Matthew 26:29

The Lord having given His disciples His Body under the element of bread [marg. note: sub specie panis], well gives the cup of His Blood to them likewise; shewing what joy He has in our salvation, seeing He even shed His Blood for us.

He gave thanks to instruct us after what manner we ought to celebrate this mystery, and shewed also thereby that He came not to His Passion against His will. Also He taught us to bear whatsoever we suffer with thanksgiving, and infused into us good hopes. For if the type of this sacrifice, to wit, the offering of the paschal lamb, became the deliverance of the people from Egyptian bondage, much more shall the reality thereof be the deliverance of the world. "And gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it." That they should not be distressed at hearing this, He first drank His own blood to lead them without fear to the communion of these mysteries.

Thus then the Lord Jesus was at once guest and feast, the eater and the things eaten. [ed. note: ap. Grat. do Consecr. d. ii. 87.]

"This is my blood of the new testament;" that is, the new promise, covenant, law; for this blood was promised from of old, and this guarantees the new covenant; for as the Old Testament had the blood of sheep and goats, so the New has the Lord's Blood.

For thus it is read, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you." [Ex 24:8]

And in calling it blood, He foreshews His Passion, "My blood... which shall be shed for many." Also the purpose for which He died, adding, "For the remission of sins;" as much as to say, The blood of the lamb was shed in Egypt for the salvation of the first born of the Israelites, this My Blood is shed for the remission of sins.

And it is to be noted, that He says not, For a few, nor, For all, but, "For many;" because He came not to redeem a single nation, but many out of all nations.

Thus saying, He shews that His Passion is a mystery of the salvation of men, by which also He comforts His disciples. And as Moses said, "This shall be an ordinance to thee for ever," [Ex 12:24] so Christ speaks as Luke relates, "This do in remembrance of me." [Luke 22:19]

And He taught us to offer not bread only, but wine also, to shew that they who hungered and thirsted after righteousness were to be refreshed by these mysteries.

non occ.: As the refreshment of the body is wrought by means of meat and drink, so under the form of meat and drink the Lord has provided for us spiritual refreshment. And it was suitable that for the shewing forth the Lord's Passion this Sacrament should be instituted under both kinds. For in His Passion He shed His Blood, and so His Blood was separated from His Body. It behoved therefore, that for representation of His Passion, bread and wine should be separately set forth, which are the Sacrament of the Body and Blood. But it should be known, that under both kinds the whole of Christ is contained; under the bread is contained the Blood, together with the Body; under the wine, the Body together With the Blood. Ambrosiaster, in 1 Cor 11:26: And for this reason also in do we celebrate under both kinds, because that which we receive avails for the preservation of both body and soul.

The cup of the Lord is not water only, or wine only, but the two are mixed; so the Lord's Body cannot be either flour only, or water only, but the two are combined. [ed. note: To signify, as S. Cyprian proceeds to say, the union between Christ and His faithful people; "For if one offer wine only, the blood of Christ begins to be without us; if water only, the people begin to be without Christ." This passage of Cyprian is quoted in Gratian. de Cons ii. 7.]

If Melchisedech offered bread and wine, what means this mixing of water? Hear the reason. Moses struck the rock, and the rock gave forth abundance of water, but that rock was Christ. Also one of the soldiers with his spear pierced Christ's side, and out of His side flowed water and blood, the water to cleanse, the blood to redeem. [ed. note: ap. Gratian de Cons. d ii, 83, cf. Paschas de Corp. et Sang. 11]

For it should be known, that as John speaks, "The many waters are nations and people." [Rev 17:15] And because we ought always to abide in Christ and Christ in us, wine mixed with water is offered, to shew that the bead and the members, that is, Christ and the Church, are one body; or to shew that neither did Christ suffer without a love for our redemption, nor we can be saved without His Passion.

And having spoken of His Passion and Cross, He proceeds to speak of His resurrection, "I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth, &c." By the "kingdom" He means His resurrection. And He speaks this of His resurrection, because He would then drink with the Apostles, that none might suppose His resurrection a phantasy. Thus when they would convince any of His resurrection, they said, "We did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead." [Acts 10:41] This tells them that they shall see Him after He is risen, and that He will be again with them. That He says, "New," is plainly to be understood, after a new manner, He no longer having a passible body, or needing food. For after His resurrection He did not eat as needing food, but to evidence the reality of the resurrection. And forasmuch as there are some heretics who use water instead of wine in the sacred mysteries [ed. note: e.g. The Encratites, followers of Saturnius and Tatian in the second century. See Can. Apost. 43 and 45 of Johnson's Translation.], He shews in these words, that when He now gave them these holy mysteries, He gave them wine, and drank the like after He was risen; for He says, "Of this fruit of the vine," but the vine produces wine, and not water.

