Is the eucharist, true Body and true Blood?

St. Jacob of Sarug says, “The chosen apostles were concerned to believe the Son, not to argue or question Him like the daring ones. The bread He broke and called His flesh, they knew it as flesh and they truly believed that His blood was being poured out.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “He once in Cana of Galilee, turned the water into wine, akin to blood, and is it incredible that He should have turned wine into blood? When called to a bodily marriage, He miraculously wrought that wonderful work; and on the children of the bride-chamber (Matt. 9:15), shall He not much rather be acknowledged to have bestowed the fruition of His Body and Blood?”¹⁵¹¹ And, “Since then He Himself declared and said of the Bread, This is My Body , who shall dare to doubt any longer? And since He has Himself affirmed and said, This is My Blood , who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His blood? … Wherefore with full assurance let us partake as of the Body and Blood of Christ.”¹⁵¹²

Origen says, “for ‘he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat not from faith’ (Rom. 14:23), and as nothing is pure to him who is defiled and unbelieving, not in itself, but because of his defilement and unbelief.”¹⁵¹³

St. Cyril the Great says, “For they knew not the beauty of the Mystery, and that fairest economy devised for it. Besides this, they full surely reasoned thus with themselves, How can the human body implant in us everlasting life, what can a thing of like nature with ourselves avail to immortality? Christ therefore understanding their thoughts (for all things are naked and, bared to His eyes), heals them again, leading them by the hand manifoldly to the understanding of those things of which they were yet ignorant … For if you suppose that My Flesh cannot put life into you, how can It ascend into heaven like a bird? … For this too is equally impossible for flesh. But if it ascends contrary to nature, what is to hinder it from quickening also, even though its nature be not to quicken, of its own nature? For He Who made That heavenly which is from earth, will render it Lifegiving also.”¹⁵¹⁴

1510 St. Jacob of Sarug, On the Reception of the Holy Mysteries .

1511 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 22.2 (NPNF II/7:151).

1512 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 22.1, 3 (NPNF II/7:151).

1513 Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 11.14 (ANF 10:443).

1514 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 On John 6:62 (LFHCC 43:434– 435) amended.

“… it is befitting for the Eternal to give what is eternal, and not enjoyment of temporary food, which is barely able to last for just the least moment … For it was a work befitting that which came down then, to render the partakers of It superior to death and decay.”¹⁵¹⁵

“And verily when He was raising the little daughter of the chief of the Synagogue saying, Maid, arise (Luke 8:54), He laid hold of her hand, as it is written, giving life, as God, by His All-Powerful command, and again, giving life through the touch of His Holy Flesh … and when He went into the city called Nain, and one was being carried out dead, the only son of his mother (Luke 7:12–14), again he touched the bier, saying, Young man, to you I say, Arise . And not only to His Word does He give power to give life to the dead, but that He might show that His Own Body was life-giving … And if by the touch alone of His Holy Flesh, He gives life to that which is decayed, how shall we not profit yet more richly by the life-giving Blessing when we also taste It? For It will surely transform into Its own good, i.e., immortality, those who partake of It.”¹⁵¹⁶

“Christ therefore gave His Own Body for the life of all, and again through It He makes Life to dwell in us; and how, I will say as I am able. For since the life-giving Word of God indwelt in the Flesh, He transformed it into His Own proper good, that is life, and by the unspeakable character of this union, coming wholly together with It, rendered It life-giving, as He Himself is by Nature. Wherefore the Body of Christ gives life to all who partake of It. For it expels death, when It comes to be in dying men, and removes corruption, full in Itself perfectly of the Word which abolishes corruption.”¹⁵¹⁷

“And do not doubt that this is true, since He Himself plainly says, ‘This is My body … This is My blood:’ but rather receive in faith that Saviour’s word; for He, being truth, cannot lie.”¹⁵¹⁸

“Let them then, who of their folly have not yet admitted the faith in Christ, hear, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53). For wholly destitute of all share and taste of that life which is in sanctification and bliss, do they abide who do not through the mystical Blessing receive Jesus. For He is Life by Nature, inasmuch as He was begotten of a Living Father (John 6:57): no less giving life to His Holy Body also, being in a manner gathered and ineffably united with the all-quickening Word [Logos].”¹⁵¹⁹

1515 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 On John 6:58 (LFHCC 43:430– 431) amended.

1516 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 On John 6:53 (LFHCC 43:418– 419) amended.

1517 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 On John 6:51 (LFHCC 43:410) amended.

1518 St. Cyril of Alexandria, A Commentary upon the Gospel According to St. Luke: Part II , trans. R. Payne Smith (Oxford University Press, 1859) Sermon 142: p. 668.

1519 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 4.2 (LFHCC 43:418) amended.

St. Augustine says, “He said that He was to ascend into heaven, of course, whole: ‘If you see the Son of Man ascending to where He first was.’ certainly then, at least, you will see that not in the manner you suppose does He dispense His body; certainly then, at least, you will understand that His grace is not consumed by tooth-biting.”¹⁵²⁰

He also says, “He is Himself the Bread which came down from heaven; but Bread which refreshes the failing, and does not fail; Bread which can be tasted, cannot be wasted. This Bread did the manna also figure. Wherefore it is said, ‘He gave them the bread of heaven, and man ate the bread of the angels’ (Ps. 77:24–25 LXX). Who is the Bread of heaven, but Christ? But in order that man might eat Angels’ Bread, the Lord of Angels was made Man. For if He had not been made Man, we should not have His Flesh; if we had not His Flesh, we should not eat the Bread of the Altar. Let us hasten to the inheritance, seeing we have hereby received a great earnest of it. My brethren, let us long for the life of Christ, seeing we hold as an earnest the Death of Christ.”¹⁵²¹

St. Hilary of Poitiers says, “It is no longer permitted us to raise doubts about the true nature of the body and the blood, for, according to the statement of the Lord Himself as well as our faith, this is indeed flesh and blood. And these things that we receive bring it about that we are in Christ and Christ is in us.”¹⁵²²

St. Ambrose says, “The mystery that you accept is the work of the word of Christ. If the words of Elijah had the power to bring down fire from heaven (1 Sam. 18:38), would not the word of Christ have the power to change the nature of elements?”

John of Damascus says, “If you were asked, ‘how does the bread become the body of Christ?’ I answer, ‘The Holy Spirit overshadows the priest, and works in the elements the same way as in the womb of Virgin Mary.’”