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According to Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, 'Arianism was not just a historical theological chapter in the Church's history, but it still lives in the head of many Christians. According to Augustine, eucharistic spirituality includes a spiritual movement towards God (in deum), who makes himself tangible in the person of Jesus Christ.6 Because Christ gives himself completely to us by suffering, dying, and rising again and he nourishes our faith in the gifts of his Body and Blood, the believer who participates in and receives the eucharistic gifts is embodied in Christ. According to Manichaean theology, the cosmos is made up by two pre-existent sovereign realms of light and darkness that have been continuously in battle with each other. [...]of the victory of darkness over light, however, the world was created, but the creation of the world has served as a continuous prison for light.
The Eucharist, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, is 'the source and summit of the Christian life'.1 Today, however, the number of the baptised receiving the Eucharist weekly has significantly decreased. Declining Mass attendance2 is unmistakable evidence that the Eucharist is not always a priority in the life of the baptised. This decline may suggest that many of the baptised do not regard the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life. Here one could list many valid reasons for the deficit in the understanding of the eucharistic celebration. Just to name only one: one's presence at Sunday Mass is often thought of as being more about the ritual reception of the Eucharist-that is, the minimal fulfilment of the Sunday obligation-than about an existential living out of the eucharistic gifts.3
However, deficient understanding of the Eucharist is also accompanied by Christological confusion. According to Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, 'Arianism was not just a historical theological chapter in the Church's history, but it still lives in the head of many Christians. Theologically, many baptized are still Arians'.4 This means that many Christians are happy to be caught up in the historical moral dimension of Jesus' existence, but that faith in the God-man Jesus Christ is still difficult for many. This deficient faith naturally affects understanding of the Eucharist. Concentration on the historical aspects of Jesus' life and actions must inevitably lead to the fact that the sacred in the symbols of the eucharistic celebration can no longer be perceived and understood.
Against this reduction of faith, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments proposes that the church develop a 'eucharistic spirituality' that is close to human existence and that can lead to an authentic liturgical celebration and experience, and in this manner avoid ritualism.5
But what does 'eucharistic spirituality' mean? In my opinion, this is a form of Christian life that is nourished and modelled after the Eucharist. According to Augustine, eucharistic spirituality includes a spiritual movement towards God (in deum), who makes himself tangible in the person of Jesus Christ.6 Because Christ gives himself completely to us by suffering, dying, and rising again and he nourishes our faith in the gifts of his Body and Blood, the believer who participates in and receives the eucharistic gifts is embodied in Christ. Hence, Christ's sacrifice reaches into our 'present' and touches each of us personally, in the realities presented on the altar. Christ's pro-existence for the Father and his service to humanity do not remain a mere form of an offering but become reality in the life of the baptised and the church.7 Pro-existence is ultimately to be understood as a 'representation of existence', or as a vicarious complete devotion for (pro) the human being irreparably doomed to death, whose life can ultimately be saved only through an 'exchange' (commercium) by God in his 'son-giving'. Augustine expresses this incorporation into Christ as follows: 'We have not only become Christians, but we have become Christ himself'.8 Eucharistic communion establishes unity with God and joins the faithful to a church community characterised by a common way of life and action.
This article will first examine Augustine's eucharistic spirituality and then develop his eucharistic understanding from this framework. Influenced by Paul's teaching on the Eucharist, Augustine's eucharistic understanding is embedded in his view of the person and the church.
THE EUCHARIST IN THE LIFE OF AUGUSTINE
The Confessions, Augustine's intellectual spiritual 'autobiography', is the second most printed book in the Christian world after the Bible. Written shortly after his episcopal ordination in Hippo, the thirteen books of the Confessions belong to ancient protreptic literature aimed at exhorting and converting readers to Christianity.9 Better than any other Christian author before him, Augustine understood how to place his intellectual spiritual journey in the service of proclamation.10 Autobiography thus became anthropology (creation) and sociology (ecclesiology) in the same breath. Augustine's conversion to Christian faith was fortified by his integration into the church, at the centre of which is the Eucharist instituted by Christ.
In the Confessions, Augustine frequently portrays himself as a thirsty and hungry person in search of the faith and truth. In using the image of food, he also wants to show that the truth is visible in the eucharistic gifts. The extensive eucharistic metaphors and language of the Confessions are further underlined by the fact that Augustine very often speaks of sacrifice, mediator, consecration, sanctification, memorial, or the altar of the Lord. All this eucharistic language is condensed in the ninth and tenth books of the Confessions. In the ninth book, Augustine mentions his omnipresent mother, Monica.11 Until then, she had always accompanied him at a distance through her prayers, instructions, and admonitions, which Augustine usually ignored. Nevertheless, not giving up on her son, she lefther home behind and sailed to Rome and then Milan to witness Augustine's baptism by Ambrose in the year 387. If we assume that Augustine perceived Monica as representing not only his biological mother, but also Mother Church, then the abovementioned episodes from the Confessions suggest that the church had not only accompanied the searching Augustine with prayer, teaching and admonition, but that she is also ever so close to every seeker through her presence.
