A History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist by Darwell Stone M.A.

II

To the doctrine in regard to the presence and gift in the Holy Eucharist found during the period of the great Councils must be added the teaching of the same period about the Eucharistic sacrifice.

1. The general sacrificial phraseology, often incidentally introduced, which has already been noticed in the period preceding the Council of Nicæa, is continued during this later period, and illustrations of it may be given from writers of both East and West.

In the eighteenth canon of the Council of Nicæa deacons are described as “those who have not authority to offer” in distinction from presbyters, who are referred to as “those who offer”.

Eusebius of Cæsarea repeatedly alludes to the Eucharist as a “sacrifice” or the “memory” or “memorial” of a “sacrifice”. Jews and Gentiles, he says, who have alike received the benefits of Christ’s atonement—

“are right in celebrating daily the memory of Him and the memorial of His body and blood; and, being admitted to the sacrifice and priestly ministration which are better than those of ancient times, we deem it no longer holy to fall back to the first and weak elements, which were symbols and images but did not embrace the truth itself.”

He describes how our Lord—

“offered to the Father on behalf of the salvation of us all a wonderful sacrifice and unique victim, and delivered to us a memory to offer continually to God in the place of a sacrifice.”

After referring to the work of Christ as the accomplishment of that which was foreshadowed in the sacrifices of the Old Testament, he says:—

“Having then received the memory of this sacrifice to celebrate upon the Table by means of the symbols of His body and His saving blood, according to the laws of the new covenant, we are again taught by the prophet David to say:—

Thou hast prepared a table before me in the sight of mine adversaries:

Thou hast anointed my head with oil; and Thy cup cheering me, how good it is.’

“Plainly then are here signified the mystic chrism and the solemn sacrifices of the Table of Christ, through which in our happy sacrificial rites (καλλιεροῦντες) we have been taught to offer all life long bloodless and reasonable and acceptable sacrifices to the supreme God through His High Priest, who is over all.… These spiritual sacrifices (ἀσωμάτους καὶ νοερὰς θυσίας) again the words of the prophet proclaim, saying in a certain place:—

“ ‘Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise;

And pay thy vows to the Most High:

And call upon Me in the day of trouble;

And I will deliver thee, and thou shaft glorify Me.’

“And again,

“ ‘The lifting up of my hands the evening sacrifice.’

“And again,

“ ‘A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit.’

“All these things then, which were divinely foretold of old, are being celebrated among all the nations at the present time through the teaching of our Saviour in the Gospels, the truth bearing witness to the prophetic voice by which God rejecting the sacrifices of the law of Moses proclaims that which is to be among ourselves, saying, ‘From the rising of the sun even unto its setting My name has been glorified among the nations; and in every place incense is offered unto My name, and a pure sacrifice’. We sacrifice then to the supreme God a sacrifice of praise; we sacrifice the divine and solemn and most holy sacrifice; we sacrifice in a new way according to the new covenant the pure sacrifice. ‘A contrite heart’ has been called ‘a sacrifice to God’. ‘A contrite and humbled heart God will not despise.’ And moreover we burn the incense spoken of by the prophet, in every place bringing to Him the sweet smelling fruit of the excellent theology, offering it by means of our prayers to Him. This also another prophet teaches in saying,

“ ‘Let my prayer be as incense before Thee.’

“We then both sacrifice and burn incense, celebrating the memory of the great sacrifice in the mysteries which He has delivered to us and bringing to God our thanksgiving for our salvation (τὴν ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας ἡμῶν εὐχαριστίαν) by means of pious hymns and prayers, and also wholly dedicating ourselves to Him and to His High Priest, the Word Himself, making our offering (ἀνακείμενοι) in body and soul.”

“Our Saviour Jesus, the Christ of God, after the manner of Melchizedek still even now accomplishes by means of His ministers the rites of His priestly work among men. For as that priest of the Gentiles never seems to have used bodily sacrifices, but only wine and bread when He blessed Abraham, so our Saviour and Lord Himself first, and then all the priests who in succession from Him are throughout all the nations, celebrating the spiritual priestly work in accordance with the laws of the Church, represent (αἰνίττονται) with wine and bread the mysteries of His body and saving blood.”

