"Everyday Bread" Selected aspects of understanding the Eucharist by St. Augustine of Hippo

Contents Eucharist and teaching Construction of the discourse Founding Fathers: on Tertullian and Cyprian Teacher of Grace Grace and the Eucharist Lex Orandi – Lex Credendi Sermon of St. Augustine 272, on the day of Pentecost to the neophytes, on the sacrament of the Body and Cup of the Lord (The Blood of Christ) to drink means to live “He did not leave any instructions on how to receive the Eucharist, leaving this order to the Apostles, through whom he established the structure of the Churches” 2. Saying this, St. Augustine of Hippo could hardly have foreseen that the questions he asked and answered in his letter to Jannuarius would not only outlive him, although without going unanswered, but would be repeated with new and new force throughout the entire space of Christianity for thousands of years. How often should I celebrate the Eucharist? In his answer, Augustine sees two possible alternatives, from which he chooses one without condemning the other. After all, “He did not leave any instructions”... So, it is possible to abstain from the sacrament out of reverence and awareness of one’s unworthiness and therefore receive communion only a few times a week. Perhaps, also out of reverence and awareness of unworthiness, one should partake every day. Do not deviate from the sacrament. Augustine supports this principle of participation in communion. Approaching the Eucharistic mystery in the theology of the Church Fathers is one of the most interesting aspects of theological work. It is here that an amazing combination of practical orientation and the depth of intellectual penetration into the freedom of Christian dogma, characteristic of the genius of the fathers, is revealed. The theological division of disciplines, sections and topics of church knowledge, characteristic of later times and generally accepted in ours, leaves a special imprint on the way we read and perceive the works of the fathers. The Eucharist, institution, sacrament and communion may serve as a sufficient example of what has just been said. The theology of the Eucharist, formed in the context of opposition to various trends of the modern era, especially with its rationalization of the perception of the liturgy and the denial of the real presence of the Body of Christ, grounds the faith of the Church by pointing to the teaching of the fathers. Thus, the patristic structure is introduced into a different theological and worldview context 3 . The fathers of the first centuries become our contemporaries, begin to speak in our language, and address us in the language of now generally accepted concepts. Such a shift in horizons is one of the criteria for assessing theological skill and expresses what in the language of faith is called the word “Tradition.” Turning to the theme of the Eucharist in the reading of St. Augustine of Hippo, it would be interesting to highlight a number of moments of the holy father’s understanding of the mystery of communion with the Body of Christ that belong to his world. Thus, to one degree or another, one can touch on something important in the thinking of the teacher of grace, which subsequently had a powerful influence on the formation of the theology and faith of the Church. The argument will be structured as follows. First, we will look at the perception of the Eucharist by Augustine’s predecessors in faith and the Church, and then we will try to highlight the understanding of the sacrament in the context of the Ipponsky saint’s teaching on grace. After this we will turn to the topic of the Eucharist and everyday life. In conclusion of this short discussion, I would like to offer the reader a translation of one of the Eucharistic sermons of the Ippon saint, which in brief and clear words expresses the saint’s perception of the Eucharist. Founding Fathers 4: about Tertullian and Cyprian In the context of our discussion of Augustine’s Eucharistic theology, it is important to say a few words about his predecessors and, first of all, about those whose perception of faith most directly influenced the father of the Christian West - the teachers of his native North African Church centered in Carthage - Tertullian and Cyprian. The reception of the legacy of Tertullian (c. 150 - c. 230) by the contemporary Church in itself indicates how differently the criteria for the succession of teaching were distributed during the first centuries of Christian history. Subsequently joining the Montanists, and then separating from them to create a community of his followers, 5 the African teacher, against all odds, forever went down in history as an apologist for canonical Christianity and the founder of the Latin patristic tradition. Tertullian’s words about the Eucharist reflect the realism of perception, the unconditional correlation of the Eucharist and Baptism, as well as the transfer of participation in the sacraments to the realities of Christian everyday life of the 3rd century: “The Church marks with water, clothes with the Holy Spirit, nourishes with the Eucharist, encourages martyrdom” 6. The bread and wine of the Eucharist are the Flesh and Blood of Christ. Tertullian's understanding of the reality of Flesh and Blood is dynamic. In other