After Augustine's baptism, mother and son arrived at the port city of Ostia for the sea crossing to Africa. There, facing impending death, the dying mother asked to be 'remembered at the altar of the Lord'.12 Monica requested that, beyond the customary burial, Augustine and his entourage remember her at the daily eucharistic celebration.13 She wanted to be 'buried' on the altar as well. This pious request, however, transformed Augustine's view of human love. The painful loss of motherly love was to become shared never-ending love in Christ. Later, Augustine said that the prayers and the sacrifice of salvation had dried his tears and instead he was filled with the hope of the resurrection.14 Here Augustine fused the memory of his mother with that of Christ's sacrifice. John Cavadini's conclusion is correct, namely that 'Confession is a way of remembering that is Eucharistic'.15 What he does not consider, however, is the fact that Monica was also portrayed in the Confessions as Mother Church. This also explains the reason for Augustine's reluctance to mention his mother explicitly using her name, Monica. She is not only Augustine's mother but she also represents the church, because she embodies many ecclesial virtues. In his mother, Augustine also saw a prayerful church gathered around the eucharistic altar.16 Augustine's conversion was also an adaptation to the church, at the centre of which is the Eucharist.
Even before his conversion and baptism in 386-7, the Eucharist played a vital role in Augustine's search for the truth. His former adherence to the Manichaean church provides a good illustration of this. The Manichaeans not only claimed to be the true church of Christ, but their hierarchical (bishops and priests) and sacramental (baptism and Eucharist) structure led Augustine to believe that this was an organisation truly instituted by Christ.17 In any case, Manichaeans called themselves true disciples of Christ.18 In Carthage, he had joined the Manichaean church as a young rhetoric and law student, and for the next nine years he served his new community as a committed 'hearer' ('auditor').19 At the centre of their ritual was the celebration of the meal that they also called 'eucharist'. Its principal function was to contribute to the release of the light entrapped in matter. According to Manichaean theology, the cosmos is made up by two pre-existent sovereign realms of light and darkness that have been continuously in battle with each other. As a result of the victory of darkness over light, however, the world was created, but the creation of the world has served as a continuous prison for light. Yet liberation of light particles can take place through the purification that has its centre in the ritual meal of the 'saints' (electi).20 Augustine speaks of this in Confessions 3.12, where he mentions the consumption of figs by the electi as part of the Manichaean 'eucharist'.21 According to Manichaean ontology, figs contain the greatest concentration of light particles amongst all living organisms. In addition to fruit, the meal of the saints may also have included grain products, such as bread etc. However, wine and meat were not part of the ritual meal of purification.22 Due to their entanglement with the material world, all living beings are generally in need of liberation.23 The special nature of the ritual meal was that only the 'undefiled', for example, the saints, were allowed to digest the offerings. To preserve their 'holiness', saints were prohibited from taking part in the harvest, or else they would defile themselves by adding harm to the plants because of the light particles contained therein. The harvest and supply of offerings to the electi were responsibilities of the 'hearers'. However, the latter were excluded from the ritual meal due to their mode of existence in the world.
In retrospect, Augustine regretted not only his Manichaean affiliation, but also his participation in their quasi-sacramental ceremonies, which he deemed an aberration. For him, their quasi-sacramental eucharistic ritual was full of phantasmata and sacrilegious superstition (exsecrabilis superstitionis).24 Augustine rejected the Manichaean sacraments as a perversion of the true faith.25 Their 'eucharist', Augustine argued, was void of any truth and reality. Therefore, their 'sacraments' do not contribute to the salvation of either the saints or of their worshippers. Jesus, who suffered on the cross (iesus patibilis), was, for the Manichaeans, one who also had to be liberated (salvator salvandus).26 The liberation of Jesus consisted in the release of the divine Christ, imprisoned in the flesh, through the mediation of the electi. Importantly, the Manichaeans rejected incarnation, because every birth means renewed imprisonment of light.27 Without incarnation there is no effective bond that affects human behaviour. But Augustine was looking precisely for the truth of the incarnation.28 Because of their denial of the incarnation, the Manichaean meal did not create communion, since the saints separated themselves from the 'hearers', who were barred from the meal and excluded from the 'eucharistic food'. To Augustine, this ritual isolation and communal segregation was incongruent with his anthropological view. Because being human is always to be understood as being in relationship, every person is dependent on friendship and community that is oriented towards God.29 In contrast to the Manichaean practice of exclusive solidarity,30 the church as represented by his mother Monica is characterised by its all-encompassing and unlimited solidarity.31 In condemning the Manichaean practice, Augustine wrote in 388:
These are your customs. This is the end of your notable precepts, in which there is nothing sure, nothing steadfast, nothing consistent, nothing irreproachable, but all doubtful, or rather undoubtedly and entirely false, all contradictory, abominable, absurd. In a word, evil practices are detected in your customs so many and so serious, that one wishing to denounce them all, if he were at all able to enlarge, would require at least a separate treatise for each ... you display craftand deceit and malevolence equal to anything that can be described or imagined.32
For Augustine, Manichaean sacraments could not breathe new life into human life; if life itself were given no value, because it does not emanate from the light (divine), it would result in defeat. According to Manichaean theology, the entire material world belonged to the kingdom of darkness, in which absolutely nothing good could be found.33
In his final judgement, Augustine declared that the Catholic Eucharist had nothing in common with the Manichaean meal celebration.34 Against his Manichaean archrival Faustus, he emphasised the act of consecration as the fundament of Catholic Eucharist, in contrast to the Manichaean ritual, based on myths and superstition.35
One thing is already clear here: the Eucharist is inseparable from the truth and from communion. The Eucharist is always a celebration of agape, a form of Christian pro-existence based on Jesus Christ as the model of love. Pro-existence therefore means a self-transcending way of life that becomes visible only in the radical existence of Jesus in favour of humanity, an ek-sisting that is something other than the self-contained sub-sisting of the spiritual individual. Thus, proexistent love is more than 'benevolence'; rather, its measure is based on the selfgiving of Jesus that can only be brought about by a pro-existential commitment of the Father in His giving of the Son. The Eucharist therefore has a sacramental and social dimension opening two axes: a vertical one, oriented towards Christ, the head and body of the church, and a horizontal one, realised in 'togetherness', that is, in the community of the baptised.
