1 Corinthians 11:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This is why he recalled that Supper of the Lord. "For I received from the Lord Himself that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, broke it and said: Take, eat; this is My Body, broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way also the cup after supper, and said: This cup is the new covenant in My Blood" (1 Cor 11:23-25).

Then, wishing to shame them in another and still stronger way, he turns his speech to a weightier subject: "For I," he says, "received from the Lord Himself that which I also delivered to you. That the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, broke it and said: Take, eat; this is My Body, broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me" (1 Cor 11:23-24).

Why does he mention these Mysteries here? Because it was most necessary for his present subject. Your Master, he says, deemed all worthy of one and the same table, and of the most dread table, far surpassing the worth of all. Yet you consider others unworthy of your table, slight and insignificant as it is.

Although they receive from you none of the spiritual goods, you take from them even bodily goods, and these are not yours. Yet he does not say this, lest his words become too severe. Instead he uses gentler speech and says: "that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread."

Why does he remind us of this time, this Supper, and the betrayal? Not simply or without cause, but to touch us more deeply even by the time itself.

Anyone, even if he were stone, would become softer than wax if he pictured how on that night the Lord sorrowed with His disciples, how He was betrayed, bound, led away, condemned, and endured all the rest. He would be detached from the earth and all the vanity here.

For this reason the Apostle reminds us of all these things. He puts us to shame by the time, by the Supper, and by the betrayal, saying: Your Master gave Himself up for you, and you are unwilling even to share bread with your brother for your own sake?

"That the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread." Remember, he says, that He delivered this Mystery to you at the last moment, and on the very night in which He was betrayed to slaughter. He did not exclude His betrayer from the table, yet you despise your brother.

Since He Himself declared and said of the bread, "This is My Body," who after this will dare disbelieve? Since He Himself affirmed and said of the cup, "This is My Blood," who will ever doubt and say that this is not His Blood?

2. Once in Cana of Galilee He changed water into wine (Jn 2:1, 10), which is akin to blood. Is He not worthy of belief when He changes wine into blood?

If, when invited to a bodily marriage, He performed this most glorious miracle, will He not much more require our confession? For He has given His Body and His Blood for enjoyment to the sons of the bridal chamber (Mt 9:15).

3. Therefore let us receive this with full assurance, as the Body and Blood of Christ. For in the form of bread the Body is given to you, and in the form of wine the Blood is given to you.

Thus, by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, you may become of one body and one blood with Him. In this way we become Christ-bearers, when His Body and Blood are communicated to our members.

So, according to blessed Peter, we become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4).

4. Once, while speaking with the Jews, Christ said, "Unless you eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, you have no life in yourselves" (Jn 6:53).

But they did not hear what was said spiritually. Being offended, they went back (Jn 6:61-62, 66), thinking that He was urging them to eat flesh.

5. In the Old Testament there were also the loaves of the Presence. But because they belonged to the Old Testament, they have been abolished. In the New Testament there is the heavenly bread and the cup of salvation (Ps 115:4), which sanctify soul and body.

For as bread corresponds to the body, so the word befits the soul.

6. Therefore do not understand the bread and wine in the Eucharist as simple things. According to the Master’s declaration, they are the Body and Blood of Christ.

Although sense presents this to you, let faith confirm you. Do not judge the matter by taste, but by faith be assured without doubt that you have been counted worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ.

7. David explains to you the power of this Mystery when he says, "Thou hast prepared a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me" (Ps 22:5).

His words mean this: before Thy coming, demons prepared for men a table, unclean and defiled (Mal 1:7), filled with diabolical power. But after Thy coming, O Master, "Thou hast prepared a table before me."

When man says to God, "Thou hast prepared a table before me," what else does it mean but the mystical and spiritual table which God prepared for us?

He prepared it "in the presence of," that is, over against and contrary to, the demons. And this is most right. For that table had communion with demons, but this one has communion with God.

"Thou hast anointed my head with oil" (Ps 22:3). He anointed your head with oil on the forehead, through the seal which you have from God, that you might be the image of the seal, "Holy to the Lord" (Ex 28:36).