words, the importance is attached not to the personal presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, but to the action of the power of grace in communion with the sacrament 7 . In contrast to the Old Testament materialization in the perception of sacrifice, Tertullian insists on the spiritual, prayerful nature of the sacrifice of the Eucharist. Modern theology decontextualizes this understanding and thus makes it subjective 8 . The faith of the Church in the time and on earth of Tertullian perceives the Eucharist as unconditionally real. This is evidenced by the sermon, practice and the way in which the Eucharistic offering was performed and received at that time. The terminological “Thine from Thine”, left to the Church by Tertullian in the theological heritage of the Eucharistic vocabulary: image (Latin figura), remembrance (memoria), prayers of sacrifice (sacrificiorum orationes), offering (oblatio), consecration (consecrare), sacrifice of the Eucharistic offering (consecrare), appearance and display (repraesentare) 9. Unlike Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage (200–258) never separated himself from church unity, but devoted all the strength of his talent to its preservation. Cyprian was baptized in 248 10; we know nothing about his biography before joining the Church. In his sermon, Gregory the Theologian looked for an image of church unity among the great heroes who preceded him in the hierarchy, found it in the person of Cyprian, but confused him with Cyprian of Antioch. Therefore, in the mouth of the Theologian, Cyprian turned into an idolater and magician, who became a Christian bishop-martyr. In fact, before Christianity, Cyprian was just a lawyer. Cyprian was one of the most ardent admirers of Tertullian in history. Therefore, in everything he repeats the teacher almost word for word 11. And yet, in this “almost” a wealth of meanings and meanings is revealed, deriving from the immediate context of the life and work of the Carthaginian martyr. The word about the Eucharist acquires a new, special context in the discussion of penitential discipline associated with the time of persecution, falling away from the faith and the manifestation of moral decay among Christians. Cyprian identifies the Eucharistic Body of the Lord with the historical body. This is precisely how it becomes possible to assert that unworthy communion is an attack on the body of the Lord, the cause of His suffering 12. In contrast, communion in the faith and life of the Church is the only explanation for the strength of the martyrs 13 . The Lord's Prayer simultaneously speaks of both the daily and the Eucharistic bread 14 . Cyprian's only work on exclusively Eucharistic topics - letter to Caecilius 15 - is devoted to a rather curious topic. Cyprian opposes the Aquarii, who use water instead of wine for the Eucharist 16. This combination of elements is invalid 17. The image of wine is used by the Lord in the Gospel to indicate Himself 18 . Wine contains and unites a chain of biblical prototypes of the appearance of Christ. Wine best expresses the saving symbolism of the Blood of Christ 19 . Water is added, but does not replace the wine in the cup. Water is a symbol of peoples involved in the mystery of the people of God 20 . The need for a combination of two elements seems especially interesting here: “If we bring only wine, the Blood of Christ will be without us, and if only water remains, there will be a people without Christ” 21 . The image of the unity of water and flour will pass on to Augustine. The theologian of the unity of the body of the Church, Cyprian points out the correlation of the canonical celebration of the Eucharist by the priest with the sacrifice of Christ the High Priest on the cross, especially highlighting prayer, priesthood and the action of the Church and insisting on the personal belonging of the celebrant to the unity of the Church. The Eucharist becomes a sacrifice that is authentic and true. The Church inherits from Cyprin the designation of prayer over the Gifts as sanctification (lat. sanctificatio) and the understanding of the priesthood as a genuine action in the Eucharist in the place of Christ (sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur) 22. St. Augustine's teaching on grace is set forth in a fairly large number of his works, each of which deserves special consideration and reading. Moreover, various aspects of this teaching are considered separately by Augustine himself, depending on the context and focus of a particular written work. Nevertheless, like all things of genius, this enormous legacy can be formulated in simple and brief words, on which all subsequent logic of the teacher of grace’s reasoning is built. 1. Grace is the absolute, unmerited, and unaccountable gift of the Living God in all its manifestations, including the grace of faith. 