April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
REFLECTION
How Apostles, early Christians understood the Eucharist
With interest in Bible-study groups spreading among the Protestant and Catholic churches, it is important that, along with reading and analyzing passages of Scripture, we have an understanding of the teachings of the earliest Christians taught by the Apostles.
We find these teachings in the writings of the early Fathers of the Church - the Greek, Roman, Syrian and African philosophers who were converted and taught by the Apostles or their immediate disciples.
In their writings, we find the authentic understanding of what Jesus taught. This is particularly true when it involves our understanding of the Eucharist. In reading Scripture alone, one can become confused as to what Jesus really meant - especially when people read conflicting passages from St. Paul side by side with what Jesus said in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel. This is why Scripture scholars should be experts in the writings of the Fathers of the Church as well as Scripture.
Jesus was very clear when He talked about Himself as "the living bread come down from heaven" and said that this living bread He would give us is not like the manna that did not come down from heaven. He continued by saying that His flesh and blood is the food that He will give us and that "whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever."
The Jewish disciples said that was a hard saying and who could accept it, and they walked away from Jesus and left Him. Many Christians do the same thing - except we are nice about it and say He didn't really mean it, even though Jesus emphasized three times the same strong words. The only thing He didn't say was how He would do it so.
When we read the Fathers of the Church, we get the authentic teaching of how the Apostles themselves understood those words of Jesus. For example, St. Ignatius of Antioch, who succeeded St. Peter as bishop of Antioch when Peter went to Rome, wrote: "I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life - which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God...and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life."
He also states: "They [the Gnostics] abstain from the Eucharist...because they do not believe the Eucharist to be the flesh and blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ....Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God incur death."
St. Justin Martyr, another early Church Father, wrote: "We do not receive these as common bread and common drink....So, we have been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His Word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation have been nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh."
St. Irenaeus, ordained by St. Polycarp - a close friend of St. John the Evangelist - wrote: "The wine and the bread having received the Word of God, become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ."
Showing that communion for the sick and dying was important in the early Church, St. Dionysius of Alexandria wrote: "The boy ran for the priest. But it was night and the priest was sick and was, as a result, unable to come. However, I had issued an injunction that persons at the point of death, if they requested it...should be absolved in order that they may depart this life in cheerful hope. So, the priest gave the boy a small portion of the Eucharist, telling him to steep it in water and drop it into the old man's mouth." (This also shows that the Eucharist was reserved after the service for special needs.)
It's clear that, by understanding what the earliest Christians were taught by the Apostles, we can get a precise understanding of the real meaning of the words in Scripture.[[In-content Ad]]
250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD
Events
250 X 250 AD
Comments:
You must login to comment.