"And Thy cup which makes me drunk, how strong it is" (Ps 22:5). Do you see that here he speaks of that cup which Jesus took into His hands, gave thanks, and said, "This is My Blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Mt 26:28)?

8. Therefore Solomon, speaking mystically of this grace, says in Ecclesiastes, "Come, eat your bread with joy" (Eccl 9:7). That is, the spiritual bread. By the word "come," he names the saving and blessed-making call.

"And drink your wine with a good heart," that is, spiritual wine. "And let oil be poured upon your head" (Eccl 9:8). Do you see how he also signified the mystical Chrismation?

"And let your garments always be white" (Eccl 9:8), for your works are pleasing to God. Before you came to grace, your works were "vanity of vanities" (Eccl 1:2).

But when you put off the old garments and were spiritually clothed in white, you must wear white at all times. We do not mean that you must always be dressed in white clothing.

Rather, you must be clothed in what is truly white and bright, that is, spiritual. Then you may say with blessed Isaiah, "My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation and covered me with the robe of gladness" (Is 61:10).

9. Having learned this, and having been assured that the visible bread is not bread, though it is perceived by taste, but the Body of Christ, and that the visible wine is not wine, though taste presents it so, but the Blood of Christ, strengthen your heart.

Long ago David sang of this, saying, "Bread shall strengthen man’s heart, and oil shall make his face shine" (Ps 103:15). Strengthen your heart by partaking of it as spiritual, and anoint the face of your soul.

May you have it unveiled in a pure conscience and behold the glory of the Lord. May you pass from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18), in Christ Jesus, to Whom be honor, dominion, and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

To this Paul adds: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." We will not repeat here what we said concerning those Gospel passages in which the same subject is set forth.

Let us call the attention of sectarians who deny the change of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ to the Apostle's expressions: "you eat this bread" and "drink this cup."

If there were only plain bread and wine in the Eucharist first celebrated by Christ Himself, and also in the Eucharist celebrated after His Ascension by the hands of the Apostles and their successors, how could it be said many years after Christ: You eat this bread, you drink this cup?

The bread that was at the Mystical Supper has long ceased to exist, and that cup exists nowhere. Why, then, could the Apostle say, "this bread" and "this cup"?

Because in the Eucharist there is only the form of bread, beneath which the one and same Body of Christ abides forever. There is now one cup, now another, as a vessel, but in the cups there is forever the one and same Blood of Christ.

The form changes, for breads differ and cups differ. But the essence, the Body and Blood, does not change. This is why Paul says that we all partake of one bread (1 Cor 10:17), and that even now we eat the same bread that was blessed and broken by Christ.

From this it becomes clear what Christ's words mean: "Do this." They mean not, "Do something similar," but, "Do this very same thing." The Lord opened the Mystical Supper by giving the Body and Blood to the Apostles.

They and their successors continue that same Supper, giving the same Master's Gift to later generations of believers. Thus the one Mystical Supper opened by the Lord Himself is celebrated and will be celebrated.

Every Orthodox Christian asks to participate in it when he prays, saying: "Of Thy Mystical Supper today, O Son of God, receive me as a communicant."

In keeping with its significance, this passage of Scripture is ordinarily appointed as the Apostolic reading on Great Thursday. For special attention, the following words of the Apostle Paul should be singled out: "Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27).

These words are remarkable in their dogmatic importance and force, for they indicate the essence of the Mystery of the Eucharist. Under the forms of bread and wine, this Mystery offers not merely symbols of Christ's Body and Blood, but the very Body and very Blood of Christ, changed in essence.

Otherwise the guilt of unworthy and negligent communicants would not be so grave. Nor would the Apostle have said of them that they eat and drink judgment to themselves, not discerning the Lord's Body (1 Cor 11:29), and that they are guilty of the Lord's Body and Blood.

Nor would such severe punishments break forth for unworthy Communion. Yet the Apostle immediately adds: "For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and many sleep" (1 Cor 11:30).

