes in my house? Will holy flesh take your wickednesses away from you?” And the Apostle says: “Let a person prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink from the chalice.” Likewise from the Eighth Synod. Bishop Basil said:

The Apostle indeed teaches us fear, saying: “One who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment for himself.” But the word of the Lord teaches us faith, saying: “This is my body, which is given for many. Do this in commemoration of me.”

§ 1. And the Apostle says concerning the only-begotten Son of God: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” Therefore, when the soul has faith in these sayings, considers the magnificence of his glory, and wonders at the excess of his humility—how so great and such a one was obedient to the Father unto death for our life—I judge that it can be aroused to affection and love for him and for God the Father, who did not spare his only Son but handed him over for us all.

§ 2. Therefore, one who receives the Lord’s bread and chalice ought to prepare such faith and affection in his mind.

Likewise Augustine in the book Questions on Numbers, [question XX]. “And the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest: ‘Take the bronze censers from the midst of those who were burned, and scatter this strange fire there, because they sanctified the censers of these sinners with their lives; and you shall make them into beaten plates as a covering for the altar, since they were offered before the Lord and were sanctified, and were made as a sign to the sons of Israel.’” But it is to be noted that their punishment was called “sanctified” in a new manner, the punishment of those by whom this sin had been perpetrated, because through them an example was given to the others whereby they might fear. But why he wished a covering for the altar to be made from them he added, saying: “Since they were offered before the Lord and were sanctified, they were made as a sign to the sons of Israel.” Therefore, in them he did not wish the fact that they were offered by such persons to be condemned; rather, he wished this to be thought and attended to: before whom they were offered, that is, because they were offered before the Lord, so that the name of the Lord, before whom they were offered, might possess greater force in them than the most wicked merit of those by whom they were offered.

Likewise from the Decree of Pope Pius. PART IX. If through negligence some of the blood has spilled upon the ground, let it be licked up and the board scraped. If there was no board, let the place be scraped so that it is not trodden upon, and let what was scraped be consumed by fire, and let the ash be stored within the altar; and let the priest do penance for forty days. If the chalice has spilled upon the altar, let the minister suck up the drop and do penance for three days. If it has spilled upon the altar linen and the drop has reached another linen, let him do penance for four days. If as far as a third, for nine days. If as far as a fourth, for twenty days. And let the minister wash the linens that the drop touched three times, with a chalice placed beneath; and let the water of the washing be taken up and stored beside the altar.

Likewise from the Penitential of Bede the Presbyter, [chapter on drunkenness]. If anyone has vomited the Eucharist through drunkenness or gluttony, let him do penance for forty days; clerics, monks, deacons, or presbyters, for seventy days; bishops, for ninety. If one has vomited because of illness, let them do penance for seven days.

Likewise from the Council of Reims, c. 2. PART X. It has come to our knowledge that certain presbyters hold the divine mysteries in so little regard that they hand the sacred body of the Lord to a layman or woman to carry to the sick, and the holy of holies are entrusted to those who are prohibited from entering the sacristy or approaching the altar. How horrible and detestable this is, the prudence of all religious persons perceives. Therefore the synod altogether prohibits such rash presumption from taking place further; rather, in every way let the presbyter communicate the sick person in person. But if he has acted otherwise, he will lie under danger to his grade.

Likewise Pope Clement. PART XI. It is fitting that the honors of priests and other clerics serving churches appear distinct from those of laypersons. Therefore it is permitted to no layperson to stand in the place where priests and the other clerics stand—which is called the presbytery—when Mass is celebrated, so that the sacred offices can be exercised freely and honorably.

Likewise from the Council of Girona, [c. 1]. PART XII. Let the institution of Masses be observed in the name of God in all provinces just as it is performed in the metropolitan church, both the order of the Mass itself and the custom of psalmody or ministry.

Likewise Augustine in book X of The City of God, [c. 5]. PART XIII. A sacrifice is the visible sacrament of an invisible sacrifice, that is, a sacred sign.

Likewise elsewhere. § 1. A sacrament is the visible form of invisible grace.

The same in book II of On Christian Doctrine, [c. 1]. A sign is a thing which, beyond the appearance that it presents to the senses, causes something else to come into cognition from itself. Likewise Gregory in an Easter homily:

“Species” and “likeness” are the names of those things that existed before, namely bread and wine. Hence at the end of a certain Mass prayer is made and it is said: “May your sacraments, we beseech you, Lord, accomplish in us what they contain, so that what we now bear in a species we may receive in the reality of the things.”

The priest indeed asks that the body of Christ, which is now borne under the species of bread and wine, may sometime be received in manifest vision, just as it truly is. Concerning this vision the Lord says in the Gospel according to John: “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Although some not improbably expound in this place the reality itself of the flesh and blood as the efficacy of those same things, that is, the remission of sins.

Likewise Eusebius of Emesa. PART XIV. Because he was about to remove the assumed body from sight and bring it to the stars, it was necessary that on the day of the Supper he consecrate for us the sacrament of his body and blood, so that what was once offered as a price might perpetually be cultivated through a mystery; so that, because a daily and unwearied redemption was proceeding for the salvation of human beings, the offering of redemption might be perpetual, and that perpetual victim might live in memory and always be present in grace, truly a unique and perfect sacrifice, to be appraised by faith, not by appearance, nor judged by outward sight, but by inward affection. Hence heavenly authority confirms that “my flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink.”

§ 1. Therefore let every uncertainty of unbelief withdraw, since he who is the author of the gift is himself also a witness of its reality. For the invisible priest also converts the visible creatures into the substance of his body and blood by his word through hidden power, saying thus: “Take and eat; this is my body”; and with the sanctification repeated: “Take and drink; this is my blood.” Therefore, at the nod of the Lord who commands, the heights of the heavens, the depths of the waves, and the expanses of the lands suddenly came forth from nothing. By equal power in the spiritual sacraments, where power commands, the effect serves.

