Not only did St. Paul tell of his breaking bread in the way Jesus did at the Last Supper and saying that "Is this not a participation in the Body and Blood of the Lord?", but Justin the Martyr in the year 150 AD also wrote a letter to Anonitus telling of the Mass that is essentially the same as it is today. He said that readings from the Prophets and the Apostles are proclaimed at Mass: thus readings from the Old (Prophetic) and New Testaments (Apostolic) just as we do today. There was the "kiss of peace" and invocation to the Holy Spirit to come over the gifts to change them into the Body and Blood of Jesus. There were the words of consecration as spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper that actually was the moment of consecration of the Eucharist. And the word for "thanksgiving" during the Mass was "Eucharistica". Justine also gave the "Eucharisted" Jesus to those who also took this Holy Sacrament to the sick as we do today. The priest Justin said this Mass for those who have been baptized and only can be partaken by only those who totally believed in the doctrines of the Catholic Church and baptized into the Faith. Thus it was a "closed" Communion for only the initiated and baptized into Christ. This is the same today. Today on the subject of the Mass, the Catholic Catechism has his letter verbatim to show that the Mass we have today is essentially the same Mass that has been handed down from Jesus to His apostles and to his Church through the ages. Justin also in a letter explained that the Eucharist was to be celebrated on the Lord's Day, Sunday, to keep the Third Commandment to keep Holy The Lord's Day and which was the fulfillment of the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath. Thus the Church even in 150 AD had already transferred the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday because this was the day that the Lord arose from the Dead: thus Sunday is the Lord's Day.
The Mass in not an invention of the Middle Ages, but preceded Constantine by three centuries and in fact was celebrated by St. Paul. In John's Revelation, the parts of the Mass are echoed in the Heavenly Banquet of the Supper of the Lamb. Even Jesus on the way to Emmaus showed himself to two disciples in the "breaking of the bread" with them. "They recognized Him in the breaking of the bread." Jesus' Last Supper goes on through the Centuries and will go on till the end of time.
St. John Damacene in the 8th century also said to those who asked him this question: "How does bread and wine become Jesus, Himself, in His Body and Blood at Mass?" He answered in these profound words:
"It is only for us to know that the Holy Spirit comes over the bread and wine just as He overshadowed Mary to bring the Body and Blood of Jesus in her womb." This was so before the doctrine of the Council of Trent that defined the doctrine of Transubstantiation when the the substance of bread and wine become the whole substance of the Body and Blood of Jesus. That is a needed description of how it happens philosophically and theologically to counter the heresies of that day. But I personally think that St. John Damacene was even more precise in his spirituality that simply the Holy Spirit does it all just as He did at the precise moment of the Incarnation!
Peace and love,
Pio
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