In one of his Festal Epistles St. Athanasius uses phraseology of this same general character.

“For no longer were these things done at Jerusalem which is beneath; neither was it considered that the feast should be celebrated there alone; but wherever God willed it to be. Now He willed it to be in every place, so that in every place incense and a sacrifice might be offered to Him.”

And in a fragment ascribed to St. Athanasius in a sermon by St. John of Damascus it is said that “the divine and bloodless sacrifice is a propitiation”.

The Liturgical Prayers of Serapion contain before the recital of the institution of the Eucharist the words:—

“O Lord of Hosts, fill also this sacrifice with Thy power and Thy participation; for to Thee have we offered this living sacrifice, this bloodless offering”;

and between the recital of the institution and the invocation of the Word,

“we have offered the bread, and beseech Thee through this sacrifice.… We have offered also the cup.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lectures speaks of the Eucharist as “the spiritual sacrifice, the bloodless service,” “that sacrifice of propitiation,” “this sacrifice,” “the holy and most awful sacrifice”.

St. Gregory of Nazianzus in defending his flight to avoid exercising the office of the priesthood writes:—

“I then knowing these things, and that no one is worthy of the great God and the sacrifice and the High Priest who has not first offered Himself to God a living sacrifice and holy, and set forth the reasonable and acceptable service, and sacrificed to God the sacrifice of praise and a contrite spirit, which is the only sacrifice which He who giveth all demands from us, how was I to take courage to offer to Him the external sacrifice (τὴν ἔξωθεν, sc. θυσίαν), the antitype of the great mysteries, or how was I to put on the fashion and name of a priest before I had consecrated my hands by holy works?”

The writings of St. Chrysostom abound in references to the “sacrifice,” the “memorial of the sacrifice,” the “victim,” and to the action of “offering” in the Holy Eucharist.

In the Apostolic Constitutions the Eucharist is incidentally referred to as a sacrifice, and is said to be offered; and the following passage on the sacrificial character of Christian worship occurs in the second book:—

“You therefore to-day, O bishops, are to your people priests and Levites, who minister to the holy tabernacle, the Holy Catholic Church, and stand at the altar of the Lord our God, and offer to Him the reasonable and bloodless sacrifices through Jesus the great High Priest.… Hear this, you of the laity also, the select Church of God. For the people were formerly called the people of God and a holy nation. You, therefore, are the holy and sacred Church of God, ‘enrolled in heaven,’ ‘a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,’ ‘a bride adorned’ for the Lord God, a great Church, a faithful Church. Hearken now to what was said formerly. Offerings and tithes belong to Christ the High Priest and to His ministers.… Those which then were sacrifices are now prayers and supplications and thanksgivings; those which then were first fruits and tithes and offerings and gifts are now oblations, which are offered by the ministry of the holy bishops to the Lord God through Jesus Christ, who died for them. For these are your high priests, and the presbyters are your priests, and your Levites are the present deacons and your readers and the singers and the doorkeepers and your deaconesses and the widows and the virgins and your orphans. But the high priest, who is above all these, is the bishop.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria in his Homily on the Mystic Supper describes the Eucharist as “the priestly work of the awful sacrifice,” and refers to our Lord in connection with it as “the priest and the sacrifice” “who offers and is offered”.

There is like terminology in the West. A canon of the Council of Arles, held in 314 A.D., like the Council of Nicæa eleven years later in the East, incidentally contains the word “offer” to describe the work of the presbyters which the deacons might not perform. St. Optatus of Milevis uses the words “sacrifice” and “offer” in regard to the Eucharist. St. Ambrose says that it is part of the work of the Christian ministry to “offer sacrifice for the people”; that Christ “is Himself offered on earth when the body of Christ is offered”; and that the word of Christ “consecrates the sacrifice which is offered”. St. Augustine refers to the Eucharist as “the sacrifice of our redemption,” “the sacrifice of the Mediator,” “the sacrifice of peace,” “the sacrifice of love,” “the sacrifice of the body and blood of the Lord,” “the sacrifice of the Church”. St. Leo speaks of “the offering of the sacrifice” as an act of Christian worship.