Or otherwise; From carnal things the Lord passes to spiritual. Holy Scripture speaks of the people of Israel as of a vine brought up out of Egypt; [marg. note: Ps 80:8, Jer 2:21] of this vine it is then that the Lord says He will drink no more except in His Father's kingdom. His Father's kingdom I suppose to mean the faith of the believers. When then the Jews shall receive His Father's kingdom, then the Lord will drink of their vine. Observe that He says, "Of my Father," not, Of God, for to name the Father is to name the Son. As much as to say, When they shall have believed on God the Father, and He has brought them to the Son.

Or otherwise; "I will not drink of the fruit of this vine," i.e. I will no longer take pleasure in the carnal oblations of the Synagogue, among which the immolation of the Paschal lamb held an eminent place. But the time of My resurrection is at hand, and the day in which exalted in the Father's kingdom, that is, raised in immortal glory, "I shall drink it new with you," i.e. I shall rejoice as with a new joy in the salvation of that people then renewed by the water of baptism.

Or otherwise; When He says, "I shall drink it new with you," He gives us to understand that this is old. Seeing then that He took body of the race of Adam, who is called the old man, and was to give up to death that Body in His Passion, (whence also He gave us His Blood in the sacrament of wine,) what else can we understand by the new wine than the immortality of renewed bodies? In saying, "I will drink it with you," He promises to them likewise a resurrection of their bodies for the putting on of immortality. "With you" is not to be understood of time, but of a like renewal, as the Apostle speaks, that "we are risen with Christ," the hope of the future bringing a present joy. That which He shall drink new shall also be "of this fruit of the vine," signifies that the very same bodies shall rise after the heavenly renewal, which shall now die after the earthly decay.

It seems from this that Judas had not drunk with Him, because He was not to drink hereafter in the kingdom; but He promises to all who partook at this time of this fruit of the vine that they should drink with Him hereafter.

non occ.: But in support of the opinion of other saints, that Judas did receive the sacraments from Christ, it is to be said, that the words "with you" may refer to the greater part of them, and not necessarily to the whole.

2. Certain persons, then, refusing the labour of thinking, and adopting a superficial view of the letter of the law, and yielding rather in some measure to the indulgence of their own desires and lusts, being disciples of the letter alone, are of opinion that the fulfilment of the promises of the future are to be looked for in bodily pleasure and luxury; and therefore they especially desire to have again, after the resurrection, such bodily structures as may never be without the power of eating, and drinking, and performing all the functions of flesh and blood, not following the opinion of the Apostle Paul regarding the resurrection of a spiritual body. …

9. Nor is there need of very many arguments, dearest brother, to prove that baptism is always indicated by the appellation of water, and that thus we ought to understand it, since the Lord, when He came, manifested the truth of baptism and the cup in commanding that that faithful water, the water of life eternal, should be given to believers in baptism, but, teaching by the example of His own authority, that the cup should be mingled with a union of wine and water. For, taking the cup on the eve of His passion, He blessed it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Drink ye all of this; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many, for the remission of sins. …

Chapter 50. 98. It is indeed worth while to consider the whole of the passage in the aforesaid letter to Magnus, which he has put together as follows: "Not dwelling," he says, "in the house of God, that is to say, in the Church of Christ, in which none dwell save those that are of one heart and of one mind, as the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms, speaking of ‘God that maketh men to be of one mind in an house.’ Finally, the very sacrifices of the Lord declare that Christians are united among themselves by a firm and inseparable love for one another. …

2. There is another interpretation concerning the wine-presses, yet still keeping to the meaning of Churches. For even the Divine Word may be understood by the grape: for the Lord even has been called a Cluster of grapes; which they that were sent before by the people of Israel brought from the land of promise hanging on a staff, crucified as it were. Accordingly, when the Divine Word maketh use of, by the necessity of declaring Himself, the sound of the voice, whereby to convey Himself to the ears of the hearers; in the same sound of the voice, as it were in husks, knowledge, like the wine, is enclosed: and so this grape comes into the ears, as into the pressing machines of the wine-pressers. …

Now it was in a similar sense that I declared it to be a bad thing to touch a woman, I did not say a wife, because it is a good thing not to touch one. And I added: “I call virginity fine corn, wedlock barley, and fornication cow-dung.” Surely both corn and barley are creatures of God. But of the two multitudes miraculously supplied in the Gospel the larger was fed upon barley loaves, and the smaller on corn bread. “Thou, Lord,” says the psalmist, “shalt save both man and beast.” I have myself said the same thing in other words, when I have spoken of virginity as gold and of wedlock as silver. Again, in discussing the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed virgins who were not defiled with women, I have tried to show that all who have not remained virgins are reckoned as defiled when compared with the perfect chastity of the angels and of our Lord Jesus Christ. …

(2) What is the meaning of Matt. xxvi. 29 ?