§ 2. Therefore, how great and how worthy of celebration are the benefits that the force of the divine blessing works, and how it ought not to seem new and impossible to you that earthly and mortal things are converted into Christ’s substance—ask yourself, you who have been regenerated in Christ. A little while ago, alien to life, a stranger to mercy, and inwardly dead to the way of salvation, you wandered in exile. Suddenly, initiated into Christ’s laws and renewed by the saving mysteries, you passed over into the body of the Church not by seeing but by believing; and from a son of perdition you merited to become an adopted son of God by hidden purity. Remaining in visible measure, you became greater than yourself invisibly without increase of quantity. Although you were one and the same, you came forth greatly other through the advances of faith; nothing was added outwardly, and everything was changed inwardly. And thus a human being was made a son of Christ, and Christ was formed in the mind of the human being. Therefore, just as without bodily perception you suddenly put aside your former vileness and were clothed with new dignity; and just as what God healed in you when injured, washed when infected, and wiped clean when stained, was entrusted not to your eyes but to your understanding: so, when you ascend the reverend altar to be filled with spiritual foods, behold the sacred body and blood of your God by faith; honor it, marvel at it, touch it with the mind, receive it with the hand of the heart, and above all take the whole of it by the draught of the inward person.

Likewise Augustine. Because the Lord suffered for us, he commended to us in this sacrament his blood and body, which he also made us ourselves. For we too have been made his body, and through his mercy we are what we have received. Remember: you did not exist, and you were created; you were carried to the Lord’s threshing floor; you were threshed by the labors of the oxen, that is, of those announcing the Gospel. When you were being carried as catechumens, you were being kept in the granary; you gave your names; you began to be ground by fasts and exorcisms; afterward you came to the water and were sprinkled, and you were made the Lord’s bread. Behold what you have received. Therefore, just as you see that what was made is one, so be one yourselves, loving one another, holding one faith, one hope, an undivided charity. When heretics receive this, they receive testimony against themselves, because they seek division when this bread points to unity. So too wine was in many clusters and now is one; the chalice is one in its birth after the pressing of the winepress. And you, after those fasts, after labors, after humiliation and contrition, have now come in Christ’s name as though to the chalice; and there you are upon the table and in the chalice; you are with us. For together we receive this, together we drink, because together we live.

Likewise in the sermon on infants. § 1. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ signified us, willed us to belong to himself, and consecrated at the table the mystery of our peace and unity. One who receives the mystery of unity and does not hold the bond of peace has not received a mystery for himself but testimony against himself. It is in no way to be doubted by anyone that each of the faithful is then a participant in the Lord’s body and blood when in baptism he is made a member of Christ, nor is he estranged from the fellowship of that bread and chalice even if, before he eats that bread and drinks the chalice, he departs from this world while established in the unity of Christ’s body. For he is not deprived of participation in and the benefit of that sacrament when that which the sacrament signifies is found in him.

The same in the book of Prosper’s Sentences. While the host is broken, while the blood from the chalice is poured into the mouths of the faithful, what else is signified but the immolation of the Lord’s body upon the cross and the pouring out of his blood from his side? Likewise Bishop Leo and the holy synod that assembled in the city of Rome, to the Clergy, honored persons, and people dwelling at Constantinople:

PART XV. In what darkness of ignorance, in what torpor of sloth have these persons lain until now, so that they learned neither by hearing nor knew by reading what is so harmonious in the mouth of all in the Church that even from the tongues of infants the reality of Christ’s body and blood is taught among the sacraments of communion? For in that mystical distribution of spiritual nourishment, this is imparted, this is received: that, receiving the power of the heavenly food, we pass into the flesh of him who became our flesh. The same is the food of refreshment, is the food of blood. For just as the Lord’s flesh is truly food, so his blood truly is our drink.

The same. § 1. It is the body concerning which it was said: “My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink.” Around this body are the eagles that fly about on spiritual wings.

§ 2. Hence we also eat that same body of Christ so that we may be participants in eternal life.

The same. § 3. Let us use the examples of him whose clear arguments we use; and by the example of the incarnation also let us establish the reality of the mystery.

§ 4. Why do you seek the order of nature here in Christ’s body, when Christ himself was born from a Virgin beyond nature?

Likewise Ambrose in the book On Catechizing the Uninstructed. The bread and chalice—not just any bread and chalice, but made mystical for us by a determinate consecration—are not born. Therefore, what is made thus for us, although it is bread and chalice, is nourishment of the resurrection, not a sacrament of religion; not that which we bless and for which we give thanks to the Lord in every gift of his, not only spiritual but also bodily.

The same in the book On Offices. Before the blessing one species is named; after the blessing the body is signified.

Likewise. § 1. In that sacrament Christ is.

Likewise, [book IV On the Sacraments, c. 5]. § 2. Whoever eats this body, remission of sins will be effected for him.

Likewise Augustine in the book of Prosper’s Sentences. But we honor, in the species of bread and wine which we see, the invisible realities, that is, flesh and blood; nor do we value these two species in the same manner as we valued them before consecration, since we faithfully confess that before consecration there are bread and wine, which nature formed, but after consecration there are Christ’s flesh and blood, which the blessing consecrated.

PART XVI. I, Berengar, unworthy deacon of the Church of Saint Maurice of Angers, acknowledging the true, Catholic, and apostolic faith, anathematize every heresy, especially that of which I have until now been accused, which endeavors to assert that the bread and wine which are placed upon the altar are after consecration only a sacrament and not the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that they cannot perceptibly—except in the sacrament alone—be handled or broken by the hands of the priests or ground by the teeth of the faithful. But I consent to the holy Roman Church and apostolic see, and with mouth and heart profess that concerning the sacraments of the Lord’s table I hold the same faith which lord and venerable Pope Nicholas and this holy synod, by evangelical and apostolic authority, have handed down as to be held and have confirmed for me: namely, that the bread and wine which are placed upon the altar are after consecration not only a sacrament but also the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and perceptibly are not only a sacrament but in truth are handled and broken by the hands of the priests and ground by the teeth of the faithful; swearing by the holy and consubstantial Trinity and by these most sacred Gospels of Christ. I pronounce that those who come against this faith, together with their doctrines and their followers, are worthy of eternal anathema. But if I myself should at any time presume to think or preach anything contrary to these things, let me lie under the severity of the canons. Having read and reread it, I willingly subscribed.

§ 1. Pope Nicholas sent throughout the cities of Italy, Germany, and Gaul, and to whatever places the report of his depravity had previously been able to reach, this confession of his faith concerning the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, made by Berengar at Rome in the presence of 113 bishops, so that the churches which had first grieved over one who was turned away and adverse might afterward rejoice over one who was returned and converted.

Ambrose in the book On Offices. Perhaps you say: How is there true flesh, how true blood, when I do not see the likeness of flesh, I do not see the reality of blood? First of all, I told you concerning the word of Christ, which works so as to be able to change and convert the kinds and institutions of nature. Then, when his disciples did not bear the word of Christ but, hearing that he would give his flesh to eat and his blood to drink, were withdrawing, Peter alone nevertheless said: “You have the words of eternal life, and how shall I withdraw from you?” Therefore, lest more persons say this, and lest there be as it were a certain horror of blood, but the grace of redemption remain, for this reason you indeed receive the sacrament in a likeness, but truly attain the glory and power of the nature. “I am,” he says, “the living bread that descended from heaven.”

