The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Do this, that I have just done— consecrate, offer as a sacrifice, take, distribute the Eucharist, as I have consecrated, offered, taken, and distributed it. Hence the Apostles were here ordained priests. So the Council of Trent says (sess. xxii. c. 1), following the perpetual belief of the Church.
It may be objected that Christ did not say, “ I have sacrificed : do you also sacrifice.” I answer 1. that neither did He say, “I have instituted the sacrament : do you celebrate it.” Nor did He say on the Cross, “I offer Myself as a sacrifice,” but He actually did so. So, too, this consecration was a real offering of sacrifice, inasmuch as by it, through a real transubstantiation, there was offered to the glory of God a most worthy victim, viz., the body of Christ under the species of an animal slain and dead, that is, a body separated from the blood as far as the act of consecration goes.
2. That the Eucharist is a sacrifice is also implied by the phrase “ when He had supped.” In other words, after the sacrifice of the typical lamb, Christ instituted the true and blessed Eucharistic sacrifice which the lamb had foreshadowed. Since the Paschal lamb was a type of the Eucharist and was a sacrifice, as is agreed by all, it follows that the Eucharist is a sacrifice.
3. The word “testament” also implies the sacrifice of the Eucharist, for the blood by which covenants were ratified was the blood of victims. As then, when it is said in Exod. xxiv. 8, “ This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord hath made with you,” we understand the blood of the victims sacrificed, by which the old covenant was ratified; so when Christ said, “This is My blood of the new testament,” we must understand the blood of the sacrifice by which the new testament was ratified, and which was prefigured by the old covenant, and by the blood of the sacrifice. Lastly, in the Eucharist alone Christ is properly and perfectly the Priest after the order of Melchizedech ; for on the cross (if the victim and its slaughter, the oblation and the effusion of the blood be considered ) Christ was a Priest after the order of Aaron only, i.e., His priesthood was like Aaron’s. So the Fathers lay down. See them quoted in Bellarmine (de Missa, lib. i. c. 6 and 12). This too is the voice and mind of the Church of all ages.
It may be said again that the Eucharist is a commemoration of the sacrifice on the Cross, and therefore it is not a sacrifice. I deny that this follows, for if so the ancient sacrifices would not be true sacrifices, although they prefigured the sacrifice of the Cross. Similarly, the Eucharist is a true sacrifice, though it is done in commemoration of the sacrifice of the Cross.
Ver. 26. — For as often as ye eat this bread, &c. Ye show it forth not only in word (as in the canon of the Mass are the words, “Wherefore we, mindful of Thy blessed Passion,” &c.), but better still in deed, both to yourselves and to the people. So Anselm, Theophylact, Ambrose.
Theophylact draws the moral lesson : “ When you take the Eucharist you should feel just as if you were with Christ on the evening of the Paschal feast and at supper with Him, lying by His side on the couch , and receiving from His own hands the sacred food ; for that is the supper , and that is the death which we announce and show till His second advent.”
Take note that it is His death rather than the mighty deeds of His life that Christ bids us show. The reason is, that by His death the testament of Christ was completed, together with His last will, and our redemption, and the supreme love that He had for us, which caused Him to die for us. Of all these the Eucharist is the memorial. S. Basil says tropologically (in Reg. Brev. 234) : “ We announce the Lord’s death when we die unto sin and live unto Christ, or when the world is crucified unto us and we unto the world.”
Lastly, S. Hippolytus (de Consumm. Mundi.) says, with S. Chrysostom and Theophylact, that the sacrifice and sacrament of the
Eucharist will publicly last till the second coming of Christ and the coming of Anti-Christ, who will remove it, as Daniel foretold (xii. 11), and prevent it from being publicly celebrated at all events. S. Paul implies this when he says, “ Until He come,” that is, till the glorious Lord come to judgment. Hence, as S. Thomas says, it appears that the celebration of the Eucharist will last to the end of the world.
Ver. 27. — Whosoever shall eat this bread . . . unworthily shall be guilty , &c. He will be guilty of violating, of taking and handling the Lord’s body unworthily, as Judas and the Jews did. So Photius, Theophylact, and Chrysostom. The two latter say that he will be as guilty of the Lord’s death as if he had slain the Lord and had shed His blood. We must understand this, however, with some reserve and regard for proportion; for absolutely the homicide, or rather deicide of Christ was a greater sin than an unworthy communion, just as it is a greater injury to slay a king than to spit on him. Ambrose (in Heb. x.) agrees with Chrysostom, for he says : “ By this sin the body of the Lord is trodden under foot.” Cyprian too says (Serm. de Lapsis): “Force is applied to the Lord’s body, and by hands and mouth we sin against Him.” Cf. also S. Basil (de Baft. Serm . 2). As one who lies at a king’s table with hatred in his heart does him great injury, so does he who is partaker of the Lord’s table when in mortal sin, nay, he does Him greater injury, for he feeds on Christ Himself, and receives Him into a heart full of hatred.
The Latin version has or drink this cup of the Lord, whence is inferred the sufficiency of communion in one kind.
It appears, moreover, from this verse, that in the Eucharist there is the true body of Christ; for it is not true of the bare sign that he who takes it unworthily is guilty of the Lord’s body. Besides this, if you say with Calvin that the unworthy communicant is guilty of the Lord’s body, not because he has violated it in itself, but its image in the Eucharist, then at all events it follows that images (as they say the Eucharist is) are to be venerated, and that the iconoclasts who break them are guilty of the body and blood of Christ and His saints. How then can Calvin and his supporters have the audacity to lay violent hands on them and destroy them ?
Ver. 28. — But let a man examine himself. Calvin says that he is to examine himself to see whether he has faith ; but it is presumed that he has this, for the Apostle is speaking of the Corinthian faithful. But according to Calvin each is most certain, and by divine faith is bound to believe that he has this faith, so that if this be so there is no need for examination. The true meaning is that a man is to examine himself whether he is fit and rightly disposed towards so great mysteries, and then fittingly prepare himself, and see if he knows of any sin, especially mortal sin, as, e.g., drunkenness or pride (ver. 21), and then purge himself by contrite confession. The Council of Trent (sess. xiii. c. 7) lays down that this examination and confession are of Divine law or Christ’s institution, according to S. Paul. The same was said 1200 years before this Council, by S. Leo ( Ep. 91 ad Theod. Foroj .) and by Cyprian (de Lapsis): Let a man too examine himself, with the pious intention of uprooting all venial sins by the help of prayer. So Chrysostom and Ambrose. Hence before the Passover supper, before their common meal, and before the Eucharist, Christ washed the disciples’ feet, including Judas, to signify the purity with which we should approach the feast (S. John xiii. 5).
It will greatly stimulate this examination if the following words of S. Gregory (Dial. lib. iv. c. 58) be earnestly meditated on : “ This victim singularly saves the soul from eternal deaths and repairs mysteriously the death of the Only-Begotten Son , who, being risen from the dead , dieth no more , and death hath no more dominion over Him, yet liveth an immortal and incorruptible life , and is sacrificed again for us in the mystery of this oblation, . . . Who is there of the faithful that doubts that at the moment of sacrifice the heavens are opened at the priest’s words , the choirs of angels are present at this mystery of Jesus Christ, the lowest are joined to the highest, things earthly with divine , and things visible and invisible become one? . . . But when we join in these mysteries, we must sacrifice ourselves to God with contrite hearts ; for we, who celebrate the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion, ought to show it in our lives. Then the Victim will be of real avail for us before God, when we have made ourselves victims to Him.”