Homilies on First Corinthians

“And when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is My Body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.”

Wherefore does he here make mention of the Mysteries? Because that argument was very necessary to his present purpose. As thus: “Your Master,” says he, “counted all worthy of the same Table, though it be very awful and far exceeding the dignity of all: but you consider them to be unworthy even of your own, small and mean as we see it is; and while they have no advantage over you in spiritual things, you rob them in the temporal things. For neither are these your own.”

However, he does not express himself thus, to prevent his discourse becoming harsh: but he frames it in a gentler form, saying, that “the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread.”

And wherefore does he remind us of the time, and of that evening, and of the betrayal? Not indifferently nor without some reason, but that he might exceedingly fill them with compunction, were it but from consideration of the time. For even if one be a very stone, yet when he considers that night, how He was with His disciples, “very heavy,” how He was betrayed, how He was bound, how He was led away, how He was judged, how He suffered all the rest in order, he becomes softer than wax, and is withdrawn from earth and all the pomp of this world. Therefore he leads us to the remembrance of all those things, by His time, and His table, and His betrayal, putting us to shame and saying, “Your Master gave up even Himself for you: and thou dost not even share a little meat with your brother for your own sake.”

But how says he, that “he received it from the Lord?” since certainly he was not present then but was one of the persecutors. That you may know that the first table had no advantage above that which comes after it. For even today also it is He who does all, and delivers it even as then.

And not on this account only does he remind us of that night, but that he may also in another way bring us to compunction. For as we particularly remember those words which we hear last from those who are departing; and to their heirs if they should venture to transgress their commands, when we would put them to shame we say, “Consider that this was the last word that your father uttered to you, and until the evening when he was just about to breathe his last he kept repeating these injunctions:” just so Paul, purposing hence also to make his argument full of awfulness; “Remember,” says he, “that this was the last mysterious rite He gave unto you, and in that night on which He was about to be slain for us, He commanded these things, and having delivered to us that Supper after that He added nothing further.”

Next also he proceeds to recount the very things that were done, saying, “He took bread, and, when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is My Body, which is broken for you.” If therefore you come for a sacrifice of thanksgiving, do thou on your part nothing unworthy of that sacrifice: by no means either dishonor your brother, or neglect him in his hunger; be not drunken, insult not the Church. As you come giving thanks for what you have enjoyed: so do you yourself accordingly make return, and not cut yourself off from your neighbor. Since Christ for His part gave equally to all, saying, “Take, eat.” He gave His Body equally, but dost not thou give so much as the common bread equally? Yea, it was indeed broken for all alike, and became the Body equally for all.