PHASES OF AUGUSTINE'S EUCHARISTIC THEOLOGY
Augustine's eucharistic theology develops on various levels, which he links together depending on the occasion and argument of the day. Firstly, at the scriptural level, the Pauline and Johannine writings especially were fundamental in the formation of his eucharistic spirituality.36 In the Confessions, Augustine refers to the Holy Scriptures as 'chaste delights' for which he gladly 'would sacrifice [to God] the service of [his] thought and tongue'.37 His in-depth study of Paul's writings38 provides him with insights into the true meaning of the incarnation of Christ-for example, true mediation occurs only through the humanity of Jesus Christ, and his real presence in the eucharistic sacrifice makes believers one body in Christ, who is the head of the body at the same time.
In addition, with the gospel of John,39 Augustine discovered the power of the divine, through which he interpreted the eucharistic gifts of bread and wine. As Nikki Goodrick maintains:
Augustine's use of John varies significantly from his use of the other gospels and the Christ he portrays through John is most definitely not the humble, mortal teacher that we have seen before but an infinite spiritual being, God in all his glory ... Augustine focuses on Christ's role as the 'mediator' between God and man, as well as his Deity.40
It is through the Eucharist that believers participate in the relationship that the risen Christ shares with his Father. This relational unity is then transferred to the unity of the members in the church.
Secondly, Augustine expanded his view of the Eucharist through his confrontation with schismatics and heretics. In contrast to the magical esoteric rituals of the Manichaeans, he emphasises the real symbolic and spiritual nature of the church's Eucharist. To distance himself from the exclusive ecclesiology and sacramental concept of the Manichaeans and Donatists, Augustine accentuates the catholicity and loving unity (caritas) of the ecclesiastical sacraments founded in Christ. In his anti-Pelagian works, Augustine finally emphasises the grace-giving effect of the sacrament of the altar, through which man is restored to do good.41
Finally, Augustine matured in his understanding of the Eucharist through his pastoral work as a priest and bishop of a diocese. The daily celebration of the Eucharist,42 at which he also preached,43 helped him to delve deeper into the mystery. In his sermons he reminded his listeners of the importance of the Eucharist for both being a Christian and being a church member. Participation in the Eucharist has an impact on the lives of believers. In this sense, daily pastoral reflection on the Eucharist adds a certain practical spiritual dimension to the overly 'abstract' reflections on the Eucharist found in the apologetic writings.
AUGUSTINE'S TEXTS ON THE EUCHARIST
Augustine did not write a systematic treatise on the Eucharist. Even the word eucharistia appears only twenty-six times in his works.44 Augustine very often refers to the Eucharist as a 'sacrament'-for example, sacrament of the body and blood,45 sacrament of the Lord, sacrament of the bread and chalice,46 and sacrament of the altar.47 In his discussion of the Eucharist, Augustine also shows himself dependent upon the church fathers, especially Tertullian, Cyprian and Ambrose.48 Because of the multitude of texts in which Augustine reflects on the Eucharist, and the limited space here, only selected passages can be presented below.
The Truth of the Eucharist: 'Sacramentum Pietatis'
As already discussed above, Augustine devoted the first years of his conversion to shaking offhis Manichaean past. In his disputes with high-profile Manichaeans, such as Secundinus, Fortunatus and Faustus, Augustine focuses on defending the truth of the incarnation and consequently the true saving reality of the eucharistic gifts. For the Manichaeans, the eucharistic gifts do not confer salvation, since they rejected the incarnation of Christ on the basis that 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The perishable cannot inherit the imperishable'.49 In a Gnostic context, the Eucharist reveals the 'truth' of liberation as exemplified by Jesus' life and death.50 For the Manichaeans, Jesus functions as a 'teacher of the law' (paedagogus legis). Hence, the Eucharist confers ethical knowledge to Manichean adherents. Since the Manichaeans claimed to be true followers of Jesus, they also celebrated the Eucharist as a Gnostic form of self-liberation.