As in the earlier period, this constant use of sacrificial language in reference to the Eucharist is unaccompanied by any explicit and detailed explanation of the way in which the Eucharist is a sacrifice. Yet there are not wanting lines of thought which tend towards suggesting some explanation; and these are harmonious with what has already been noticed in the earlier period.

2. The memorial in the Eucharist is sometimes connected with the passion and death of Christ.

St. Athanasius in one of his Festal Letters, while drawing a contrast between Jewish and Christian rites, says of Christians, with apparent reference to the Eucharist, that they are—

“no longer slaying a material lamb, but that true Lamb which was slain, even our Lord Jesus Christ, who was led as a sheep to the slaughter and was dumb before her shearers; being purified by His precious blood.”

In the Liturgical Prayers of Serapion “the likeness of the death” is said to be made when the sacrifice is offered.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his last Catechetical Lecture, after referring several times to the Eucharist as a sacrifice, and after speaking of the benefit which accrues through it to the faithful departed, imagines an objector asking what good commemoration in the prayer of the Church can do to a soul which has departed from this world, and proceeds to reply to this possible objection:—

“If a king were to banish men who had given him offence, and then their relatives were to weave a crown and offer it to him on behalf of those under punishment, would he not grant to them a remission of the penalties? In the same way we also, when we offer our supplications to Him on behalf of those who have fallen asleep, even though they be sinners, weave no crown, but offer Christ sacrificed on behalf of our sins, propitiating the merciful God for them as well as for ourselves.”

St. Gregory of Nazianzus, with apparent reference to a sacrificial commemoration of the death of Christ, writes of the “bloodless cutting” with which “the Lord’s body and blood” are “severed” by the “sword” of the priest’s voice in the consecration of the Eucharist.

St. Chrysostom very closely connects the Eucharistic sacrifice with the passion and death of our Lord.

“Him who was nailed to the Cross we are to see as a Lamb slaughtered and sacrificed.… When thou seest the Sheep sacrificed and completely offered.… He was slain for thee, and thou neglectest to see Him sacrificed.… Think what that is which has been shed. It is blood, blood, which blotted out the handwriting of our sins, blood, which cleansed thy soul, which washed away the stain, which triumphed over the principalities and the powers.… He made a show openly, triumphing on the Cross.”

“Reverence then, reverence this Table, of which we all have communion, Christ slain on our behalf, the sacrifice that is laid upon it.”

“We offer, making a memorial of His death.… Our High Priest is He who offered the sacrifice which cleanses us. We offer also now that which was then offered, which cannot be exhausted.”

In a sermon which has been ascribed to St. Chrysostom, but which Dr. Loofs and Mr. Bethune Baker concur in regarding as by Nestorius, there is a reference, similar to that by St. Gregory of Nazianzus, to the prayer at the consecration as a sword. “Christ,” it is said, “is crucified in symbol (κατὰ τὸν τύπον), being slain by the sword of the prayer of the priest.”

The Apostolic Constitutions represent the Eucharist as a commemoration of our Lord’s passion and death.

In the West this connection of the Eucharistic sacrifice with the passion and death of Christ is found in St. Ambrose and St. Augustine. The saying of St. Ambrose that “Christ” “is offered as Man, as taking on Himself suffering (recipiens passionem),” probably refers rather to the taking of a nature capable of suffering in the Incarnation than to the passion and death in particular; but the same writer elsewhere explicitly states that in the Eucharist “we proclaim the death of the Lord”. St. Augustine, after referring to Communion, says that our Lord—

“made Himself low that man might eat the bread of angels, and ‘taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, being made obedient even unto death, yea the death of the cross,’ that now from the cross the flesh and blood of the Lord might be commended to us as a new sacrifice.”