Likewise Augustine in the exposition of Psalm 54. The first heresy, he says, indeed arose among Christ’s disciples, as though from the hardness of his discourse. For when he said, “Unless someone eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he will not have eternal life,” they, not understanding, said to one another: “This is a hard discourse; who can eat it?” By saying that this is a hard discourse, they separated themselves from him, and he remained with the twelve. As they departed, he instructed those who had remained. “It is the Spirit,” he says, “that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” Have you understood them spiritually? They are Spirit and life. Have you understood them carnally? Even so, they are Spirit and life, but they are not so for you. Understand spiritually the things that I have spoken. You are not going to eat this body which you see and drink that blood which those who crucify me are going to pour out. I have commended a certain sacrament to you: understood spiritually, it will give you life; but the flesh profits nothing. Yet how did they understand it? They understood flesh in the manner in which it is sold in a corpse or torn apart in the meat market. “But Jesus, knowing, said: Does this scandalize you, because I said: I give you my flesh to eat and my blood to drink? What, then, if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?” What is this? From this he resolved what had disturbed them; from this he disclosed the source of their scandal: from this plainly, if they understood. But they thought that he was going to distribute his body. He said that he was going to ascend into heaven, assuredly whole. “When you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before,” certainly then at least you will see that he does not distribute his body in the manner in which you think, or then at least you will understand that his grace is not received in bites.

Likewise, [tractate 30 on John]. § 1. Until the age is ended, the Lord is above; but nevertheless even here the Lord’s reality is with us. For the body in which he rose must be in one place, but his reality is diffused everywhere.

Likewise Augustine in the letter to Irenaeus. You are not going to eat this body which you see and drink that blood which those who crucify me will pour out: the same indeed and not the same—the same invisibly, not the same visibly. Hence it is also added: If it is necessary that it be celebrated visibly, nevertheless it is necessary that it be understood invisibly.

Likewise Augustine in the sermon on the words of the Gospel. What is it to eat Christ? It is not this alone: to receive his body in the sacrament. For many receive it unworthily, concerning whom the Apostle says: “He who eats and drinks the chalice of the Lord unworthily eats and drinks judgment for himself.” But how is Christ to be eaten? As he himself says: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” Even if he receives the sacrament, he acquires a great torment.

Likewise Augustine in the book On the Remedy of Penance. Why do you prepare tooth and belly? Believe, and you have eaten. For to believe in him is to eat the living bread. He who believes in him eats him.

Likewise Augustine in the book of Prosper’s Sentences. This is what we say, what we strive in every way to prove: that the sacrifice of the Church is confected from two things and consists of two things—the visible species of the elements and the invisible flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the sacrament and the reality of the sacrament, that is, the body of Christ—just as the person of Christ consists and is composed of God and a human being, since Christ himself is true God and true man, because every thing contains in itself the nature and reality of those things from which it is composed. But the sacrifice of the Church is confected from two things: the sacrament and the reality of the sacrament, that is, the body of Christ. Therefore there is the sacrament and the reality of the sacrament, that is, the body of Christ.

Likewise. § 1. It is his flesh which we receive in the sacrament covered by the form of bread, and his blood which we drink under the species and flavor of wine. The flesh, namely, is the sacrament of flesh, and blood the sacrament of blood; by flesh and blood, each invisible, spiritual, and intelligible, is signified the visible and palpable body of our Lord Jesus Christ, full of the grace of all virtues and of divine majesty.

Likewise. § 2. Therefore, just as the heavenly bread, which truly is Christ’s flesh, is in its own manner called the body of Christ, although in reality it is the sacrament of Christ’s body—namely, of that body which, visible, palpable, and mortal, was placed upon the cross—and the immolation of the flesh itself which is performed by the hands of the priest is called Christ’s Passion, death, and crucifixion, not in the reality of the thing but in a signifying mystery: so the sacrament of faith, by which baptism is understood, is faith.

Jerome in the letter to the Ephesians, [on chapter 1]. Christ’s flesh and blood, he says, are understood in two ways: either that spiritual and divine flesh concerning which he himself says, “My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink,” and, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have eternal life”; or my flesh which was crucified, and the blood which was poured out by the soldier’s lance.

Likewise Augustine in the book On the Trinity to the Corinthians. Because we have been freed by the Lord’s death, mindful of this thing, in eating and drinking we signify the flesh and blood that were offered for us.

Likewise on Psalm 20. PART XVII. Christ died once, the righteous for the unrighteous; and we know, hold as certain, and retain with immovable hope that “Christ, rising from the dead, now dies no more; death will have no further dominion over him.” These are the words of the Apostle. Nevertheless, lest we forget, what was done once takes place every year in our memory. As often as Easter is celebrated, is Christ killed so often? Yet the anniversary recollection represents what was done long ago and thus causes us to be moved as though we saw the Lord present upon the cross.

Christ was immolated once in himself and nevertheless is immolated daily in the sacrament. This is to be understood thus: that in the manifestation of his body, in the distinction of all his members, true God and true man hung only once upon the cross, offering himself to the Father as a living and passible victim, mortal and effectual for the redemption of the living and the dead—namely, of those whom the height of divine counsel judged, foreknew, predestined, and called as to be redeemed, in the manners and at the times in which it was fitting for this to take place.

Likewise Ambrose in the letter to the Hebrews, [c. 10]. In Christ a victim powerful for everlasting salvation was offered once. What, then, of us? Do we not offer on each day? We offer, but in recollection of his death, and there is one victim, not many. How one and not many? Because Christ was offered once. But this sacrifice is an exemplar of that one, always the selfsame, the selfsame. Accordingly, this is the sacrifice; otherwise, will it be said that, because it is offered in many places, there are many Christs? By no means; rather, Christ is one everywhere, existing in fullness both here and there. For just as what is offered everywhere is one body and not many bodies, so too there is one sacrifice. But he is the pontiff who offered the victim that cleanses us. Even now we offer that same victim which, offered then, cannot be consumed. What we do takes place in commemoration of what was done: “For do this,” he says, “in commemoration of me.”

