This chapter focuses on the theological meaning of the Eucharist and the practices of preparation for this mystery. The Eucharist is more ancient than the New Testament. Attempts to reject this mystery based on biblical scholarship and interpretation will not hold up to the evidence in support of this mystery. Since the Church came from Christ who is the Eucharist, Orthodoxy has a “eucharistic ecclesiology” that is reflected in the communion of bishops from apostolic succession. So, the hierarchical structure, canons, dogmas, practices, traditions of the Church come from this eucharistic source. Bread and wine were types in the Old Testament connected to the priesthood, to the blessedness of life, symbols of plenty and creativity, symbols of joy and gifts from the Creator. Melchizedek in Genesis is a type of Christ who began his ministry by supplying and drinking wine at the wedding at Cana.
The holy fathers of the 2nd c. have taken much of their theology of the eucharist from Christ’s discourse “on the bread of life” to his disciples, and they understood typology and allegory as evidence for the eucharistic life of Christians. St. Ignatius the God-bearer spoke to the Ephesians about the giving thanks to God – meaning the Eucharist. He also taught that heretics abstained from the eucharistic altar, since they didn’t believe that the bread and wine truly became the Body and Blood of Christ. Christians have also always emphasized that they share “one eucharist.” The principle isn’t that there must be “one bishop” over other bishops to celebrate “one eucharist” but that “one eucharist” is celebrated by each bishop under the unity of the Eucharist Itself, which makes everyone in communion with each other. Other forms of authority or unity developed in other Christian groups haven’t accepted this form of eucharistic ecclesiology in practice or theology.
St. Ignatius the God-bearer writes to the Romans saying, “I desire his blood for my drink, which is incorruptible love.” Love is the single driving force behind Orthodox Christianity and the impetus for all practices and traditions that help us discover again our “desire” for the eternal love of God and love for all people. In a brief discourse on the Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian, Alexander Schmemann taught that man’s negative spiritual condition is “unable to see the light and to desire it.” Many psychologists and neuroscience researchers, like Marc Lewis, who has studied brain addictions, have understood that our basic human problem is that we all tend to go for the low-hanging fruit; we desire the drug, the fix, the crave of life’s pleasures because they are easy to grab in the manner of the animal kingdom. But sadly, we get stuck and learn to run in a cycle of sinful passions that we call bad habits that result in the loss of the sensitivity to see spiritually, to love others, and desire what is good for us. The Eucharist is the heavenly food we really wanted, and God is giving it to us now and forever. So, our deeply broken world isn’t rooted primarily in a problem of “the brain” but something deeper that the Church has called the heart, the noetic realm where we store up all our longings and memories and learning. The Eucharist rewires our desires and heals the brain too. The Eucharist also dogmatically “pledges to us the universal resurrection,” says Metropolitan Hilarion in line with the patristic teaching on holy communion. In Against Heresies section 5.2.3, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Gaul taught that, “… as a corn of wheat falling into the earth and becoming decomposed, rises with manifold increase by the Spirit of God, who contains all things, and then, through the wisdom of God, serves for the use of man, and having received the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ, so also our bodies, being nourished by it, and deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition there, shall rise at their appointed time …” Historically, there really isn’t any “church fathers” that Christians can say didn’t believe in the Eucharist as the real Body and Blood of Christ. Any reading of church history must confront this reality of the Eucharist as taught and practiced by Orthodox Christianity. St. John Chrysostom taught that Christians must receive Christ “with burning hearts, all fervent, all aroused.” Desire makes people do things beyond their ability and act crazy for what is wanted. He taught that would be the worthiest way to receive Christ in the Eucharist, with a “trembling awareness” and “ardent love.” The holy fathers also teach that our beauty is being restored through the eucharistic liturgy. St. John Chrysostom also taught, “Consider that we taste of that Body that sits above, that is adored by Angels, that is next to the Power that is incorruptible …” We are not only joined to Christ who is surrounded with the angelic ranks and the Most-Holy Theotokos, but we are joined with each other. The “Christian race” is not just a metaphor, but we literally become one blood and form a new “kinsfolk” with Christ. So, matter isn’t neutral or inert like scientists assume. But the flesh is nourished by the Spirit, as St. John the Apostle teaches. Bread and wine are not common elements in the Eucharist, although we see it physically. St. John Chrysostom taught that “to these materials substances, however, he united his divine nature, that through them we might be joined to the Divinity.” The Eucharist isn’t an image, type, or mere symbol. The Eucharist is Christ’s deified body, and we rise to what is supernatural through the natural, out of “human weakness.” We do not partake of God’s essence. But we do partake of the Eucharist that is likened to light and fire. Sin is a spiritual problem as much as a body problem. Through eating sin entered the world, and through eating sin is washed away and we are made whole. The struggle for wholeness is also found in the mystery called holy confession that helps us repent and return to the lost home and the lost peace of the Father. The next chapter discusses what repentance is when it’s lived within the mysteries.