Vigils Reading – St Ambrose

THE BODY IS CHRIST’S

From the writing of St Ambrose5

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It is a marvelous thing that God rained manna on the fathers, and they were fed by daily nourishment from heaven. Therefore, it is said: ‘Man has eaten the bread of angels.” But yet all those who ate that bread died in the desert, but this food which you receive, this ‘living bread, which came down from heaven,’ furnishes the substance of eternal life, and whoever eats this bread ‘will not die forever’; for it is the body of Christ…

Perhaps you may say… how do you tell me that I receive the Body of Christ?’… The people of the fathers were thirsty; Moses touched the rock; and water flowed forth from the rock. Did not grace work contrary to nature for the rock to throw forth water which its nature did not have… But if the benediction of man had such power as to change nature, what do we say of divine consecration itself, in which the very words of our Lord and Saviour function? For that sacrament, which you receive, is effected by the words of Christ. But if the words of Elias had such power as to call down fire from heaven, will not the words of Christ have power enough to change the nature of the elements? You have read about the works of the world: ‘that He spoke and they were done; He commanded and they were created.” So, cannot the words of Christ, which were able to make what was not out of nothing, change those things that are into the things that were not? For it is not of less importance to give things new natures than to change nature.

But why do we use arguments? Let us use His own examples, and by the mysteries of the Incarnation let us establish the truth of the mysteries… It is clear that the Virgin conceived contrary to the course of nature. And this body which we make is from the Virgin. Why do you seek here the course of nature in the body of Christ, when the Lord Jesus himself was born of the Virgin contrary to nature? Surely it is the true flesh of Christ, which was crucified, which was buried; therefore it is truly the sacrament of that flesh.

The Lord Jesus himself declares: “This is my body.” Before the benediction of the heavenly words another species is mentioned; after the consecration the body is signified. He Himself speaks of His blood. Before the consecration it is mentioned as something else; after the consecration it is called blood. And you say ‘Amen,’ that is, ‘It is true.’ What the mouth speaks, let the mind within confess; what words utter, let the heart feel.

Christ then feeds His Church on these sacraments, by which the substance of the soul is made strong… Therefore, the Church also, seeing so much grace, urges her sons, urges her neighbors to come together to the sacraments, saying: ‘Eat, my neighbors, and drink and be inebriated, my brethren.’ What we eat, what we drink, the Holy Spirit expresses to you elsewhere, saying: “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet: Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.’ Christ is in that sacrament, because the body is Christ’s..