Posted on 04/04/2015 1:54:16 PM PDT by Steelfish
The Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Christ and Pledge of Resurrection
St. Irenaeus of Lyons Early Church Father and Doctor of the Church https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/541/Eucharist_as_Pledge_of_Resurrection_St._Irenaeus.html
The real presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist (transubstantiation), also known as Mass or the Lord's Supper, was taken for granted in the early Church.
Written by St. Irenaeus about 185 AD, this excerpt makes clear the Church's realistic interpretation of the Eucharist as the risen body of Christ which serves as the medicine of immortality, the pledge of our own future resurrection.
This excerpt from St. Irenaeus' monumental work, Against Heresies (Lib. 5,2, 2-3: SC 153, 30-38) is used in the Roman Catholic Office of Readings for Thursday of the third week of Easter with the accompanying biblical reading of Revelation 9:13-21.
If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood, the Eucharistic chalice does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body. There can be no blood without veins, flesh and the rest of the human substance, and this the Word of God actually became: it was with his own blood that he redeemed us. As the Apostle says: In him, through his blood, we have been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven.
We are his members and we are nourished by creatures, which is his gift to us, for it is he who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He declared that the chalice, which comes from his creation, was his blood, and he makes it the nourishment of our blood. He affirmed that the bread, which comes from his creation, was his body, and he makes it the nourishment of our body. When the chalice we mix and the bread we bake receive the word of God, the Eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, by which our bodies live and grow. How then can it be said that flesh belonging to the Lord’s own body and nourished by his body and blood is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life? Saint Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. He is not speaking of some spiritual and incorporeal kind of man, for spirits do not have flesh and bones. He is speaking of a real human body composed of flesh, sinews and bones, nourished by the chalice of Christ’s blood and receiving growth from the bread which is his body.
The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and decays only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God who sustains all things. The Wisdom of God places these things at the service of man and when they receive God’s word they become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way our bodies, which have been nourished by the Eucharist, will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. Then the Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness.
By the time John wrote Revelation 85% of the churches had gone seriously off track yet Catholics would rely on even later writings of non apostles. Makes no sense.
Cite your source. A reputable source.
The book of Revelation. Reputable enough for you?
“Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)
Catholics should stop using those tactics.
I dunno, there were some bad Popes, but the snake-handling sects have nothing to brag about in terms of quality leadership
Really? Off track . . . like so off track that most of the known world would be converted. Please list the “non-apostles” you are referring too - they must have really misheard the Apostles you speak of - clearly, someone in their home in 2015 reading a translated Bible is of superior sourcing.
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“Written by St. Irenaeus about 185 AD”
Well, it was prophesied that the church would face perversion from within and without.
Will NEVER happen on matters of doctrine:
Matthew 28:20
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”
Link to article
https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/541/Eucharist_as_Pledge_of_Resurrection_St._Irenaeus.html
Matthew 28:20 does not rule out the failure of individual churches. Christ revealed this in the opening chapters of Revelation.
Really? "Most of the known world" would hear the gospel or "be converted"? Because a person can hear it and still not believe. And according to your post, it would mean that a great revival has been taking place all this time because of the catholic church. Do you really believe that the world has been under revival for the last 2000 years?
No - to be clear, the assertion was the early church was off its tracks, in some sort of unspecified and undocumented way. My point was to simply say that such a “so off track” institution could not seriously have turned the world on its head as did the church during that time. Frankly, the point is so unsubstantiated it doesn’t really warrant a reply, but it is Holy Saturday.
For the sake of Our Lord, please to my brothers and sisters Protestant, enough of the attacks. Thank-you!
.....And no Eurcharist without the Ressurection as well.
All of those so called "church fathers" that Catholics rely on rather than the apostles that Jesus chose.
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