2. Salvation, perseverance in goodness, and entry into the Kingdom of Glory are the unmerited, unexplained, and unaccountable gifts of God in Christ Jesus. There are two possible hermeneutics for reading Augustine's teaching on grace in relation to the fullness of his theological structure. According to the first, the doctrine of grace is a forced form of Augustine’s theological reaction to the teaching of Pelagius and his circle. The latter, we recall, insisted on the complete freedom of human self-determination in relation to one’s own salvation and destruction, and denied the existence of original sin and the associated predisposition to sin. According to Pelagius, a person sins because he can avoid sinning. A different hermeneutics for reading Augustine’s theology speaks of his perception of grace not as a result of reaction and polemics, but as a full-fledged theological and existential conviction independent of external factors, which arose long before the appearance of Pelagius, moreover, representing the only key to a holistic reading of the entire complex of Augustine’s works. If the first hermeneutic of reading Augustine is rather shared by the majority of modern and contemporary scholars, then the consciousness of the Church seems to indicate the preference for the second. It is no coincidence that Augustine is called by the Church a teacher of grace. The doctrine of grace of St. Augustine is of particular interest in the context of consideration of the problems of the sacrament. After all, it was precisely taken out of the sacramental context by Calvin’s reformation that it lost its inherent antinomy and apophatics, and under the pen of the second generation of Calvinists it turned into a statement of the simple determinacy of salvation and destruction. It is excellent (they) call baptism “salvation,” and the sacrament of the body of Christ as “life.” Augustine's theology most consistently separates consideration of the question of the objective reality of the sacraments in their immutable givenness of a historically perfect grace-filled action from questions of personal perception and participation in the sacrament. Such a distinction is made possible by Augustine’s use of two successive hermeneutics to read various elements of the doctrinal paradigm: the doctrine of the definition of the sacrament is developed in the analysis of the concepts of Donatism, and the reflection on the assimilation of the sacramental accomplishment is developed in the disclosure of the understanding of grace. As in Baptism, the objective power of the Eucharist (Latin virtus sacramenti) lies beyond any subjective effort. The Body of Christ is accepted as the Body of Christ by all, regardless of dignity 24 . Baptism makes a person a member of the Body of Christ, and the Eucharist makes life in Him real. Translating the generally accepted truths of the perception of the faith of the Church into the language of modern concepts, we can designate Baptism as initiation, and Communion as communication of the Body of Christ. How this communication of communication becomes the real fulfillment of human existence is very difficult to describe in the language of concepts and doctrinal categories. The most appropriate language here might be the language of spiritual life, experience and moral edification. However, it is he who almost inevitably translates the reality of the sacrament into the paradigm of the ethics of spiritual achievements. The affirmation of the absolute gift of grace shakes the foundations of any subjective perception of the sacrament as a means of self-improvement, the action of which would depend on personal effort. The flesh of Christ becomes the principle of life, rebirth and restoration 25 . The life of the faithful is possible only in the Eucharist 26. This is why the Church gives communion to infants 27 . Only in the flesh of the Eucharist can they live a genuine, full human life until adulthood 28 . Augustine calls the “apostolic tradition” the affirmation of the saving necessity of communion. Baptism and the Eucharist receive a clear correlation of equal necessity: “Without baptism and participation in the Lord’s Table, it is not only impossible to achieve the Kingdom, but it is impossible for a person to be saved and achieve eternal life” 29 . The Eucharist acquires absolute salvific significance. In the light of the theology of grace, the Eucharist, perceived as the criterion, method and evidence of internal sanctification, becomes a genuine entry into the reality of Christ the Redeemer, a source of life equal to Baptism 30 . Lex Orandi – Lex Credendi We eat this Lord's Supper daily by faith, we receive the sacrament of the Body of Christ daily. “The rule of prayer is the rule of faith.” One of the axioms of theological thinking, which speaks of the need for correspondence and the deducibility of doctrinal statements from liturgical practice, 32 is often used as an introduction to the presentation of certain truths of faith in modern theological conversion. The logic of the impeccable relationship between the law of prayer and the law of faith goes back to St. Augustine of Hippo. In his exposition of the doctrine of predestination, Augustine insists on the practice of prayer for the conversion of persecutors of the Church and infidels to the path of faith and sees in it an indication of the mystery of the divine plan and definition of man 33 . From the perspective of the theology of the Eucharist, the words about the correspondence of the words of prayer to the content of the conviction of faith take on the opposite reading. The New Testament gospel teaches the Church that the center of her prayer life is turning to the Heavenly Father