Likewise Augustine in the book of responses to Januarius, [c. 6]. PART XVIII. It plainly appears that when the disciples first received the Lord’s body and blood, they did not receive them while fasting. Is the universal Church nevertheless to be assailed on that account because it is always received by persons who are fasting? For from this it pleased the Holy Spirit that, in honor of so great a sacrament, the Lord’s body enter a Christian’s mouth before external foods. For this reason this custom is observed throughout the whole world. Nor indeed, because the Lord gave it after foods, ought brothers who have eaten lunch or supper therefore to assemble to receive that sacrament, or mix these things with their own tables, as those whom the Apostle reproves and corrects were doing. For the Savior, that he might commend the sublimity of that mystery more vehemently, wished to impress this last upon the hearts and memory of the disciples from whom he was about to depart for the Passion; and therefore he did not prescribe the order in which it was thereafter to be received, so that he might reserve this place for the Apostles through whom he was going to order the churches. For if he had admonished that it always be received after other foods, I believe no one would have changed that custom. But when the Apostle, speaking of this sacrament, says, “Therefore, brothers, when you assemble to eat, wait for one another; if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you do not assemble unto judgment,” he immediately added: “But the other things I will order when I come.” From this it is given to be understood that, because it was too much to intimate to them in a letter the whole order of what was to be done, that which the universal Church throughout the world observes, and which is varied by no diversity of hours, was ordered by him.

Likewise Ambrose in book IV On the Sacraments, [c. 4]. PART XIX. There is customary bread upon the altar before the words of the sacraments; when consecration has acceded, from bread it becomes Christ’s flesh. But how can that which is bread be Christ’s body? By consecration. But by what words, by whose discourses, is the consecration? Those of the Lord Jesus. For in all the other things that are said, praise is offered to God and request is made in prayer for the people, for kings, and for the others. But when the sacrament is confected, the priest no longer uses his own discourses but the discourses of Christ. Therefore the word of Christ confects this sacrament. What word of Christ? This one, by which all things were made. The Lord commanded, and heaven, earth, and sea were made. You see, therefore, how operative the word of Christ is. If, then, there is such power in the word of the Lord Jesus that what did not exist began to exist, how much more operative is it that things which existed should exist and be changed into another thing? And thus what was bread before consecration is now Christ’s body after consecration, because the word of Christ changes the creature, and thus from bread Christ’s body is made, and wine mixed with water in the chalice becomes blood by the consecration of the heavenly word.

§ 1. But perhaps you say: I do not see the species of blood; but it has a likeness. For just as you assumed the likeness of death, so you also drink the likeness of blood, so that there may be no horror of blood and yet the price of redemption may operate. You have learned that you receive Christ’s body.

[And c. 5.] § 2. Do you wish to know that it is consecrated by heavenly words? Hear what the words are. The priest says: “Make this offering for us,” he says, “enrolled, rational, etc.” From that point all those words belong to the Evangelist until “Take,” whether the body or the blood. From that point they are Christ’s words: “Take and drink from this, all of you; for this is my blood.” See each thing. “Who,” he says, “on the day before he suffered took bread into his holy hands.” Before it is consecrated, it is bread; but when Christ’s words have acceded, it is Christ’s body. Then hear him saying: “Take and eat from it, all of you; for this is my body.” And before Christ’s words, the chalice is full of wine and water. When Christ’s words have operated, there the blood that redeemed the people is effected.

§ 3. Therefore see how powerful Christ’s word is to convert all things. Then Jesus himself testifies that we receive his body and his blood. We ought not to doubt his faith and testimony.

Likewise. This is not the bread that goes into the body, but the bread of eternal life, which sustains the substance of our soul.

§ 1. This bread is daily; receive daily what may profit you daily; so live that you may merit to receive daily.

Likewise Augustine in the letter to Irenaeus. Christ is the bread of which one who eats lives eternally, concerning which he himself said: “And the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world, etc.” He determines how he is bread: not only according to the Word, by whom all things live, but according to the flesh assumed for the life of the world. For human flesh, which was dead in sin, united to the pure flesh, incorporated into and made one with it, lives from his Spirit, just as one body lives from its own spirit. But one who is not of Christ’s body does not live from Christ’s Spirit.

Likewise. Those who eat and drink Christ eat and drink life. To eat that is to be refreshed; to drink that is to live. What is visibly received in the sacrament is spiritually eaten and drunk in reality itself. Christ is eaten; once eaten he lives, because, having been killed, he rose. Nor when we eat do we make parts from him. And because it takes place thus in the sacrament—and the faithful know how they eat Christ’s flesh—each receives his own part, whence by this grace they are also called parts. He is eaten in parts and remains whole and entire in your heart. He was wholly with the Father when he came into the Virgin; he filled her and did not withdraw from him.

§ 1. What is seen is bread and a chalice, which the eyes also report. But what faith, which must be instructed, demands is that the bread is Christ’s body and the chalice his blood.

§ 2. These are therefore called sacraments because in them one thing is seen and another is understood. What is seen has a bodily species; what is understood has spiritual fruit.

§ 3. One who receives the mystery of unity and does not hold the bond of peace does not receive the mystery for himself but testimony against himself.

The same on John, [on c. 6, tractates XXVI and XXVII]. To believe in Jesus Christ is to eat the living bread. One who believes eats. He is invisibly fattened because he is invisibly reborn. “And he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” For by participation in the Son—which is through the unity of his body and blood—the person who eats lives, not receiving merely in the sacrament, which the wicked also do, but as far as participation in the Spirit, so that he may remain in the Lord’s body as a member and be made vigorous by his Spirit, which occurs while he keeps his commandments.

§ 1. He arrives at the invisible altar of God—which the unjust person does not approach—who approaches this present altar justified. He who here discerns his own cause will find life there.

The same in book III On the Trinity, [c. 4]. We call Christ’s body and blood that which, received from the fruits of the earth and consecrated by mystical prayer, we rightly receive for spiritual salvation in memory of the Lord’s Passion. Although this is brought through human hands to that visible species, it is not sanctified so as to be so great a sacrament unless the Spirit of God operates invisibly, since God operates all these things that take place through bodily movements in that work.

Likewise. Not every bread, but that which receives Christ’s blessing, becomes Christ’s body.

Likewise. For Christ commended in this sacrament his body and blood, which he also made us ourselves. For we too have been made his body.

Likewise, [tractate XXVI on c. 6 of John]. This is the sacrament of piety, the sign of unity, the bond of charity. Let one who wishes to live approach and believe; let him be incorporated.

§ 1. He wishes this food and drink to be understood as the fellowship of his body and members, which belongs to the Church among the predestined.

