acquainted with its matter. The matter of this Sacrament is two-fold, consisting of wheaten bread, arid of wine pressed from the grape, mixed with a little water. The first element, then, (of the latter we shall treat hereafter) is bread: as the Evan gelists, Matthew, [1] Mark, [2] and Luke, [3] testify: " Christ our Lord," say they, " took bread into his hands, blessed, and brake it, saying, THIS is MY BODY;" and according to St. John, he deno minated himself bread in these words: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." [4]
As, however, there are different sorts of bread, composed of different materials, such as wheat, barley, pease, or made in dif ferent manners, such as leavened and unleavened; it is to be observed that, with regard to the former, the sacramental mat ter, according to the words of our Lord, should consist of wheaten bread; for when we simply say bread, we mean, ac cording to common usage, " wheaten bread." [5] This is also dis tinctly declared by a figure of the Holy Eucharist in the Old Testament: the Lord commanded that the loaves of proposition, which prefigured this Sacrament, should be made of " fine flour." [6]
As, therefore, wheaten bread alone is the proper matter of this Sacrament, a doctrine handed down by Apostolic tradition, and confirmed by the authority of the Catholic Church; it may also be inferred from the circumstances in which the Eucharist was instituted, that this wheaten bread should be unleavened. It was consecrated and instituted by our Lord, on the first day of unleavened bread, a time when the Jews were prohibited by the law, to have leavened bread in their houses. [7] Should the words of the Evangelist St. John, who says that all this was done before the Passover, be objected, the objection is one of easy solution: by " the day before the Pasch," [8] St. John under stands the same day, which the other Evangelists designate " the first day of unleavened bread." He had for object, prin cipally, to mark the natural day, which does not commence until sunrise; and the first natural day of the Pasch, therefore, being Friday, " the day before the Pasch" means Thursday, on the evening of which the festival of unleavened bread be gan, and on which our Lord celebrated the Pasch and insti tuted the Holy Eucharist. Hence, St. Chrysostome understands the first day of unleavened bread to be the day, on the evening of which the unleavened bread was to be eaten. [9] The peculiar propriety of the consecration of unleavened bread, to express that integrity and purity of heart, with which the faithful should approach this Sacrament, we learn from these words of the
- ↑ Matt. xxvi. 26.
- ↑ Mark xiv. 22.
- ↑ Luke xxii. 19.
- ↑ John vi. 41. Vide de consecr. dist. 2. c. 1. et 2. et 55. ubi habes de hac matena decreta Alexandr. Pap. in 1. Epist. ad omnes Orthodoxos et Cypr. lib. 2. Epist. 3. et Ambr. 1. 4. de Sacram. c. 4. vide etiam Iren. 1. 4. c. 34. et 1. 5. c. 2.
- ↑ D. Th. 3 p. 9. 74. c. 3.
- ↑ Lev. xxiv. 5.
- ↑ Matt, xxv i. 17. Mark xiv. 12. Luke xxii. 7. Vide 1. 3. decretal, tit. de cele- lirat. Missamm, c. ult. ubi habes auctoritatam Honorii Fap. 3.
- ↑ John xiii. 1.
- ↑ In Math. hom. 83.