Together with the manner of the institution of the Mystery, almost all the deep truths of faith and hope revealed then in the words of the Lord are also reproduced.

Among these essential truths, the interpreters especially note that the Mystery of the Lord's Body and Blood was the living expression of the New Covenant. Like the former Covenant, it was concluded through the shedding of blood (Ex 24:8).

It must consist in faithfulness to Christ, even to the readiness to shed one's own blood for Him. This is especially so when such readiness is needed for the remembrance of how He shed His Blood to deliver us from slavery to the world, sin, and the devil, and to bring us to God the Father.

Drawing from this the edification that Paul wished to give the Corinthians, Saint John Chrysostom represents him as speaking in this way: "If you approach the Mystery for thanksgiving, the Eucharist, then do nothing unworthy of thanksgiving. Do not shame your brother. Do not despise the hungry. Do not get drunk. Do not insult the Church.

Christ delivered the Supper equally to all. The Bread was broken equally for all and became the Body equally for all. Do this in remembrance of Me. And what do you do? You make remembrance of Christ, yet despise the poor and do not tremble?

When you make remembrance of a departed son or brother, your conscience would torment you if you did not fulfill the custom and invite the poor. Yet when you make remembrance of your Lord, you do not even wish to share the meal."

Our interpreter notes here that the remembrance of the Lord's life-giving death occurs precisely through Communion of the Body and Blood. Then he exclaims: "How criminal is non-communion! How inexcusable is infrequent Communion! Christians, as it were, want to stifle the proclamation of the Lord's death" (Theophan).

