And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave to them, and said,
Take, eat: this is my body.
Read Chapter 14
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Do you wish to know how it is consecrated with heavenly words? Accept what the words are. The priest speaks. He says: “Perform for us this oblation written, reasonable, acceptable, which is a figure of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. On the day before he suffered he took bread in his holy hands, looked toward heaven, toward you, holy Father omnipotent, eternal God, giving thanks, blessed, broke, and having broken it gave it to the apostles and his disciples,” saying: “Take and eat of this, all of you; for this is my body, which shall be broken for many.” Take note. Before it is consecrated, it is bread; but when Christ’s words have been added, it is the body of Christ.
This which I now give, and which you now receive; for the bread is not the figure only of Christ, but is changed into the true body of Christ; and he himself says, The bread, which I will give you, is my flesh. (St. John vi.) But the flesh of Christ is not seen, on account of our infirmity; for if we were allowed to see with our eyes the flesh and blood of Jesus, we should not dare to approach the blessed sacrament. Our Lord therefore condescending to our weakness, preserves the outward species of bread and wine, but changes the bread and wine into the reality of flesh and blood. (Theophylactus)
St. Chrysostom, in his thirtieth sermon on the treason of Judas, says: "Christ is also now present to adorn our table, (altar) the same that was present to adorn that table. For it is not man that causes the elements to become the body and blood of Christ, but the very Christ, the same that was crucified for us: oude gar anthropos estin o chronou ginetai ergo endunamousa ten phusin ten emetera...
Giving directions to his disciples to offer to God the first fruits of his creatures—not as if he stood in need of them, but that they might be themselves neither unfruitful nor ungrateful—he took that created thing, bread, and gave thanks, and said, “This is my body.” And the cup likewise, which is part of the creation to which we belong, he confessed to be his blood, and taught the new offering of the new covenant. This is what the church has received from the apostles and throughout the whole world offers to God, who affords us nourishment as the first fruits of his gifts in the New Testament. .
Human beings have a compound nature: body and spirit. So it is fitting that the new birth should correspond to that compound nature, and also that the food of faith be compound. We were therefore given a birth both by water and by the Spirit, that is, in holy baptism, and with it food that is the very bread of life, even our Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven. For when he was about to take on himself a voluntary death for our sakes, on the night on which he gave himself up, he offered a new covenant to his holy disciples and apostles, and through them to all who believe on him. In an upper chamber, then, on holy and glorious Zion, after he had eaten the ancient Passoverwith his disciples and had fulfilled the ancient covenant, he washed his disciples’ feet in token of the holy baptism. Then having broken bread he gave it to them saying, “Take, eat, this is my body broken for you for the remission of sins.”
When the president has given thanks and the whole congregation has assented, those whom we call deacons give to each of those present a portion of the consecrated bread and wine and water. They then take it to those absent. This food we call Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives according to the way Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God’s Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. For the apostles in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, thus handed down what was commanded them: that Jesus, taking bre...
Then having taken the bread and given it to his disciples, he made it his own body by saying “This is my body,” that is, the figure of my body. A figure, however, there could not have been, unless there had first been a palpable body. A phantom or mere void is not capable of embodying a figure. But Marcion would claim that Jesus only pretended that the bread was his body because he presumably had no bodily substance, so in the absence of his body he gives us bread. It wouldn’t change his theory of a phantom body much if we stretched the point to say that the bread was crucified! But in that case why would we need to call his body bread? Why not rather come up with some more interesting edible thing, like a melon, which maybe Marcion had in place of a heart! Against Marcion
We thank you, our Father, for the holy vine of David your servant; to you be glory forever. And concerning the broken bread: We thank you, our Father, for the life and knowledge which you made known to us through Jesus your servant; to you be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.