3. The Eucharist is regarded as a presentation, not only of our Lord’s death, but also of His resurrection and ascension and heavenly life.

St. Gregory of Nazianzus lays strong stress on the heavenly realities of which earthly rites are the figure, to share in which the earthly rites are designed to lead; and on the Eucharistic memorial of the whole life of the Lord.

“Will they keep us from the altars? But I know of another altar, of which those things which now are seen are the types, to which no axe or hand went up, on which no iron was heard, nor any work of the craftsmen or men of skill, but all is accomplished by the mind, and the ascent is by means of contemplation. At this will I stand, at this will I offer acceptable gifts, sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, better than those which now are offered, as the reality is better than the shadow.”

“We will partake of the passover, still now after the fashion of a type, yet more plainly than under the ancient law.… Let us make the head, not the earthly Jerusalem but the heavenly City, not that which is trodden under foot by armies but that which is glorified by angels. Let us sacrifice not young calves or lambs with horns and hoofs, of which much is without life and feeling; but let us sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise upon the heavenly altar with the heavenly dances; let us hold aside the first veil, let us approach the second and look into the holy of holies. To speak of what is greater, let us sacrifice ourselves to God, or rather let us continue sacrificing throughout every day and at every movement. Let us accept all things for the sake of the Word. By sufferings let us imitate His suffering. By blood let us honour His blood. With ready mind let us ascend His cross.… Keep the feast of the resurrection.… If He descend into Hades, go down with Him. Learn there also the mysteries of Christ.… And if He ascend into heaven, go up with Him.”

The teaching of St. Gregory of Nazianzus thus carries on the ante-Nicene idea of the one sacrifice of Christ which, abidingly presented in heaven, gathers into itself earthly worship and life, and pre-eminently the Eucharistic oblation in which the Church offers to God the whole life of Christ as well as His death. The same idea is found in St. Chrysostom. After referring to the emphasis laid by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews on the truth of the one sacrifice of Christ, he proceeds:—

“What then? Do we not offer every day? Certainly we so offer, making a memorial of His death. And this is one, and not many. How is it one, and not many? Inasmuch as it was once offered, as that which was carried into the holy of holies. This [the Jewish sacrifice] is a type of that [the sacrifice of Christ], and this [the sacrifice in the Church] of that [the sacrifice of Christ]. For we ever offer the same Person, not to-day one sheep and tomorrow another, but ever the same offering. Therefore the sacrifice is one. By this reasoning then, since the offering is made in many places, does it follow that there are many Christs? By no means. For Christ is everywhere one, complete here and complete there, one body. As then when offered in many places He is one body and not many bodies, so also there is one sacrifice. Our High Priest is He who offered the sacrifice which cleanses us. We offer also now that which was then offered, which cannot be exhausted. This is done for a memorial of that which was then done. For ‘do this,’ He said, ‘for My memorial’. We do not offer another sacrifice, as the high priest of old, but we ever offer the same; or rather we make the memorial of the sacrifice.”

With this strong emphasis on the unity of the sacrifice must be compared passages in which St. Chrysostom is no less emphatic that the centre of the sacrificial worship of Christians is in heaven, and that all true Christian life is a sacrificial offering.

“Our High Priest is in heaven, and far better than those among the Jews, not only in the kind of priesthood but also in the place and the tabernacle and the covenant and the Person.… We have our victim in heaven, our Priest in heaven, our sacrifice in heaven. Let us then present such sacrifices as can be offered on that altar, no longer sheep and oxen, no longer blood and steaming fat. All these things have been done away, and in their place the reasonable service has been brought in. What is the reasonable service? The offerings made through the soul, through the spirit. ‘God,’ it is said, ‘is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth,’ things which need no body or instruments or places, such as gentleness, restraint, mercy, endurance of evil, long-suffering, lowliness of mind.”