in the prayer “Our Father.” The Eucharist is the basis, center and core of the sacramental, liturgical and social life of the Church itself. That is why the correlation of the Lord’s Prayer and the Eucharistic experience of faith becomes not only natural, but also necessary. The request for daily bread - “Give us this day our daily bread” - in the understanding of St. Augustine indicates the daily, ordinary bread that a person needs for food. However, daily bread acquires its meaning only when the main meaning is added to its first, open to all meaning, the first, but not in the sense of priority, but in the sense of goal-setting, the primary meaning in the petition for Eucharistic bread. The bread of the Eucharist becomes the bread of everyday life, the bread in which Christian existence is daily filled with meaning 34 . It turns out that in daily communion, according to Augustine, the Christian vocation to be a Christian is always revealed; the Eucharist becomes an inseparable and at the same time inevitable antithesis to Baptism, which is performed, according to the Creed, once. The law of faith can find its correspondence to the law of prayer only when the Eucharistic bread becomes the bread of everyday life. This, I think, is the main difference between the patristic understanding and ours. “For what says the Lord Jesus? Seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, it would be very correct to understand this: Give us our daily bread today, Your Eucharist - the food of every day” 35. Sermon of Blessed Augustine 272 36, on the day of Pentecost to the neophytes, on the sacrament of the Body and Cup of the Lord 37 What you see on God’s throne is what you saw last night. But you have not heard about what it is, what it means, and the mystery of how great a thing it contains. What you see is the bread and the cup, as your eyes also testify to. “The bread is the Body of Christ, the cup is the Blood,” and this is where faith must be instructed. So, in short, what is probably enough for faith is said. But faith strives for knowledge. This is what the prophet says: “If you do not believe, you will not understand” (Is. 7:9). You will tell me: “You commanded us to believe, explain so that we can understand.” After all, someone, perhaps, is able to think: “We know where our Lord Jesus Christ took His flesh from - from the Virgin Mary. He fed on milk as a child, was nourished, grew up, and was young, persecuted by the Jews, exalted on a tree, slain on a tree, and was taken down from the tree, buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, on the day that He desired, He also took up the body there, from where He would come, to judge the living and the dead, there now sits at the right hand of the Father. How then is bread His Body? And the cup - that is, the contents in it - how can it be His Blood? This, my brothers, is called a sacrament. After all, what is seen in them is different from what is understood. After all, what we see is physical, and what we understand brings us spiritual fruit. Wanting to understand what the Body of Christ is, listen to the Apostle who says to the faithful: “You are the body of Christ and His members” (1 Cor. 12:27). If you are the body of Christ and His members, then your sacrament is reclining at this table. You partake of your sacrament. “Amen” you answer to what you are, and by answering this you sign your name. You hear: “Body of Christ,” and you answer: “Amen.” Be a member of the body of Christ, so that your “amen” may be true. So why through bread? And here let us not bring anything from ourselves, but again and again let us listen to the Apostle, who says about this sacrament: “But there is one bread, and one body - we are many” (1 Cor. 10:17). Understand, rejoice: unity and truth, piety, love. There is only bread. And who is this bread? There is one body - we are many. Think about how bread is made from not one, but many grains. When you go through exile, you are ground up. When they were baptized, the dough was kneaded. And the fire of the Spirit, His perception, bakes you into bread. Be what you see, accept what you are. This is what the Apostle said about bread. In this way, although without words, he showed us how we should think about the cup. In the mixing of many grains to obtain bread - what we see, almost the same thing happens here, about which in the Holy Scriptures we hear about the faithful: “But they had one soul and one heart - in God.” And also with wine. Brothers, think about where wine comes from. There are many berries in a bunch, and we mix their juice into one. This is how our Lord Christ portrayed us, wanting us to belong to Him. And He blessed the sacrament of peace and our unity in His meal. But the one who accepts the secret of unity into himself, but does not preserve unity, accepts the secret as evidence against himself. Appealing to God the Father Almighty, from a pure heart we will offer Him, as far as our poverty allows, great and true thanksgiving; with all my soul I pray for His incomprehensible mercy, so that with His good will our prayers are worthy of hearing; May He drive out the accuser by His power from our deeds and thoughts, and increase our faith, guide our minds, give us spiritual thoughts, and may He lead us into His