In Saint Matthew and Mark it says: having blessed, having given thanks. From the earliest times of Christianity, Christ's supper has been called the Eucharist, thanksgiving. When the teachers of the Church speak of Christ's new supper, they call it the supper of the Eucharist. They also describe praise and thanksgiving to the Lord as a necessary part of it. All this shows that offering thanksgiving to the heavenly Father for His wondrous works is a necessary part of Christ's new service. The Evangelist Luke says that Christ's supper took place after supper, after the completion of the paschal supper. Before Christ's supper, he also described for us the concluding act of the paschal supper, the giving of the cup. After this it is clear that the words of Saint Matthew and Mark, "as they were eating," mean only this. On the paschal evening, while they were still at table, the Savior performed a special sacred action. Since the Passover of the old covenant was to be abolished, the Evangelists said almost nothing about how the Savior celebrated it. They describe only what is important for the Christian Church. Thus Christ's supper was not some rite of the old Passover which might later be left unperformed. It was celebrated after the completion of the paschal supper, as a special act with the meaning of instituting something new. It signifies Christ's ordinance, always important for the Christian Church. "Take, eat: this is My Body, which is broken for you." "This cup is the new covenant in My Blood, which is poured out for you." Thus speaks the Savior. In the Apostle and in all three Evangelists, the cup of the Eucharist is called the Blood of the new covenant. The Blood of the new covenant silently points to the historical and prophetic act of the Sinai covenant. Then Moses, sprinkling the people with blood, said: "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words" (Ex 24:8). If the Blood offered at the Savior's supper is the Blood of the new covenant, then the blood of the old covenant, the covenant that passes away (2 Cor 3:11), remains only a memorial of the past. For the new faith, only its prefiguring meaning can be useful. In its place is established the sprinkling with Blood that cleanses the sins of the whole world. In the same way, in place of the paschal lamb broken according to the old law, there is offered the Body of Christ, broken for all. In other words, there is offered the Lamb of God, Who takes upon Himself the sins of the whole world. Thus here the institution for the new Church is evident, for all the new times. "Do this in remembrance of Me": such is the clear commandment of the Lord according to the Gospel of Saint Luke. In the Apostle Paul's account, the Lord says of the bread of the Eucharist: "Do this in remembrance of Me." Of the cup He says: "Do this, as often as you drink it. In remembrance of Me." Thus, by the will of the Son of God, the very thing He did when ready for death must also be done among believers. The new supper must be celebrated in remembrance of Him, the Redeemer of the world. The Apostle's repetition of His commandment speaks of the need to celebrate it only with faith, and for the quickening of faith in the Redeemer. It also shows the precise will of the Son of God. His supper is not a mere rite, but a mystical institution that must be preserved in His Church until the end of the world. Wondrous is Christ's supper! "Take, eat"; "Drink of it, all of you," said the Lord. Saint Mark relates that all the Apostles drank of it. Thus even Judas the betrayer was not deprived of Christ's supper. It is vain to say that Judas, because of his unworthiness, could not be admitted to the supper. The Savior does not reveal Judas's soul to us at the supper as altogether hopeless. Even after the supper, He extended to it the word of His love and restrained it from committing the terrible sin. Wondrous is the goodness of the Lord! "Drink of it, all of you." The Lord invites all to the cup. Since all future ages stood before His eyes, He invites everyone, whatever his rank, sex, or age may be. He invites even children to the cup. Yet He did not say of the bread, "all," since children, because of the weakness of their age, cannot partake of the bread of the supper. If it is said of the cup, "Drink of it, all of you," then those who separate the laity from the cup act against the will of the Lord. Nor do those act piously who, through stubbornness of will, withdraw from the bread and the cup. They set their own will as law and openly violate the will of the Son of God. The most important thing in Christ's supper is its dread mystery. "Take, eat, this is My Body"; "Drink of it, all of you, for this is My Blood," says the Lord. He awakens attention to what is offered as to something extraordinary. He presents the very nature of what is offered as the reason why reverent attention is required. "Take: this is My Body, this is My Blood." He does not say: this, that is, the bread, signifies the Body. By saying, "This is My Body, this is My Blood," He shows that what is offered remains bread and wine only to the outward senses. In reality, here are the true Body of Christ and the true Blood of Christ. In Saint Luke the Lord says: "This cup is the new covenant in My Blood, which is poured out for you." A cup cannot be poured out. Therefore these words mean that in the cup is the Blood of Christ, shed for men, by which the new covenant is confirmed. In the other Evangelists it is said: "This is My Blood of the new covenant." Thus the Savior shows that, as in the old covenant they truly ate the covenantal food and were sprinkled with covenantal blood (Ex 24:6, 8), so also in the new covenant real food and real Blood are offered. This Blood cleanses the sins of men. The difference is that the food and blood of the old covenant were figures of what is offered in the new covenant. Here there is reality with an absolute meaning. What the Savior offers to His disciples at the new supper, He had promised even earlier to offer. Then He said: "The bread which I shall give is My Flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world" (Jn 6:51). You see that a food is promised which will be given when Christ's Flesh is delivered up for the salvation of the world. And this food is the very Flesh of Christ. Is it not clear that this is the very food which the Lord offered at His supper, when He was ready for death? Is it not clear that this food is nothing other than Christ's Flesh? The Jews understood this latter point and asked: "How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat?" (Jn 6:52). Answering the Jews, the Savior not only does not reject what He says about His Flesh, but confirms it in still stronger and fuller expressions. "Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him" (Jn 6:53, 56). You see that the wondrous food is truly the Body and Blood of the Lord. It also has wondrous properties corresponding to this. It nourishes and sustains spiritual life, and by it the believer is united with his Lord.

For anyone, even if he were stone, would become softer than wax if he pictured how on that night the Lord sorrowed with His disciples, how He was betrayed, bound, led away, condemned, and endured all the rest. He would be detached from the earth and all the vanity here.

For this reason the Apostle reminds us of all these things. He puts us to shame by the time, by the Supper, and by the betrayal, saying: Your Lord gave Himself up for you, and you are unwilling even to give bread to your brother for your own sake?

He reminds us of that night not only for this, but also to touch us in another way. In general, we remember more the last words we hear from those who are dying. When their heirs dare to violate their wills, we say reproachfully: Remember that these are your father's last words, which he enjoined just before his death.

So Paul also, wishing in this way to strengthen his speech, says: Remember that this was the last Mystery He delivered to you. Remember that He enjoined it on the night when He was preparing to die for us. After setting this Supper before us, He set before us no other."