Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose |
From the treatise
On the Mysteries
by Saint Ambrose,
bishop
337 AD – 397AD
To the newly baptized on the Eucharist
Fresh from the waters and resplendent in these garments, God’s
holy people hasten to the altar of Christ saying: I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.
They have sloughed off the old skin of error,
their youth renewed like an eagle’s, and they make haste to approach that
heavenly banquet. They come and, seeing
the sacred altar prepared, cry out: You have prepared a table in my sight.
David puts these words into their mouths: The Lord is my shepherd and nothing will be
lacking to me. He has set me down there in a place of pasture. He has brought me beside refreshing water. Further on, we read: For he
has set me beside refreshing water. Further
on, we read: For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I
shall not be afraid of evils, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff have given me
comfort. You have prepared in my sight a
table against those who afflict me. You have
made my head rich in oil, and your cup, which exhilarates, how excellent it is.
It is wonderful that God rained manna on our fathers and
they were fed with daily food from heaven.
And so it is written: Man ate the
bread of angels. Yet those who ate
that bread all died in the desert.
But
the food that you receive,
that living
bread which came down from heaven,
supplies the very substance of eternal
life,
and whoever will eat it will never die,
for it is the Body of Christ.
The REALITY of the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist |
Consider now which is the more excellent: the bread of
angels or the flesh of Christ, which is indeed that body that gives life.
The first was manna from heaven, the second
is above the heavens. One was of heaven,
the other is of the Lord of the heavens; one subject to corruption if it was
kept till the morrow, the other free from all corruption,
for if anyone tastes
of it with reverence
he will be incapable of corruption.
Communion taken with reverence |
For our fathers, water flowed from the rock;
for you, blood flows from Christ. Water
satisfied their thirst for a time; blood cleanses you for ever. The Jew drinks and still thirsts, but when you
drink you will be incapable of thirst.
What happened in symbol
is now fulfilled in reality.
If what we marvel at is a shadow, how great is the reality
whose very shadow you marvel at.
Listen to
this, which shows that what happened in the time of our fathers was but a
shadow. They drank, it is written, from
the rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. All this took place as a symbol for us.
You know now what is more excellent:
LIGHT is
preferable to its shadow,
REALITY to its symbol,
the BODY OF THE GIVER
to the
manna
He gave them from heaven.
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