St. Ambrose on the Sacrament of the Eucharist
As I mentioned previously, the treatise from St. Ambrose that we are currently discussing, On the Mysteries, originally was a sermon that he delivered to new Catholics just baptized at the Easter Vigil. After their baptism, which took place in a baptistry in a building separate from the church, they were led in solemn procession into the church, and there would receive their First Holy Communion. In the last post we left off right where Ambrose had finished talking about baptism and was now going to address to the newly baptized, as well as the whole congregation, about the inconceivable mystery of the Eucharist, that sacrament whereby ordinary bread and wine become the true Body and true Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the newly baptized are now ready to receive that gift which the Holy Spirit sanctifies. So Ambrose begins this part of the sermon:
The cleansed people, rich in these insignia [the gifts of the Holy Spirit], hasten to the altar of Christ, saying: 'And I shall go unto the altar of God who gives joy to my youth' (Ps 42:4). For the people, having put aside the defilements of ancient error, renewed in the youth of an eagle, hasten to approach that heavenly banquet. They come, therefore, and, seeing the sacred altar arranged, exclaim saying: 'Thou hast prepared a table in my sight.'
For Ambrose, the miracle of the Eucharist is the very same mystery as the miracle of the Incarnation. Just as conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary occurred in a way totally contrary to nature, but entirely through the action of the Holy Spirit, so too does the Word of God become incarnate in the bread and wine entirely contrary to nature, through the selfsame action of the Holy Spirit:
He it is Who is without mother according to His Godhead, for He was begotten of God the Father, of one substance with the Father; without a father according to His Incarnation, for He was born of a Virgin; having neither beginning nor end, for He is the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last. The sacrament, then, which you received is the gift not of man but of God, brought forth by Him Who blessed Abraham the father of faith, whose grace and deeds we admire.
Continue reading at Enchiridion Patristicum
The cleansed people, rich in these insignia [the gifts of the Holy Spirit], hasten to the altar of Christ, saying: 'And I shall go unto the altar of God who gives joy to my youth' (Ps 42:4). For the people, having put aside the defilements of ancient error, renewed in the youth of an eagle, hasten to approach that heavenly banquet. They come, therefore, and, seeing the sacred altar arranged, exclaim saying: 'Thou hast prepared a table in my sight.'
For Ambrose, the miracle of the Eucharist is the very same mystery as the miracle of the Incarnation. Just as conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary occurred in a way totally contrary to nature, but entirely through the action of the Holy Spirit, so too does the Word of God become incarnate in the bread and wine entirely contrary to nature, through the selfsame action of the Holy Spirit:
He it is Who is without mother according to His Godhead, for He was begotten of God the Father, of one substance with the Father; without a father according to His Incarnation, for He was born of a Virgin; having neither beginning nor end, for He is the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last. The sacrament, then, which you received is the gift not of man but of God, brought forth by Him Who blessed Abraham the father of faith, whose grace and deeds we admire.
Continue reading at Enchiridion Patristicum