bliss, through His Son Jesus Christ. Amen. Augustinus. Sermo 131, 1: Illud bibere, quid est nisi vivere. Augustinus. Ep. 54, 8: Et ideo non praecepit quo deinceps ordine sumeretur, ut Apostolis, per quos Ecclesias dispositurus erat, servaret hunc locum (PL 33). Wed. Schillebeeckx Edward op. L'économie sacramentelle du salut. Friborg, 2004. S. 7: St. Augustine makes the first significant attempt to describe the theology of the sacraments, which is formally located in the context of opposition to deviations from the rule of faith. "Founding Fathers" (English). Interestingly, at the end of the 4th century in Carthage, Augustine found a small ascetic community of Tertullian’s followers. Wed. Augustinus. De Haeresibus, 86. De Praescriptione Haereticorum, 36: Aqua signat, Sancto Spiritu vestit, eucharistia pascit, ad martyrium exhortatur. Die Eucharistielehre Tertullians // Adam Karl. Die Eucharistielehre des hl. Augustin. Paderborn, 1908. S. 23. According to some reports, at 245. Article: Eucharistia, Augustinus-Lexikon. Source: Cornelius Mayer. V. 2. Basel, 1996–2002. S. 1152. Ep. 15: In Dominum manibus atque ore delinquunt, Domini corpus invadunt. Ep. 58, 1; 63, 15; 58; 9. De Oratione Dominica, 18. Epistola 63, ad Caecilium. Once I had to witness how one of the classical Protestant communities celebrated the Eucharist with grape juice. Argument: Legislation prohibits children from drinking alcohol. Unusual practices were encountered not only in the time of Cyprian! Die Eucharistielehre Cyprians // Adam Karl. Die Eucharistielehre des hl. Augustin. Paderborn, 1908. S. 30. Ep. 63, 13: Videmus in aqua populum intellegi. Ibid.: Si vinum tantum quis offerat, sanguis Christi incipit esse sine nobis; Si vero aqua sit sola, plebs incipit esse sine Christo. Augustinus. De Peccatorum meritis et remissione 1, 24.34: Optime punici christiani baptismum ipsum nihil aliud quam salutem, et sacramentum corporis Christi, nihil aliud quam vitam vocant. Die Eigenlehre Augustins über die Eucharistie // Adam Karl. Die Eucharistielehre des hl. Augustin. Paderborn, 1908. S. 147. The Eucharist, according to Augustine, renews creation, it restores, converts, returns and reforms man (Latin: reficere, revertere, restituere, reformare). Compare: Franz Egon. Das Opfersein Christi und das Opfersein der Kirche, Der Opferbegriff Augustins als Beitrag zum Verständnis der Eucharistie in den Konvergenzerklärungen von Lima 1973. Frankfurt-am-Main, 1988. S. 98. Augustinus. Opus imperfectum contra Iulianum III, 38. Wed. Augustinus. Sermo 174, 6.7: Infantes sunt, sed Sacramenta eius accipiunt. Infantes sunt, sed mensae eius participes fiunt, ut habeant in se vitam. Augustinus. De Peccatorum meritis et remissione 1, 24.34: Unde, nisi ex antiqua, ut existimo, et apostolica traditione, qua Ecclesiae Christi insitum tenent, praeter baptismum et participationem mensae Dominicae, non solum ad regnum Dei, sed nec ad salutem et vitam aeternam posse quemquam hominum pervenire? Pierre Batiffol. Etudes d'histoire et de théologie positive. Paris, 1902–1905. P. 252. Augustinus. Sermo 112, 4; De Sermone Domini 2, 7, 25: Ipsam coenam fide quotidie manducamus, Sacramentum corporis Christi… quotidie accipimus. For a detailed study of liturgical practice in the diocese of St. Augustine, see the doctoral dissertation of A. Zwinggi: Zwinggi Anton. Der Wortgottesdienst bei Augustinus // Liturgisches Jahrbuch, 20, 1970, Augustiniana, 20, 1970, Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft, 12, 1970. The reader can find a detailed discussion of this topic in the treatises of St. Augustine “On Grace and Correction” (De Correptione et Gratia) and “On the Gift of Perseverance” (De Dono Perseverantiae). Wed. Augustinus. De Dono Perseverantiae 4, 7: Quarta petitio est: Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie. Ubi beatus Cyprianus ostendit quomodo et hic intellegatur perseverantia postulari. Ait quippe inter cetera: Hunc autem panem dari nobis quotidie postulamus, ne qui in Christo sumus, et Eucharistiam quotidie ad cibum salutis accipimus, intercedente aliquo graviore delicto, dum abstenti et non communicantes a caelesti pane prohibemur, a Christi corpore separemur. Haec verba sancti hominis Dei, perseverantiam prorsus a Domino sanctos indicant poscere, quando hac intentione dicunt: Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie; ne a Christi corpore separentur, sed in ea sanctitate permaneant, qua nullum quo inde separari mereantur, crimen admittant. Augustinus. Sermo 58, De Oratione Dominica: Sed quid ait Dominus Iesus? Quaerite primum regnum Dei et iustitiam, et haec omnia apponentur vobis. Intellegitur etiam hoc valde bene: Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, Eucharistiam tuam, quotidianum cibum. Translation by Deacon Augustin Sokolovsky, Sergei Kim according to the publication: Sant’Agostino. Discorsi (230–272 b) su i tempi liturgici IV/2, Traduzione e note P. Bellini, F. Cruciani, V. Tarulli, indici F. Monteverde. Roma, 1984, pp. 1042–1045. The sermon was preached on Easter or Pentecost (scholars are divided here), in the period from 405 to 411. The place of utterance is unknown. See Sant'Agostino. Discorsi (230–272 b) su i tempi liturgici IV/2, Traduzione e note P. Bellini, F. Cruciani, V. Tarulli, indici F. Monteverde. Roma, 1984. S. 1043.