Likewise. PART XX. To eat the bread from the altar spiritually is to bring innocence to the altar. Even if sins are daily, let them not be mortal. Before you approach: “Forgive your debtors.” If you forgive, you will be forgiven. Approach securely; it is bread and not poison. But see whether you forgive, lest you lie to God, whom you do not deceive. You can lie to God; you cannot deceive him.

Likewise, [in the book of Sentences, c. 139]. One who is in discord with Christ neither eats his flesh nor drinks his blood, even if he daily receives the sacrament of so great a thing unto the judgment of his own perdition.

Likewise, [tractates VI and LXII on John]. Even holy things can harm the wicked; they are unto salvation for the good, unto judgment for the wicked. Hence the Apostle: “He who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment for himself,” not because that thing is evil, but because an evil person receives badly what is good. For the morsel that was given to Judas by the Lord was not evil. The physician gave salvation; but because one who was unworthy received it, he received it unto his own destruction. And evil things profit the good, as the angel of Satan profited Paul. For good is made through evil when evil is received well.

The same. Let the steward not prohibit the fat ones of the earth from eating the Lord’s table, but let him admonish them to fear the exactor.

The same, [in book V On Baptism, c. 8]. Just as Judas, when Christ handed him the morsel, gave place to the devil not by receiving an evil thing but by receiving badly, so anyone unworthily receiving Christ’s body does not cause it to be evil because he is evil, or cause himself to receive nothing because he does not receive unto salvation. For the Lord’s body and blood were nevertheless in those to whom the Apostle said: “He who eats unworthily eats and drinks judgment for himself.”

Likewise Ambrose, On the Sacraments. PART XXI. It is truly marvelous that God rained manna upon the fathers and that they were fed by the daily nourishment of heaven. Hence it was said: “A human being ate the bread of angels.” Nevertheless, all who ate that bread died in the desert. But this food which you receive, this living bread which descended from heaven, ministers the substance of eternal life, and whoever eats it will not die eternally; and it is Christ’s body. Consider now whether the bread of angels is more excellent, or the flesh of Christ, which assuredly is the body of life. That manna was from heaven; this is above heaven. That was of heaven; this is of the Lord of the heavens. That was liable to corruption if it was preserved for another day; this is alien to all corruption, and whoever tastes it religiously will not be able to experience corruption. For them water flowed from a rock; for you blood flowed from Christ. Water satisfied them for an hour; blood washes you eternally. The Jew drinks and thirsts; when you have drunk, you will not be able to thirst. And that was in a shadow; this is in reality. If that which you marvel at is a shadow, how great is that whose shadow you marvel at? Hear that what occurred among the fathers is a shadow: “They drank,” he says, “from the rock following them; but the rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with many of them, for they were laid low in the desert. But these things were done as a figure of us.” You have recognized the more excellent things: for light is more excellent than shadow, reality than figure, the body of the author than manna from heaven.

§ 1. Perhaps you say: I see another thing; how do you assert to me that I receive Christ’s body? And this still remains for us to prove. How many examples, therefore, do we use to prove that this is not what nature formed but what the blessing consecrated, and that the power of the blessing is greater than that of nature, because by the blessing even nature itself is changed? Moses was holding a rod; he cast it down and it became a serpent. Again he took hold of the serpent’s tail, and it returned to the nature of a rod. You see, therefore, that by prophetic grace the nature both of the serpent and of the rod was changed twice. The rivers of Egypt were running with the pure course of waters; suddenly blood began to burst forth from the veins of the springs; there was no drink in the rivers. Again, at the Prophet’s prayers, the gore of the rivers ceased and the nature of waters returned. The people of the Hebrews were enclosed on every side, hemmed in here by the Egyptians, shut in there by the sea. Moses raised the rod; the water separated itself and congealed into the appearance of walls, and a path for feet appeared between the waves. The Jordan, turned backward against nature, returns toward the beginning of its spring. Is it not clear that the nature either of the waves of the sea or of the river’s course was changed? The people of the fathers were thirsty; Moses touched the rock, and water flowed from the rock. Did grace not operate beyond nature, so that a rock vomited forth water which it did not have by nature? The river Marah was most bitter, so that the thirsty people could not drink; Moses cast wood into the water, and the nature of the waters put aside its bitterness, which grace suddenly infused tempered. Under the prophet Elisha, the iron was knocked from an axe belonging to one of the sons of the prophets and immediately sank. The one who had lost the iron entreated Elisha; Elisha also cast wood into the water, and the iron swam. Assuredly we know that this too was done beyond nature, for the species of iron is heavier than the liquid of waters.

§ 2. We perceive, therefore, that grace is greater than nature; and yet until now we are recounting the grace of a prophetic blessing. But if a human blessing possessed such power that it converted nature, what do we say of the divine consecration itself, where the very words of the Lord and Savior operate? For this sacrament which you receive is confected by Christ’s discourse. If Elijah’s discourse possessed such power that it brought fire down from heaven, will Christ’s discourse not have power to change the species of the elements? You have read concerning the works of the whole world: “Because he spoke and they were made; he commanded and they were created.” Therefore the discourse of Christ, which was able to make from nothing what did not exist, cannot change those things which exist into that which they were not? For it is no lesser thing to give new natures to things than to change them.

§ 3. But why do we use arguments? Let us use his own examples, and by the mystery of the incarnation let us establish the reality of the mystery. Did the customary course of nature precede when the Lord Jesus was born from Mary? If we seek the order, a woman joined to a man was accustomed to generate. It is clear, therefore, that the Virgin generated beyond the order of nature. And this which we confect is the body from the Virgin. Why do you seek the order of nature here in Christ’s body, when the Lord Jesus himself was born from a Virgin beyond nature? It was assuredly the true flesh of Christ which was crucified, which was buried. Therefore it truly is the sacrament of that flesh. The Lord Jesus himself cries: “This is my body.” Before the blessing of the heavenly words, another species is named; after consecration, the body is signified. He himself calls it his blood. Before consecration, another thing is said; after consecration, it is called blood. You say, “Amen,” that is, “It is true.” Let the affection feel what the discourse sounds.

Augustine in a certain sermon on the words of the Gospel. The Lord invites servants and prepares himself as food for them. Who would dare to eat his Lord? And nevertheless he says: “He who eats me lives because of me.” When he is eaten, life is eaten; nor is he killed in order to be eaten, but he gives life to the dead. When he is eaten, he refreshes but does not fail. Christ is eaten; once eaten he lives, because, having been killed, he rose. Nor when he is eaten do we make parts from him. And indeed it takes place thus in the sacrament; the faithful know how they eat Christ’s flesh. Each receives his own part; he is eaten in parts and remains whole and entire. He is eaten in parts in the sacrament, remains whole and entire in heaven, remains whole and entire in your heart.