For Augustine, the main point of anti-Manichaean disputation concerns true worship. Without the incarnation there is no true worship.51 The newly baptised Augustine repeatedly emphasises that the mediation of salvation can be achieved only through the man Jesus Christ, who is both the priest and the sacrifice.52 Augustine calls Christ's act of self-offering sacramentum pietas.53 Because of the eucharistic correlation to the reality of salvation, Christ is also adored in the Eucharist:
For He took earth from the earth; because flesh is from the earth, and from the flesh of Mary He took flesh. And because He walked in this very flesh and gave us this very flesh to eat for our salvation; but no one eats that flesh unless he has first adored it; it has been discovered how the footstool of the Lord is thus adored, and not only do we not sin by adoring it, but we sin by not adoring it.54
Quoting Romans 12:1, Augustine uses the argument of the incarnation against the Manichaeans and pagan cults, stating that for Christians the act of true worship (logike latreia) is fulfilled in the sacrament of the Eucharist.55 As sacramentum pietatis, the Eucharist is an act of consecration to God. Hence, Augustine says succinctly:
Thus, a true sacrifice is every work which is done that we may be united to God in holy fellowship, and which has a reference to that supreme good and end in which alone we can be truly blessed. And therefore, even the mercy we show to men, if it is not shown for God's sake, is not a sacrifice. For, though made or offered by man, sacrifice is a divine thing, as those who called it sacrifice meant to indicate. Thus, man himself, consecrated in the name of God, and vowed to God, is a sacrifice as far as he dies to the world that he may live to God.56
The incarnation is the true reason for the saving reality of the Eucharist as far as the sacrifice of Jesus Christ affects the way of life of the worshipper. The pro-existent loving mercy of God obtained through the Eucharist flows into the individual's treatment of his/her own body, which he/she should consecrate to God, since it has now become the temple of God.57 In contrast to the Manichaeans, the body is not to be despised but must be treated with care due to the saving reality of the Eucharist. To the newly baptised, Augustine explains the grace and reality of belonging to Christ through the receiving of the Eucharist:
That bread which you can see on the altar ... is the body of Christ. That cup ... is the blood of Christ. It was by means of these things that the Lord Christ wished to present us with his body and blood, which he shed for our sake for the forgiveness of sins.58
In this way, God's mercy becomes the foundation of true liturgy. Yet this would mean that not only the liturgical event and the congregation gathered in prayer constitute the worship service, but the life of the Christian should also become liturgy and worship.
We can now briefly summarise what has been said above. The incarnation is essential for the truth of the Eucharist. The eucharistic celebration is thereby linked to the reality of salvation. In this sense, Augustine shares a realistic view of the Eucharist; that Christ is really present in the Eucharist and that he is therefore also adored. This is what distinguishes the Eucharist of the Catholic Church from that of the Manichaeans.59
Eucharist as Sacrament/Bond of Unity
Respect for the human body is not the only consequence of the incarnation. Rather, Augustine also uses the 'body' image to describe the earthly church, a corpus permixtum (mixed body). Following 1 Corinthians 10:16 and 12:27, the body of Christ, in Augustine's view, is both the church and the Eucharist. Throughout his works, it is not uncommon for both meanings to appear in the same sentence. In his homily to the newly baptised at Easter, we read:
Judge for yourselves what I say: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Because we are one bread, we many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.60
Augustine repeatedly asks himself the question: Why did Christ choose the forms of bread and wine as the sacramental signs of the Eucharist? To establish the connection between the ecclesial community and the Eucharist, he contends that the Lord always used biological or natural processes to demonstrate the coming together of plurality and unity in the eucharistic gifts. He referred to the handling of grain and grapes that were processed into bread and wine: Just as bread consists of many grains and wine of many grapes, so the body of Christ, for example, the church, consisting of many members, is built up from multiplicity into the unity of a single body. Hence, the church is truly universal or catholic.
According to Augustine, the sacraments are signs (signa). But with a sign, what matters is not so much what the sign is, but the thing itself (res) that the sign refers to. As a sacrament, the Eucharist is also a sign, but a holy one. The elements of bread and wine become holy signs through the Word, who gives them a symbolic quality that goes beyond their form: the Word becomes the element and the element itself becomes the sacrament; it becomes, so to speak, a visible word.61 The thing (res) to which the elements of bread and wine-sanctified by the Word-refer as a sacrament, as a holy sign (sacrum signum), is not the glorified Christ alone, but the glorified Christ together with the church, that is, the whole Christ consisting of head and body. Those participating in the celebration of the Eucharist experience themselves in the sacramental act as a community with Christ and with one another. In this sense, Augustine also calls the Eucharist a sacrament of unity (sacramentum unitatis) held together by the bond of charity (vinculum caritatis).
