Few topics reveal the distance between early Christian belief and much of modern Protestant practice as clearly as the Eucharist. Reading the Church Fathers on the Lord's Supper produces a kind of productive disorientation: these are writers who stand in unbroken continuity with the apostles, and they describe the bread and cup in terms that many Christians today would find startling.
Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35–108 AD)
Ignatius, who knew the apostle John personally and was bishop of Antioch until his martyrdom around 108 AD, described the Eucharist as "the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying." In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, he warned against those who "abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ." For Ignatius, a denial of the real presence in the Eucharist was directly linked to a denial of the incarnation.
"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God… They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ." — Ignatius, To the Smyrnaeans, 6–7
Justin Martyr (c. 100–165 AD)
In his First Apology, written to the Roman emperor around 155 AD, Justin describes the Christian Eucharist for outsiders. His description is precise: "This food is called among us the Eucharist… We do not receive these as common bread and common drink; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word… is the flesh and blood of that same incarnate Jesus."
John Chrysostom (c. 347–407 AD)
Preaching in Antioch and Constantinople, Chrysostom returned to the Eucharist constantly in his sermons. He described communicants as touching with their own hands "that sacred Body" and urged awe and trembling at the altar. "Believe, therefore, that even now it is that supper at which He Himself sat down. For this is in no respect different from that."
Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD)
Augustine's eucharistic theology is subtle and has been claimed by both Catholics and Protestants. He distinguished between the sacrament (the visible sign) and the reality it signifies, but he insisted that communicants truly receive Christ. "If you receive worthily, you are what you have received," he told newly baptized Christians.
What the Fathers Agreed On
Whatever their differences in terminology, the Church Fathers universally described the Eucharist as something more than a bare memorial. The bread and cup were, in their shared language, a participation in the body and blood of Christ — rooted in John 6, 1 Corinthians 10–11, and the practice they had received from the apostles.
One need not resolve the later debates between Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, and other traditions to find the Fathers on the Eucharist immensely clarifying — and challenging. They force the question: what did Jesus intend when He said "This is my body"?