“Do not thou, because thou hearest that He sitteth, suppose that His being called High Priest is idle talk. For the former, His sitting, pertains to the dignity which He has as God, and the latter [His being called High Priest] pertains to His love for man and His care for us. For this reason he elaborates this point, and dwells upon it; for he was afraid lest the other truth [that of the Godhead of Christ as shown in His sitting] should overthrow this [the fact of His being a High Priest]. Therefore he again brings the discourse to this subject, since some were inquiring for what reason He died being a Priest. Now there is no priest without a sacrifice. Therefore He also must have a sacrifice. And in another way: having said that He is in heaven, he says and shows that He is a Priest from every consideration, from Melchizedek, from the oath, from offering sacrifice.… What are the heavenly things which he here speaks of? The spiritual things. For though they are celebrated on earth, yet they are worthy of heaven. For when our Lord Jesus lies as a slain victim, when the Spirit is present, when He who sits on the right hand of the Father is here, when sons are made by the Washing, when they are fellow-citizens of those in heaven, when we have a country in heaven and a city and a citizenship, when we are strangers as to things on earth, how can all this fail to be heavenly? What? Are not our hymns heavenly? Is it not true that those very songs which the divine choirs of the angel hosts sing in heaven are the songs which we who are on earth utter in harmony with them? Is not the altar also of heaven? How? It has nothing carnal. All the oblations become spiritual. The sacrifice does not disperse into ashes or smoke or steaming fat; but it makes the oblations bright and splendid. But how can the rites be other than of heaven, when those who minister in them still hear who it was that said, ‘Whose ye retain, they are retained; and whose ye remit, they are remitted’. When these possess even the keys of heaven, how can all things fail to be of heaven?”

“When thou seest the Lord sacrificed and lying as an oblation, and the priest standing by the sacrifice and praying, and all things reddened with that precious blood, dost thou think that thou art still among men and standing on earth? Nay, art thou not straightway translated to heaven, so as to cast every carnal thought out of thy soul, and with unimpeded soul and clean mind to behold the things that are in heaven?”

The Apostolic Constitutions add to the mention of our Lord’s passion and death the commemoration of His “resurrection from the dead and ascent into heaven, and His future second coming”.

Like the connection of the Eucharistic sacrifice with the passion and death of Christ, this association with our Lord’s risen and ascended life finds expression in the West in the writings of St. Ambrose, in the treatise On the Sacraments, and in the works of St. Augustine. St. Ambrose is fond of contrasting the “shadow” (umbra) in the Jewish law, the “image” or “symbol” (imago) in Christian worship, and the “reality” (veritas) which is in heaven. With this contrast in mind, he writes:—

“Now has the shadow of night and of Jewish darkness passed by, the day of the Church has come. Now we see what is good by means of symbol, and we hold fast the good which is in the symbol. We have seen the High Priest coming to us; we have seen and heard Him offering His own blood for us: we priests, as we are able, follow, that we may offer sacrifice for the people, though weak in our deserts yet honourable in our sacrifice, because, although Christ is not now seen to offer, yet He Himself is offered on earth when the body of Christ is offered; nay, He Himself is shown to offer among us, since His word consecrates the sacrifice which is offered. And He Himself indeed stands as an Advocate for us with the Father; but now we see Him not; then shall we see, when the symbol has passed away and the reality has come. Then at length, not by a mirror but face to face, will those things which are prefect be seen.”

“Here the shadow, here the symbol, there the reality. The shadow in the law, the symbol in the Gospel, the reality in heaven. Formerly a lamb was offered and a calf was offered; now Christ is offered. But He is offered as Man, as one taking on Himself suffering (recipiens passionem); and He offers Himself as High Priest, that He may forgive our sins, here in symbol, in reality there where He pleads with the Father for us as Advocate.”