In addition, the body is also a sign and instrument of relationship. The communion of the whole body of Christ also implies the intimate connection of the members of the body with one another, whereby the unifying love is established and guaranteed by the head. In his commentary on John's gospel, Augustine writes:
Let us rejoice, then, and give thanks that we are made not only Christians, but Christ. Do ye understand, brethren, and apprehend the grace of God upon us? Marvel, be glad, we are made Christ. For if He is the head, we are the members: the whole man is He and we.62
The eucharistic gifts are thus reminders of the intimate bond of unity that commands all members of the church to love and to conserve.63 For Augustine, the Eucharist as a 'sacrament of love' is closely linked to the idea of the church as a community united in love. This oneness in love can be experienced in a special way through the Eucharist. In another text, Augustine uses stark images to underline the importance of the bond of unity in charity: Manducate vinculum vestrum ('Eat up your bond').64 Whoever eats the Eucharist is the bond of love that unites him with Christ and the entire church. Through the Eucharist, we take into ourselves the bond of love that unites us as the church; we internalise it, and we are thus called to transmit this love to others. When Augustine refers to the grinding of grains that are then combined into bread, he is talking about baptism and the abandonment of sub-sistence within oneself. As ground grains that are formed into bread, the newly baptised are called to ek-sist65 from the body of Christ and hence to 'be there for others', to be a pro-existent presence. Love, Tarcisius van Bavel explains, is the weight in the human heart that moves the individual away from itself towards the other.66 Augustine sees humility as the true reason for pro-existent love. With reference to the Eucharist, Augustine reminds the faithful that humility as an attitude opens the way to Christ, just as Christ himself was characterised through and through by humility and love.
Remaining in the bond of loving unity is what distinguishes the Catholic community from heretics and schismatics. The Donatists may have had many things in common with the Catholic Church, such as the Holy Scriptures or the same sacraments. But all these similarities did not make the Donatists a true church, since they refused to be reconciled and to be in communion with sinners.67 The Donatists held a view of the church as immaculate, holy and exclusive; while Augustine advocated for a church that consisted of both saints and sinners. The validity of the sacraments of the Donatist church was warranted by the holiness of its ministers. Sinners and lapsed Christians (traitors who renounced the faith during persecution) were considered outside of the Donatist church and communion. Augustine based his counter-position on the theological argument that the sacraments were established by God and that the church, as the instrument of God's salvation, must therefore pass on these sacramental gifts. The church does this because of the bond of unity and love. For Augustine, refusal of communion amounts to a lack of charity.68 Instead of exclusion and isolation from the universal or catholic church in the name of purity, Augustine's intention was to reintegrate and to unite the unchurched and defectors with Christ and the church. Augustine contrasts the pride of the Donatists with the humility of Christ:
Because they hate the brethren, in that, while they are offended at Africans, they separate themselves from the whole earth: in that they do not tolerate for the peace of Christ those whom they defame and do tolerate for the sake of Donatus those whom they condemn.69
Therefore, the reception of the eucharistic gifts becomes for the Donatist itself a condemnation:
When the heretics receive this sacrament, they receive what is a testimony against themselves; because they insist on division, while this bread is a sign of unity.70
Elsewhere, Augustine relates the Donatist division to the intolerance of peace:
The Lord's banquet is the unity of the body of Christ, not only in the sacrament of the altar but also in the bond of peace. Of the Donatists themselves, indeed, we can say that they compel no man to any good thing; for whomsoever they compel, they compel to nothing else but evil.71
Against the Donatist sub-sistent conception of community, Augustine advocates for a church that is open to all, even those who have fallen away. The Eucharist is seen as a safeguard against a self-isolating and self-centred church.
Believe What You Receive
The last part of this article will examine Augustine's understanding of the Eucharist in his sermons. Due to limited space, only a selective approach can be taken here.
The Easter sermons play an outstanding role, especially since they reveal the essence of the eucharistic faith. As expected, Augustine combines rite with ethos in the celebration of the Eucharist. To the newly baptised, Augustine explains the new dignity that they have received through baptism, and that is further emphasised by the reception of the Eucharist. The distinctive Christian dignity is then linked to the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
In Sermo 227, Augustine presents the basic thesis of his teaching on eucharistic spirituality. There he succinctly summarises the foundation of Christian dignity: 'Be what you see and receive what you are'.72 He emphasises the faith that makes reception worthy. Augustine is also always concerned with an understanding of faith that is clearly evident in reception. Faith reaches its goal in understanding. The preacher insists on the conscious act of receiving the sacrament. Only those who receive the Eucharist in faith are strengthened by it; only those who in faith humbly recognise Christ's presence in the Eucharist can receive it in such a way that it is a spiritual reception. Consequently, the bishop formulates-unusually for us and therefore extremely boldly: 'Your secret is on the table of the Lord: you receive your secret'.73 Let us read a longer passage of Augustine's Sermon 272 to the newly baptised:
So, if you want to understand the Body of Christ, listen to the Apostle who says to the believers: 'But you are the Body of Christ and its members' (1 Cor 12:27). So, if you are the Body and members of Christ, your mystery is on the Lord's table: you receive your mystery. To what you are, you answer Amen. This answer is your signature. You hear: Body of Christ, and you answer: Amen. Be a member of the Body of Christ, so that your Amen may be true! Why then (does the sacrament consist) of bread? We do not wish to express our own opinion here; let us again listen to the Apostle himself, who, speaking of this sacrament, said: 'We, the many, are one bread, one body' (1 Cor. 10:17). Understand (the sacrament) and rejoice: (for it symbolizes) unity, truth, reverence, and love. One bread: who is this one bread? The many who are one body.
