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On the Sacraments
St Ambrose of Milan, tr. Thompson, 1919
Book 4, The Words with Which the Priest Consecrates the Sacrament are Quoted, and the…
Wilt thou know that it is consecrated by heavenly words? Hear what the words are. The priest speaks.1 “Make for us,” he says, “this oblation approved, ratified, reasonable, acceptable, seeing that it is the figure of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who2 the day before he suffered took bread in his holy hands, and looked up to heaven to thee, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, and giving thanks, he blessed, brake, and having broken, delivered it to his apostles and to his disciples, saying, Take, and eat ye all of this; for this is my body, which shall be broken for many.
Likewise also after supper, the day before he suffered, he took the cup, looked up to heaven to thee, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, and giving thanks, blessed it and delivered it to his apostles and to his disciples, saying, Take, and drink ye all of this; for this is my blood.” Observe all those expressions. Those words are the Evangelists’ up to Take, whether the body or the blood. After that they are the words of Christ; Take, and drink ye all of this; for this is my blood. And observe them in detail.
Who the day before he suffered, he says, in his holy hands took bread. Before it is consecrated, it is bread, but when the words of Christ have been added, it is the body of Christ. Therefore hear him saying: Take and eat ye all of this; for this is my body. And before the words of Christ it is a cup full of wine and water. When the words of Christ have operated then and there it is made to be3 the blood of Christ which redeemed the people. Therefore, see in how many ways the word of Christ is mighty to change all things. There the Lord Jesus himself testifies to us that we receive his body and blood. Ought we to doubt of his trustworthiness and testimony?
Now come back with me to the point which I set out to prove. It is a great and awful thing that he rained manna on the Jews from heaven. But distinguish. What is greater, manna from heaven or the body of Christ? Certainly the body of Christ who is the maker of heaven. Then he who ate manna died. Whosoever eats this body shall have remission of sins and shall never die.4
Therefore [when thou receivest]5 it is not superfluous that thou sayest Amen, already in spirit confessing that thou receivest the body of Christ. The priest says to thee, The body of Christ. And thou sayest, Amen, that is, True.6 What the tongue confesses let the heart hold fast.
Notes
- On the prayers which follow see Introd. pp. xxx ff., and for the expression “figure of the body . . . of Christ,” p. xxxv.
- The recital of the institution is a conflation of the four accounts in Mt. xxvi. 26 f.; Mk. xiv. 22 f.; Lk. xxii. 19 f.; 1 Cor. xi. 23 f., with additions from the accounts of the feeding of the multitude in Mk. vi. 41 (“looked up to heaven”) and Mk. viii. 6 (“gave to his disciples”). Both additions are found in the Roman Canon and in several Eastern rites.
- sanguis Christi efficitur.
- A ref. to Jn. vi. 49, 50.
- The words in brackets are omitted by some authorities.
- The words “the body of Christ” are the words of the priest at the administration, to which the communicants respond, Amen. Cf. de Myst. ix. 54 (note). There is good evidence of this custom both in East and West. See e. g. Augustine Serm. 272; Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. xxiii. 21.