In another passage St. Ambrose closely connects the passion and the offering in heaven:—

“A priest must offer something, and in accordance with the Law enter into the holy places by means of blood. Therefore, since God had rejected the blood of bulls and goats, it was needful for this Priest also, as you have read, to make entrance into the supreme holy of holies in heaven by means of His own blood, that the offering for our sins might be for ever. Therefore the Priest and the Victim are one and the same; and yet the sacrifice is performed in the state of manhood, for He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and He is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

This association with the resurrection and ascension and heavenly life of our Lord, as well as with His passion, is very clearly shown in the portion of the canon of the Mass quoted in the treatise On the Sacraments, which probably represents the Liturgy used in North Italy about 400. Here there is first the specific commemoration of the passion and resurrection and ascension; this is followed by the prayer for the reception of the sacrifice on the heavenly altar; and there is afterwards the allusion to the gifts of Abel typifying the ungrudging dedication of what costs most, the sacrifice of Abraham prefiguring the death on the cross, and the offering of Melchizedek representing the pleading of Christ as the High Priest in heaven.

“Therefore mindful of His most glorious passion and His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven, we offer unto Thee this spotless offering, a reasonable offering, a bloodless offering, this holy bread and the cup of eternal life; and we pray and implore that Thou mayest receive this offering on Thy altar on high by the hands of Thy angels, as Thou didst deign to receive the gifts of Thy righteous servant Abel and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham and the offering which the high priest Melchizedek offered to Thee.”

St. Augustine closely connects the Eucharistic altar on earth with the altar of our Lord’s offering in heaven; regards our Lord’s heavenly work as the fulfilment of the type in the sacrifice which the Jewish high priest offered in the holy of holies; and speaks of the approach to the earthly altar as symbolic both of the present access of Christians to our Lord in heaven and of their future entrance therein.

“There is also an altar before the eyes of God, whither the Priest has entered who first offered Himself for us. There is an altar in heaven; and no one touches that altar who does not wash his hands in innocency. For many who are unworthy touch this altar on earth; and God endures that His Sacraments suffer outrage for a time.”

“That the forgiveness of God may be obtained, propitiation is made by a sacrifice. Therefore there is One who is our Priest, who was sent by the Lord God, who took from us what He should offer to the Lord, that is the holy firstfruits of flesh from the virgin’s womb. This burnt-offering He offered to God; He stretched out His hands on the cross.… He hung on the cross, and propitiation was made for our wickedness.… Thou art the Priest, Thou art the Victim; Thou art the Offerer, Thou art That which is offered. He is Himself the Priest who has now entered into the parts within the veil, and alone there of those who have worn flesh makes intercession for us. In the type of which thing in that first people and in that first temple, one priest entered into the holy of holies, all the people stood without, and he who alone entered into the parts within the veil offered sacrifice for the people standing without.… Propitiation having been made for our sins and iniquities by that evening sacrifice [that is, the sacrifice on the cross], we go unto the Lord, and the veil is taken away. On this account also, when the Lord was crucified, the veil of the temple was rent.”

“This altar, which is now set in the Church on earth for celebrating the symbols of the divine mysteries, exposed to earthly eyes, many even of the wicked can approach.… But that altar whither the forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf, whither the Head of the Church has gone before, while the rest of the members are to follow, none of those can approach of whom, as I have already related, the Apostle said, ‘those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God’. For the Priest alone, yet clearly there the whole Priest, will stand, that is with the body added of which He is the Head, which has already ascended into heaven.”

4. The Christian’s act in offering the sacrifice is represented as culminating in his Communion as uniting him to our once slain but now living Lord.

St. Gregory of Nazianzus describes the Eucharist as—

“The bloodless sacrifice, by which we partake of Christ both as to His sufferings and as to His Godhead.”

St. Chrysostom uses to “touch” or “partake of” or “receive” the “sacrifice” as phrases denoting the reception of Communion.

“Be mindful, O man, what sacrifice thou art about to touch, what Table thou art about to approach; bethink thee that thou, who art earth and ashes, dost receive the blood and body of Christ.… When we receive the spotless and holy sacrifice, let us kiss it tenderly, let us embrace it with our eyes, let us kindle our minds.”

“It is needful to cleanse the conscience and then to touch the holy sacrifice. For he who is polluted and unclean ought not even on a festival to partake of that holy and awful flesh, while he who is clean and has washed off his transgressions by careful penitence both on a festival and always may rightly partake of the divine mysteries and is worthy to enjoy the gifts of God.”