In the celebration of the Eucharist, Christ is really present, and he renews receivers by assimilating them into his risen body. Therefore, the recipient of the Eucharist must eat these gifts worthily. The way in which they are consumed is important. It is not only heretics and schismatics who consume the gifts unworthily. Rather, it is also those Christians without true faith and a dignified way of life who receive the Eucharist to their own damnation. Not only the outsiders but also those inside receive the gifts without any spiritual benefit:
So, these sacraments are great, very great. Do you want to know how we are recommended to receive them? The apostle says (1 Cor 11:27): Whoever eats the body of Christ or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, sins against the body and blood of the Lord. What does it mean to receive unworthily? To receive with contempt, to receive with scorn. Do not think it small (only) because you see it.
So, receive it in such a way that you relate it to yourself, that you have unity in your heart, that you always fix your heart upwards. Let your hope not be in earthly things, but in heavenly things, let your faith in God be firm, that it is pleasing to God. For what you do not yet see here (on earth), but believe, you will see there, where you will rejoice without end.74
According to Augustine, the eucharistic sacrament therefore does not only point to the effectiveness of salvation, redemption in Christ, but rather, the believer is promptly connected with him.
With the help of Paul and John, Augustine developed his Totus Christus spirituality, which also remains important for the interpretation of ecclesiology and the Eucharist. Since Jesus Christ is the body and head, the Eucharist is central to the fullness of the church. In his Sermo 341, Augustine went so far as to declare that Christ without his church is not to be considered 'complete':
For indeed head and body form one Christ. Not that he isn't complete without the body, but that he was prepared to be complete and entire together with us too, though even without us he is always complete and entire, not only insofar as he is the Word, the only-begotten Son equal to the Father, but also in the very man whom he took on, and with whom he is both God and man together.75
This statement manifests a realism of relationship that is far more than spiritual closeness.
CONCLUSION
In his time, Augustine developed, proclaimed, and implemented a biblically inspired doctrine of the Eucharist, which can be described in terms of 'relationship'. Signs and symbolism from the body are a powerful instrument expressing and grounding the intimate relationship between God and humans and amongst humans. The incarnation forms the centre of his eucharistic spirituality. Without it, there would be neither the sacrament of unity nor the bond of charity. The Eucharist becomes a reality in human life only because the incarnation of Jesus Christ guarantees the real presence of God in the eucharistic gifts. Because God became man, the liturgy and hence the Eucharist are not magical acts, but true and real mediation of salvation. In this sense, the Eucharist is the true source and summit of Christian existence.
1. Lumen Gentium, n. 11, in Vatican Council II, vol. 1, The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery, new rev. ed. (Northport: Costello, 1996).
2. Between 2016 and 2021, there was a decline of 3.6% in Sunday Mass attendance by baptised Catholics, from 11.8% to 8.2%. For more details, see<https://ncpr.catholic.org.au/nationalcount- of-attendance/.
3. https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/08/09/explainer-why-eucharist-confusingmany- catholics-and-survey-researchers.
4. For the full details of the interview: https://www.k-tv.org/mediathek/youtube-videos/ orientierung-i-viele-christen-sind-eigentlich-arianer-jubilaeum-2025-i-kurt-kardinal-koch/.
5. Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Year of the Eucharist: Suggestions and Proposals, 15 October 2004, n. 4: 'Without this nurturing of a "Eucharistic Spirituality", liturgical practice becomes easily reduced to "ritualism" that cancels the grace that pours forth from the celebration'.
6. Confessions, 1.5: 'for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee'. Quotes from the Confessions are from Maria Boulding's translation in John Rotelle, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 2012).
7. John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 9.
8. Tractates on John's Gospel, 21.8. Quotes from the Tractates on John's Gospel are from John W. Retting's translation in The Fathers of the Church series (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1988).
9. Erich Feldmann, 'Confessiones', in Augustinus-Lexikon, vol. 1, ed Cornelius Mayer (Basel: Schwabe, 1994): 1134-93.
10. Retractations, II.6: 'My Confessions, in thirteen books, praise the righteous and good God as they speak either of my evil or good, and they are meant to excite men's minds and affections toward him. At least as far as I am concerned, this is what they did for me when they were being written, and they still do this when read'. Quotes from the Retractions are from Mary I. Borgan's translation in
11. In the Confessions, Augustine mentions his mother by name only twice.
12. Confessions, 9.28.
13. Letter 54: 'Some receive the Body and Blood of the Lord every day; others on certain days; in some places there is no day on which the Sacrifice is not offered; in others on Saturday and Sunday only; in others on Sunday alone'. Quotes from the Letters are from Roland J. Teske's translation in John Rotelle, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 2001-05).