Likewise Paschasius, On the Body and Blood of Christ, [c. 9]. PART XXII. This offering is repeated daily, although Christ, having suffered once in the flesh, saved the world once through one and the same Passion of death, and rising from that death to life, “death will have no further dominion over him.” The wisdom of God the Father assuredly foresaw this as necessary for many causes. First, because we sin daily, at least in sins without which mortal infirmity cannot live; because, although all sins were forgiven in baptism, the infirmity of sin nevertheless still remains in the flesh. Hence the Psalmist: “Bless the Lord, my soul, who is propitious to all your iniquities, who heals all your infirmities.” And therefore, because we fall daily, Christ is mystically immolated for us daily, and Christ’s Passion is handed down in the mystery, so that he who by dying once had conquered death may daily remit through these sacraments of the body and blood the recurrent sins of offenses. Hence we pray, “Forgive us our debts,” because if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Likewise. § 1. This mystery is also repeated for the commemoration of Christ’s Passion, as he himself says: “As often as you do this, do it in commemoration of me. Therefore, as often as you receive this bread and drink this chalice, you will announce the Lord’s death until he comes.” It is not therefore to be understood thus: until Christ’s death comes, because he now dies no more, but until the Lord himself comes to judgment. Meanwhile, however, Christ’s death is always to be announced to posterity throughout the life of the age, so that they may learn with what charity he loved his own, who deigned to die for them; and all of us owe him a return of charity, because he first loved us for this purpose, when we were children of Gehenna, that we, now freed from death, might love him.

Likewise Augustine. Whether this mystical sacrament of the chalice takes place under a figure or under reality. The Truth says: “My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink.” Otherwise, how will this be great: “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” unless it is true flesh? But because it is not right for Christ to be devoured by teeth, he willed this bread and wine in a mystery truly to be created as his flesh and blood potentially by the consecration of the Holy Spirit, and to be mystically immolated daily for the life of the world, so that, just as true flesh is created from the Virgin through the Spirit without intercourse, so through the same Spirit from the substance of bread and wine that same body of Christ may mystically be consecrated. Christ’s body is both reality and figure: reality, while Christ’s body and blood are effected by the power of the Spirit, in his power, from the substance of bread and wine; but figure is that which is perceived outwardly.

§ 1. This offering is repeated daily, although Christ suffered once, because we sin daily with sins without which mortal infirmity cannot live. And therefore, because we fall daily, Christ is mystically immolated daily for us.

§ 2. Within the Catholic Church, in the mystery of Christ’s body, nothing greater is accomplished by a good priest, nothing less by an evil one, because it is effected not by the merit of the one consecrating but by the word of the Creator and the power of the Holy Spirit. For if it were by the priest’s merit, it would in no way pertain to Christ. But now, just as he himself is the one who baptizes, so he himself is the one who through the Holy Spirit effects this flesh of his and passes into blood. Hence the priest also says: “Command,” he says, “this to be carried by the office of your holy angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty.” Why does he request that these things be carried into the light unless it is to be understood that they take place in that priesthood? Therefore this offering is blessed, through which we are blessed; enrolled, through which human beings are enrolled in heaven; ratified, through which we are reckoned in the inward parts of Christ; rational, through which we are stripped of bestial sense; acceptable, so that we who displease ourselves may through it be acceptable to his only-begotten Son. Nothing is more rational than that, because we have already received in baptism the likeness of his death, we should also receive the likeness of his blood, so that neither reality may be lacking in the sacrament nor anything ridiculous be done by pagans, namely that we drink the gore of a slain human being. For if the disciples could not patiently bear what the Lord had said—“He who does not eat my flesh, etc.”—if they said, “This is a hard discourse,” how would unbelievers bear these things? It must be believed that the sacraments are confected in Christ’s words. For by whose power they are created, by his word assuredly they are procreated into something better.

§ 3. All the other things that the priest says or the clergy of the choir sing are nothing other than praises and thanksgivings, or certainly supplications and petitions of the faithful. Hence the priest also says, first assuming the words of the Evangelists: “Who on the day before he suffered, etc.” In this, therefore, that body is created.

Gregory in an Easter homily. What the blood of the lamb is, you have learned not now by hearing but by drinking. This blood is placed upon both doorposts when it is drawn not only by the mouth of the body but also by the mouth of the heart.

Likewise, [Dialogues, book IV, c. 58]. § 1. This saving victim restores to us through a mystery that death of the Only-begotten, who, although “rising from the dead, now dies no more; death will have no further dominion over him,” nevertheless, living immortally and incorruptibly in himself, dies again in this mystery. His body too is received everywhere, his flesh is divided for the salvation of the people, his blood is poured no longer into the hands of unbelievers but into the mouths of the faithful. From this, therefore, let us consider what sort of sacrifice this is which for our absolution always imitates the Passion of the only-begotten Son. For who of the faithful can have doubt that at the very hour of immolation the heavens are opened at the priest’s voice; that the choirs of angels are present in that mystery of Jesus Christ; that highest and lowest are associated; that one thing is made from invisible and visible things?

The same. § 2. At one and the same time and moment, he says, it is both carried away in heaven by the ministry of angels to be associated with Christ’s body, and seen upon the altar before the priest’s eyes.

And below. § 3. So great is the unity of the Church in Christ that everywhere there is one bread of Christ’s body and one chalice of his blood. For the chalice which a Catholic priest sacrifices is no other than that which the Lord handed to the Apostles; because, just as the divinity of the Word of God is one and fills the whole world, so, although that body is consecrated in many places and on innumerable days, nevertheless there are not many bodies of Christ or many chalices, but one body of Christ and one blood with that which he assumed in the Virgin’s womb and which he gave to the Apostles. For the divinity of the Word fills that which is everywhere and joins it and causes that, just as the divinity itself is one, so it is joined to Christ’s body and his body is one in reality. Hence it is to be observed that whether one receives more or less from it, all equally receive Christ’s body in its complete integrity, both all generally and each one particularly.