“This [that is, the tongue] is the member by which we receive the awful sacrifice.”

“Many partake of this sacrifice once in the whole year, others twice, others often.”

St. Ambrose associates the proclamation of the death of the Lord in the Eucharist with the act of Communion.

“As often as we receive the Sacrament which by means of the mystery of the holy prayer is transfigured into flesh and blood, we proclaim the death of the Lord.”

St. Augustine connects communion with God with his definition of sacrifice, and makes the reception of Communion part of the Christian sacrificial action.

“The fact that by the ancient fathers such sacrifices were offered in the victims of beasts, which the people of God now reads of but does not offer, is to be understood in no other way than that by those things are signified these which are celebrated among us with this intent that we may be united (inhæreamus) to God, and that we may promote for our neighbour a like union. A sacrifice therefore is a visible sacrament, that is a sacred sign, of an invisible sacrifice. Whence that penitent in the prophet or the prophet himself seeking to have God propitious to his sins says, ‘If Thou hadst willed sacrifice, I would indeed have given it, Thou wilt not delight in burnt offerings. A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise.’ Let us observe how, where he said that God wills not sacrifice, there he shows that God wills sacrifice. He then does not will the sacrifice of a slain beast, but He wills the sacrifice of a contrite heart.… That which is called by all men a sacrifice is a sign of a real sacrifice. Now mercy is a real sacrifice; whence is that said which I quoted just now, ‘For with such sacrifices God is well pleased’. Whatever things then in the service of the tabernacle or of the temple in many ways concerning sacrifices are said to have been commanded by God are understood to signify love to God and one’s neighbour. For ‘In these two commandments,’ as has been written, ‘hangeth the whole Law and the prophets’. Therefore every work which is done in order that we may be united (inhæreamus) in hole fellowship to God, that is in regard to that end of good whereby we may be truly happy, is a real sacrifice.”

Elsewhere St. Augustine, after explaining that the one true sacrifice which Christ offered was foreshadowed in different ways among heathen and Jews, adds:—

“Wherefore now Christians celebrate the memorial of the same accomplished sacrifice by the most holy offering and reception of the bode and blood of Christ.”

5. The last quotation but one from St. Augustine is pervaded by a favourite thought of this Father, that the true sacrifice is the dedication of self to God. This idea runs through Christian theology as a whole. Instances of it in an earlier period have already been referred to. It is emphasised in close connection with the Eucharist in this period in passages which have been quoted from the Eastern Fathers St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Chrysostom. But it finds its most characteristic expression in the repeated teaching of St. Augustine that in the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Church and of Christians.

“The whole redeemed City itself, that is the congregation and society of the saints, is offered as a universal sacrifice to God by the High Priest, who offered even Himself in suffering for us in the form of a servant, that we might be the body of so great a Head. For this form of a servant did He offer, in this was He offered; for in this is He mediator and priest and sacrifice. And so when the Apostle exhorted us that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, our reasonable service, and that we be not conformed to this world but reformed in the newness of our mind, to prove what is the will of God, that which is good and well-pleasing and complete, which whole sacrifice we ourselves are.… This is the sacrifice of Christians: ‘the many one body in Christ’. Which also the Church celebrates in the Sacrament of the altar, familiar to the faithful, where it is shown to her that in this thing which she offers she herself is offered.”

After making the distinction that our Lord receives sacrifice in His Godhead and in His Manhood is Himself the sacrifice, he says:—

“Thus is He priest, Himself offering, Himself also that which is offered. Of this thing He willed the sacrifice of the Church to be the daily Sacrament; and the Church, since she is the body of the Head Himself, learns to offer herself through Him.”

Later in the same treatise is the sentence—

“We ourselves, that is His City, and His most splendid and best sacrifice, of which we celebrate the mystery in our oblations which are known to the faithful.”

In the course of his explanation that the sacrifice is offered only to God, and not to the martyrs who are commemorated in the offering of it, he writes:—

“The sacrifice itself is the body of Christ, which is not offered to them, because they themselves are it.”