14. Confessions, 9.32.
15. John Cavadini, 'Eucharistic Exegesis in Augustine's Confessions', Augustinian Studies 41, no. 1 (2010): 87-108, at 95.
16. Larissa Carina Seelbach, 'Das weibliche Geschlecht ist ja kein Gebrechen ...': Die Frau und ihre Gottebenbildlichkeit bei Augustin (Würzburg: Augustinus, 2002).
17. Iain Gardner, Anthony Alcock and Wolf-Peter Funk, eds, Coptic Documentary Texts from Kellis, vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1999), 142: 'members of the holy church, [the daughter] of the Light Mind, they who [also are numbered] with the children of God'. Furthermore, Joseph Lam, Die Menschheit Jesu Christ in den Werken des Augustinus, Bischof von Hippo (Rome: IPA, 2007), 79; also Jason D. BeDuhn, Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, I: Conversion and Apostasy, 373-388 C.E. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2010), 248. BeDuhn argues that there was little difference between the Manichaean view of God and the God that Augustine believed in at that point of time.
18. Kölner Mani Kodex, ed. L. Koenen and C. Römer (Freiburg: Herder, 1993), Fragments 107-8.
19. Confessions, 4.1: 'During this same period of nine years, from the nineteenth year of my life to my twenty-eighth year, we were seduced, and we were seducing'. According to Johannes van Oort, 'Young Augustine's Knowledge of Manichaeism: An Analysis of the Confessiones and Some Other Relevant Texts', Vigiliae Christianae 62, no. 5 (2008): 441-66, Augustine had substantial knowledge of Manichaeism.
20. Jason D. BeDuhn, The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 24: 'The food ritual was the focal point of Manichaean communal organisation, the raison d'être of Manichaean discipline, and the key to understanding how normative Manichaeism proposed to produce "souls" liberated from the bonds of contingency by the actions of the very body in which they were imprisoned'.
21. Nils A. Pedersen, 'Holy Meals and Eucharist in Manichaean Sources', in The Eucharist: Its Origins and Contexts, ed. David Hellholm and Dieter Sänger (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 2:1273: 'there are some extant Manichaean texts which use the words ... technically'.
22. The Manichean bishop Faustus accused Christians of paganism because they eat meat (body) and drink wine. See Augustine's reply to this criticism in Against Faustus, 20.13: 'How can Faustus think that we resemble the Manichaeans in attaching sacredness to bread and wine, when they consider it sacrilege to taste wine? They acknowledge their god in the grape, but not in the cup; perhaps they are shocked at his being trampled on and bottled. It is not any bread and wine that we hold sacred as a natural production, as if Christ were confined in corn or in vines, as the Manicheans fancy, but what is truly consecrated as a symbol'. Quotes from Against Faustus are from Roland J. Teske's translation in Boniface Ramsey, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 2007).
23. Augustine even speaks in Against Heresies, 46, of the purification of human semen during the ritual meal.
24. De haeresibus, 46.9. Quotes from De haeresibus are from Corpus Augustinianum Gissense online (Basel: Schwabe, 1996-2024). Henceforth CAG.
25. De moribus, 2.8: 'perversio enim contraria est ordinationi'. Quotes from De moribus are from CAG.
26. Lam, Die Menschheit, 90ff.
27. Against Faustus, 32.7: 'take as examples, the shameful birth of Jesus from a woman, His being circumcised like the Jews, His offering sacrifice like the Gentiles, His being baptized in a humiliating manner, His being led about by the devil in the wilderness, and His being tempted by him in the most distressing way'.
28. Confessions, 7.13: 'And You, willing first to show me how You resist the proud, but give grace to the humble and by how great art act of mercy You had pointed out to men the path of humility, in that Your Word was made flesh and dwelt among men-You procured for me, by the instrumentality of one inflated with most monstrous pride, certain books of the Platonists, translated from Greek into Latin. And therein I read, not indeed in the same words'. This was the crux of the matter and the reason for the inadequacy of Platonic ethics.
29. Confessions, 9.17: 'We were together, and together we were about to dwell with a holy purpose'. See also Dagmar Kiesel, Lieben im Irdischen Freundschaft, Frauen und Familie bei Augustin (Freiburg: Karl Alber, 2008).
30. Manichaean almsgiving was especially aimed at saints who were considered poor. See Majella Franzmann, 'Augustine's View of Manichaean Almsgiving and Almsgiving by the Manichaean Community at Kellis', HTS Teologiese Studies 69, no. 1 (2013): 1-5.
31. Joseph Lam, 'Humilitas Iesu Christi as Model of a Poor Church: Augustine's Idea of a Humble Church for the Poor', Australasian Catholic Record 93, no. 2 (April 2016): 180-97.