Likewise. § 4. It is called the mystery of faith because you ought to believe that our salvation consists there. For, providing for us, he gave this sacrament of salvation so that, because we sin daily and he now cannot die, through this sacrament we may attain remission of sins. For he himself is eaten and drunk daily in reality, but remains whole, living, and immaculate; and therefore it is a great and fearful mystery, because one thing is seen and another understood. But since it is a mystery, why is it called body and blood? It has the figure of bread and wine by the Lord’s action, because we do not have it as a custom to eat raw flesh and drink blood.

Likewise Ambrose. “The Lord did all things whatsoever he willed in heaven and on earth.” And because he willed it, so it was done. Thus, although the figure of bread and wine is seen, nevertheless after consecration there is nothing other than Christ’s flesh and blood. The Truth himself says to the disciples: “This,” he says, “is my flesh, for the life of the world.” And, that I may speak more marvelously, it is plainly no other flesh than that which was born from Mary, suffered on the cross, and rose from the tomb; this, I say, is that very flesh. And therefore it is Christ’s flesh which is still offered today for the life of the world, and when it is worthily received, eternal life is assuredly restored in us. Indeed, by this bread which we receive in the mystery, I assuredly understand that bread which was formed by the hand of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin’s womb and baked by the fire of the Passion upon the altar of the cross. For the bread of angels was made the food of human beings, whence he himself says: “I am the living bread which descended from heaven,” and likewise: “The bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” For from these two judgments it is openly given to be understood that this bread and that are not two, but one bread and one flesh, and undoubtedly one body is effected: truly that one, assuredly that one, which was assumed from the Virgin, which suffered and was buried, which also rose, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father, and is to come to judge the living and the dead.

Likewise Augustine from a sermon on the Lord’s words. “He who eats me lives because of me.” Therefore, brothers, let us not fear to eat this bread lest perhaps we finish it and afterward find nothing to eat. Let Christ be eaten: once eaten he lives, because, having been killed, he rose; nor when we eat do we make parts from him. And indeed it takes place thus in the sacrament, and the faithful know how they eat Christ’s flesh. Each receives his own part, whence by this grace they are also called parts. He is eaten in parts and remains whole and entire; he is eaten in parts in the sacrament and remains whole and entire in heaven; he remains whole and entire in your heart. For he was wholly with the Father when he came into the Virgin; he filled her and did not withdraw from him. He was coming into flesh so that human beings might eat him, and remained whole with the Father so that he might feed the angels.

Likewise Jerome on Leviticus. It is permitted to eat of this victim which is marvelously made in commemoration of Christ; but of that which Christ offered upon the altar of the cross, according to itself, it is permitted to no one to eat.

The same in the sermon for the fifth Lord’s day after Theophany. But individuals receive the Lord Christ, and in the individual portions he is whole; nor is he diminished among individuals, but furnishes himself whole in each.

Likewise Hilary. Where there is a part of the body, there is also the whole. The same rationale exists in the Lord’s body as in the manna which preceded as its figure, concerning which it is said: “He who had gathered more did not have more, nor did he who had prepared less have less.” Visible quantity is not to be appraised in this mystery, but the spiritual power of the sacrament.

The same. Christ’s body which is received from the altar is a figure while bread and wine are seen outwardly, but reality while Christ’s body and blood are believed inwardly in reality.

Likewise from the Creed of Ephesus. Therefore, we necessarily add this too. We celebrate in the churches the bloodless service of the sacrifice. And we are sanctified as participants in Christ’s body and precious blood, receiving it not as common flesh, nor as the flesh of a sanctified man joined to the Word according to a unity of dignity, but as truly life-giving flesh made proper to the Word himself.

Likewise Augustine, [tractate XXVI on c. 6 of John]. The Apostle says: “They all ate the same spiritual food.” Assuredly the same spiritual food, for a different bodily food, because they ate manna and we another; “and they all drank the same spiritual drink.” They drank one thing and we another, but in visible species; nevertheless, it is the same in spiritual power.

Likewise Hilary, book VIII On the Trinity. PART XXIII. The Father in Christ and Christ in us cause us to be one in these things. If Christ truly assumed the flesh of our body, and that man truly is Christ, and we truly receive under a mystery the flesh of his body, and through this we will be one because the Father is in him and he in us, how is a unity of will asserted, when the natural property through the sacrament is a perfect sacrament of unity? One must not speak of these things by human or worldly sense, nor through a violent and imprudent preaching of heavenly sayings must the perversity of an alien and impious understanding be wrested from their soundness. For unless we learned from him the things we say concerning Christ’s natural reality in us, we would speak foolishly and impiously. For he himself says: “My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” No place for doubt is left concerning the reality of the flesh and blood. For now, both by the profession of the Lord himself and by our faith, it truly is flesh and truly is blood; and these things, received and drunk, cause both that we are in Christ and that Christ is in us. Therefore he himself is in us through the flesh.

§ 1. But that through the sacrament of the communicated flesh and blood we are in him, he himself testifies, saying: “But you will see me, because I live and you will live, because I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” If he wished only a unity of will to be understood, why did he set forth a certain degree and order of the unity to be consummated, unless so that he might be believed to be in the Father through the nature of divinity, we contrariwise to be in him through his bodily birth, and he in turn to be in us through the mystery of the sacraments, and thus a perfect unity through the mediator might be taught, since, with us remaining in him, he remained in the Father, and remaining in the Father remained in us, and so we advanced toward unity, since, as he who is naturally in him according to birth exists, we too would naturally be in him, while he naturally remained in us?

§ 2. But that this unity is naturally in us he himself testified thus: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” For no one will be in him except one in whom he himself has been, nevertheless having in himself the assumed flesh of him who had assumed his flesh. Likewise: “As the living Father sent me, and I live through the Father, so he who eats my flesh will himself live through me.” As he lives through the Father, in the same manner we live through his flesh.

§ 3. This, therefore, is the cause of our life: that through the flesh we have Christ remaining in us, and will live through him by the condition by which he lives through the Father. Therefore, if according to the flesh we naturally live through him, that is, having attained the nature of his flesh, how does he not naturally according to the Spirit have the Father in himself, since he himself lives through the Father?

Likewise. § 4. But these things were recalled by us for this reason: because heretics, falsely claiming only a unity of will between the Father and the Son, were using the example of our unity with God, as though, with us united to the Son and through the Son to the Father only by obedience and the will of religion, no natural property of communion through the sacrament of flesh and blood were granted; although both through the honor of the Son given to us, and through him remaining carnally in us, and us bodily in him, with us inseparably united, the mystery of true and natural unity is to be proclaimed.

The same. § 4. Christ’s body which is received from the altar is a figure while bread and wine are seen outwardly, but reality while Christ’s body and blood are inwardly believed in reality.

