©2003 Matthew A. C. Newsome
 

From Sacred Scripture

John 6:35-71.  “The Bread of Life Discourse.”  Most especially:

• “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst’” (Jn. 6:35).
   
• “I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn. 6:48-51).
   
• “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.  He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in my and I in him’” (Jn. 6:53-56).


“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’  And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant; which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28). (See also Mark 14:22-24, and Luke 22:17-20).

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16).

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord.  Let a man examine himself and so eat the bread and drink of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement upon himself” (1 Corinthians 11:23-29).

Exodus 12:8, 46--The Passover lamb had to be eaten.

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

“For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed.  Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
 

From the Fathers

“[Heretics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ . . .”  -- St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrneans 6, 2 (c. 110 AD).

“ . . . not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but . . . as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the Flesh and Blood of that incarnated Jesus.” – St. Justin Martyr, First Apology 66, 20 (c. 150 AD).

“[Jesus] has declared the cup, a part of His creation, to be His own Blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, He has established as His own Body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.”  -- St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 5, 2, 2 (c. 195 AD).

“He Himself, therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is My Body,’ who will dare any longer to doubt?  And when He Himself has affirmed and said, ‘This is My Blood,’ who can ever hesitate and say it is not His Blood?” – St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures: Mystagogic 4, 22, 1 (c. 350 AD).

“Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ.  Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm.  Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ.” – St. Cyril of Jerusalem, ibid. 4, 22, 6 (c. 350 AD).

“When you see [the Body of Christ] set before you, say to yourself: ‘Because of this Body I am no longer earth and ashes, no longer a prisoner, but free: because of this I hope for heaven, and to receive the good things therein, immortal life, the portion of angels, converse with Christ; this Body, nailed and scourged, was more than death could stand against. . . . This is even that Body, the bloodstained, the pierced, and that out of which gushed the saving fountains, the one of blood, the other of water, for all the world.’ . . . This Body has He given to us both to hold and to eat; a thing appropriate to intense love.” – St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians, 24:4 (c. 391 AD).

“You ought to know that you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily.  That Bread which you see on the altar, consecrated by the word of God, is the Body of Christ.  That chalice, or rather, what the chalice holds, consecrated by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ.” – St. Augustine, Sermons, No. 227 (c. 411 AD).

“Having learnt these things, and been fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to taste, but the Body of Christ; and that the seeming wine is not wine, though the taste will have it so, but the Blood of Christ: and that of this David sung of old, saying, ‘And bread strengthens man’s heart, to make his face to shine with oil’ (Ps. 103:15), strengthen your heart by partaking thereof as spiritual, and make the face of your soul to shine.” – St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses, 22:9 (c. 350 AD).

"When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my blood,’ but, ‘This is my blood’; for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord.” – Theodore of Mopsuestia, Catechetical Homilies 5:1 (c. 405 AD).