32. On the Morals of the Manichaeans, 19.67: 'you display craftand deceit and malevolence equal to anything that can be described or imagined'. Quotes from On the Morals of the Manichaeans are from Roland J. Teske's translation in Boniface Ramsey, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 2006).
33. Lam, Die Menschheit, 81ff.
34. Against Faustus, 20.13: 'When he fills you, your gain is his loss ... There is not the least resemblance between our reverence for the bread and wine, and your doctrines, which have no truth in them'.
35. Against Faustus, 20.13.
36. Ludwig Fladerer, Augustinus als Exeget: Zu seinen Kommentaren des Galaterbriefes und der Genesis (Vienna: Österreichische Akadamie der Wissenschaften, 2010). Also, Pamela Bright, ed., Augustine and the Bible (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999).
37. Confessions, 9.3.
38. Daniel Platte and Eugene TeSelle, eds, Engaging Augustine on Romans: Self, Context, and Theology in Interpretation (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity International, 2002). Also: Michael Cameron, Christ Meets Me Everywhere: Augustine's Early Figurative Exegesis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
39. Hugh A.G. Houghton, Augustine's Text of John Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
40. Nikki Goodrick, 'The Gospel according to Augustine: Augustine's Use of the Gospels in the Confessions', Anthós Journal 1, no. 2 (1996): 17.
41. De pec. mer., 1.27: 'And for this reason also for the life of the little one was given flesh, which was given for the life of the world'. Quotes from De pec. mer. are from CAG.
42. Sermo 58.5: 'panis cotidianus huic tempori necessaries'. According to Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer, 18, the Eucharist was celebrated daily in Carthage. Quotes from the Sermons are from Edmund Hill's translation in John Rotelle, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 1990-97).
43. In the thirty-four years of his priestly activity, Augustine is estimated to have preached between 5000 and 8000 times. So far, only 583 homilies have been discovered. See Hubertus R. Drobner, Die Chronologie der Predigten Augustins: Eine neue Methodologie (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2023).
44. Cornelius Mayer, 'Eucharistia' , in Augustinus-Lexikon, vol. 2, ed. Cornelius Mayer (Basel: Schwabe, 1996-2002): 1155.
45. Sermo 131; En. in ps., 68; Ep. Ioannis ad Parthos tractatus, 10.7. Quotes from En. in ps. and Ep. Ioannis ad Parthos tractatus are from CAG.
46. Sermo 229; Sermo 272.
47. Sermo 228.
48. Johannes Betz, Eucharistie in der Schriftund Patristik, vol. 4a (Freiburg: Herder, 1955).
49. Against Fortunatus, 19. Quotes from Against Fortunatus are from Roland J. Teske's translation in Boniface Ramsey, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 2006).
50. Jesus is a 'schema' on the way to liberation.
51. Joseph Lam, 'Incarnatio', in Augustinus-Lexikon, vol. 3a, ed. Cornelius Mayer (Basel: Schwabe, 2006): 564-8.
52. City of God, 10.20: 'And hence that true Mediator, in so far as, by assuming the form of a servant, He became the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus'. Quotes from City of God are from William Babcock's translation in Boniface Ramsey, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 2012).
53. Georges Folliet, 'Une définition augustinienne du sacrement de l'Eucharistie', Ecclesia Orans 21 (2004): 331-63.
54. En. in ps., 98.9.
55. City of God, 10.20: 'To this supreme and true sacrifice all false sacrifices have given place'.
56. City of God, 10.6.
57. City of God, 10.6: 'Our body is also a sacrifice, when we discipline it with temperance so that we can present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God'.
58. Sermo Denis, 3.4. Here, Augustine cites Eph 5:31f. Quotes from Sermo Denis are from Edmund Hill's translation in John Rotelle, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 1997).
59. Against Faustus, 20.13.
60. Sermo 227.
61. Io. eu. tr., 80.3: 'accedit uerbum ad elementum, et fit sacramentum, etiam ipsum tamquam uisibile uerbum'. (The word approaches the element, and it becomes a sacrament, even the visible word itself.) Quotes from Io. eu. tr. are from CAG.
62. Tractates on John's Gospel, 21.8.
63. Tractates on John's Gospel, 26.13: 'It is for this that the Apostle Paul, expounding this bread, says: One bread, says he, we being many are one body [1 Cor 10:17]. O mystery of piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! He that would live has where to live, has whence to live. Let him draw near, let him believe; let him be embodied, that he may be made to live'.
64. Sermo Denis, 3.3.
65. Greek εκ means 'out' or 'from'.
66. Tarsicius J. van Bavel, 'Love', in Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1999): 509.
67. Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (Berkeley: University of California, 1967), 213.
68. Homilies 1 John, 1.13. Quotes from Homilies 1 John are from Boniface Ramsey's translation in Daniel Doyle, ed., The Works of St. Augustine (New York: New City Press, 2008).
69. Homilies 1 John, 1.13.
70. Sermo 229.2.
71. Letter 185.24.
72. Sermo 272: 'Estote quod uidetis, et accipite quod estis'.
73. Sermo 272.
74. Sermo 227.
75. Sermo 341.11.
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