Likewise Ambrose in book V On the Sacraments, [c. 1]. PART XXIV. Wine and water are placed in the chalice. But you say: How, then, did Melchizedek offer bread and wine? What does the admixture of water mean? “But they drank from the rock following them; and the rock was Christ.” Not an immobile rock, which followed the people. And you, drink, so that Christ may follow you. See the mystery. Moses: this is the Prophet. The rod: this is the word of God. The priest touches the rock with the word of God, and water flows, and the people of God drink. Water overflows in the chalice; it springs unto eternal life.

Likewise. Receive this too. § 2. From his side flowed water and blood: water, that it might cleanse; blood, that it might redeem. Why from the side? Because whence the fault, thence grace; fault through a woman, grace through Christ.

Likewise, [c. 3]. § 3. Hear the Psalm. See how suitable it is for the heavenly sacraments: “The Lord shepherds me, and nothing will be lacking to me, etc. Your rod and your staff, etc.” The rod is command; the staff is the Passion; the eternal divinity of Christ and the temporal Passion. The former created; the latter redeemed. “You have prepared a table in my sight, and my inebriating cup, how splendid it is.”

Likewise. § 4. As often as you drink, you receive remission of sins and are inebriated by the Spirit. Hence the Apostle also says: “Do not be inebriated with wine, in which there is wantonness, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Likewise: Splendid inebriation, which operates sobriety of mind.

Likewise, [c. 4]. § 5. “Your will be done, as in heaven and on earth. Give us today our daily bread.” By Christ’s blood all things either in heaven or on earth have been pacified. Heaven has been sanctified; the devil has been cast down to where the human being whom he deceived moves.

§ 6. I told you that before Christ’s words what is offered is called bread. When Christ’s words have been brought forth, it is no longer called bread but body. Why, therefore, in the Lord’s Prayer does he say, “Our bread”? He indeed said bread, but epiousion, that is, supersubstantial.

The same in book VII. PART XXV. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ is the true Son of God—not as human beings are through grace, but as Son from the Father’s substance—so the flesh of Christ which we receive is true, as he himself said, and his blood is true drink.

Likewise. § 1. “I am,” he says, “the living bread that descended from heaven.” But the flesh did not descend from heaven. How, then, did the living bread descend from heaven? Because the same Lord Jesus is a participant in divinity and in the body. And you who receive the flesh participate in his divine substance in that nourishment.

Likewise in the book On the Mysteries, [c. 9]. In that sacrament Christ is, because it is Christ’s body. Therefore it is not bodily but spiritual food. Hence the Apostle also says concerning its type that our fathers ate the same spiritual food. For the body of God is a spiritual body; Christ’s body is the body of the divine Spirit.

The same in the sermon On Abel and Cain. If you believe that flesh was assumed by Christ and offer the transfigured body upon the altar, but nevertheless do not distinguish the nature of the Word and of the body, it is said to you: “If you offer rightly but do not divide rightly, you have sinned.”

Likewise Jerome to Hedibia, [question II]. Moses did not give you the true bread, but the Lord Jesus himself is both guest and banquet, himself eating and being eaten.

Likewise on Matthew, [book IV on c. 26]. “Take and eat. This is my body.” After the typical Passover had been completed and he had eaten the flesh of the lamb with the Apostles, he took bread, which strengthens the human being, and passed to the true sacrament of the Passover, so that, just as Melchizedek had done in his prefiguration when offering bread and wine, he too might present it in the reality of his body and blood.

The same in the book On the Lord’s Members. The Son of God is called the priest of God the Father according to the humanity in which he offered himself to God as an acceptable sacrifice for us, so that he himself who is the sacrifice is the priest.

Likewise Augustine, On the Usefulness of Doing Penance. Then Peter announced to them that the one whom they had crucified was to be worshiped, so that, believing, they might now drink his blood which, raging, they had shed.

The same in the letter to Irenaeus. That bodily manna is now the reality of so great a miracle because what is perfect has come; but the perfect thing is the bread from heaven, the body from the Virgin.

The same, in the second homily on Psalm 33. The Jews approached Jesus to crucify him; let us approach to receive his body and blood.

Likewise. § 1. Truly great is God and great his mercy, who gave us his body to eat, in which he endured so much, and his blood to drink.

Likewise on Psalm 27, to the Jews. § 2. Now drink securely the blood that you shed.

On Psalm 75. § 3. The very blood which they shed through madness, they drank through grace.

On Psalm 28. § 4. From Mary’s flesh he received flesh, and he gave that very flesh to be eaten for salvation. But no one eats that flesh unless he has first adored it.

On Psalm 33. § 5. “David was carried in his own hands.” No one is carried in his own hands. We do not find how this is to be understood literally in David himself, but we find it in Christ. For Christ was carried in his own hands when, commending his own body, he said: “This is my body.” For that body was carried in his own hands.

The same, tractate 35 on John. § 6. Until they drank the blood that they had shed, they despaired.

The same on Psalm 54. § 7. The Jews were fed as though from the Lord’s punishment, and we are fed from the Lord’s cross because we eat his body. Therefore the impious have their feasts, and the pious have theirs. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice.”

Likewise from the Council of Worms. PART XXVI. Let a presbyter always have the Eucharist prepared so that, when anyone becomes ill, he may immediately communicate him, lest he die without communion.

Likewise from the Council of Orléans. PART XXVII. One who has not guarded the sacrifice well, and a mouse or some other animal has eaten it, shall do penance for forty days. But one who has lost it in the church, or a part of it has fallen and has not been found, shall do penance for thirty days.

Cyprian, greetings to his fellow bishop Eucratius, [book I, letter 10]. PART XXVIII. On account of your affection you judged that I should be consulted, dearest brother, concerning what seems to me regarding that actor and magician established among you, who still perseveres in the disgrace of his art and, as master and teacher not of boys to be instructed but of boys to be destroyed, also insinuates to others what he learned wickedly: whether sacred communion ought to be given to such persons together with the other Christians, or he ought to communicate with you. I judge it to accord neither with the divine majesty nor with evangelical discipline that the modesty and honor of the Church be defiled by so shameful and infamous a contagion.

Likewise from the Third Council of Carthage, [c. 35]. Let grace or reconciliation with God not be denied to stage performers, actors, and other persons of this kind, or to apostates who have been converted or returned.

Likewise from the Council of Urbinum. Let no presbyter presume to celebrate another Mass on that day upon an altar at which the bishop sang Mass.