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“Taste and See”: The Eucharist and the Eyes of Faith in the Fourth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Georgia Frank
Georgia Frank
Affiliation:
Associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Colgate University.
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Extract

Whenever Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, stood before newly baptized Christians on Easter week, his task seemed straightforward: to explain the meaning of the initiations they had recently undergone. His explanations, however, were peppered with dialogue, as he thought aloud about the impression these rites had made on the new converts. He recounted the previous days' events in these words: “You went, you washed, you came to the altar, you began to see what you had not seen before.” This promise of novel sights, however, could not dispel the neophytes' lingering doubts. Aloud, he imagined their questions: “Is this that great mystery which the eye has not seen nor the ear heard … ? I see waters which I used to see daily; are these able to cleanse me?” Ambrose wondered if the baptism lacked sufficient majesty, such that a catechumen might ask, “‘Is this all?’” Ambrose already knew what he would reply, “Yes, this is all, truly all.” Baptism, the rite often timed to coincide with Easter, might disappoint as much as it inspired awe.

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Articles
Information
Church History , Volume 70 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 619 - 643
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2001

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References

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24. “I delayed until the present occasion, calculating that after what you saw on that night I should find you a readier audience now when I am to be your guide to the brighter and more fragrant meadows of this paradise” (MC 1.1; SC 126:82, 84; FOTC 64:153 [modified]).Google Scholar

25. Cat. 10.19. Cf. Cat 18.33, which anticipates first Communion, but mentions only what is to be heard.Google Scholar

26. Ware, Timothy (Kallistos), The Orthodox Church, rev. ed. (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1964), 278. Cf. Luke 4:18–19; cf. Isa. 61:1.Google Scholar

27. MC 3.4 (SC 126:126; 64:171–72).Google Scholar

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29. C.Cels. 7.34 (SC 150:90–92).Google Scholar

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31. C.Cels. 1.48 (SC 132:202–6); cf. Prov 2:5 (cf. LXX).Google Scholar

32. E.g., C.Cels. 2.72 (SC 132:456–58); Rahner, “Début d'une doctrine,” 117–21.Google Scholar

33. On the γμναια, see Rahner, “Début d'une doctrine,” 122.Google Scholar

34. C.Cels. 7.39 (SC 150:102–4).Google Scholar

35. C.Cels. 7.33 (SC 150:88).Google Scholar

36. MC 3.3 (SC 126:124; FOTC 64:170)Google Scholar

37. This bridging of physical matter and divine presence is consistent with Cyril's theology of the holy places; see Walker, P. W. L., Holy City, Holy Places? Christian Attitudes to Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), 37–38, 311–46.Google Scholar

38. Of the five sermons belonging to the MC, the noun Πληροφορια and its verbal form, Πληροφορέω, appear only in the eucharistic sermon (see MC 4.1, 3, 6, 9).Google Scholar

39. MC 4.6 (SC 126:148; FOTC 64:183 [slightly modified]; cf. 5.15, 20.Google Scholar

40. MC 4.9 (SC 126:144; FOTC 64:185–86).Google Scholar

41. . MC 5.20 (SC 126:170).Google Scholar

42. MC 4.9 (SC 126:144; FOTC 64:186); cf. 2 Cor. 3:18.Google Scholar

43. See note 37.Google Scholar

44. Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. 13.4 (FOTC 64:6); cf. Cat. 10.19 (FOTC 61:208–9); Cat. 16.4 (FOTC 64:78).Google Scholar

45. ò τóπος αύτòς έτι φαιενος. Cat. 4.10 (FOTC 61:124).Google Scholar

46. MC 5.6 (SC 126:152–54; FOTC 64:195–96); cf. Isa. 6:2–3.Google Scholar

47. I choose the term “imaginal” over “imaginary” as a way to underscore the power of words to generate mental images and capture the embodied origins of these interior perceptions.Google Scholar

48. MC 5.21; cf. Horn. cat. 6; Mingana, 113 on the supplicant's outstretched hand and downward gaze and the regal symbolism of the nesting hands. For biblical resonances with the outstretched hand, see Theophilus of Alexandria (d. 412), On the Mystical Supper: “Evilly did Adam stretch forth his hand, not holding in reverence my salvific command … He stretched forth his hand and made a dire exchange … of the blessed life … [for] lamentable death.” (PG 77.1016–29, esp. 1020B, trans, in Sheerin, 150–51); more positive connotations in John Chrysostom, Cat. 3.26 (ACW 31:65) on Moses' hands stretched to heaven as a type for the priest.Google Scholar

49. Cf. holy kiss at MC 5.3; in another set of baptismal homilies (SC 366:242.20–21), John Chrysostom renders the kiss of peace into architectonic imagery: he reasons that since Christians are temples of Christ, when they kiss on the mouth they kiss the temple door tenderly.Google Scholar

50. MC 5.22. On this practice, see Dölger, F.-J., “Das Segnen der Sinne mit der Eucharistie,” Antike und Christentum 3 (1932): 230–44.Google Scholar

51. Cyril refers to the Church of the Resurrection, where the rites and lectures have taken place; MC 2.4, 7, but these references are in the context of pre-eucharistic baptismal rites. Cf. McCauley, and Stephenson, 's alternative reading, The Works of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem FOTC 64:150–51.Google Scholar

52. Wharton, Annabel Jane, “The Baptistery of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the Politics of Sacred Landscape,” DOP 46 (1992):313–25, esp. 320–21; Smith, To Take Place, 89–95.Google Scholar

53. The larger collection is known as the Stavronikita series (hereafter, Stav.), edited by Wenger, Antoine in Jean Chrysostome: Huit catecheses baptismales SC 50 (1957);Google Scholar the shorter Papadopoulos-Kerameus series (hereafter, P-K), edited by Piédagnel, Auguste in Jean Chrysostome: Trois catéchèses baptismales SC 366 (1990), and two sermons edited by B. de Montfaucon in PG 49:223–40 (hereafter, Montf.).Google Scholar These three collections are conveniently translated by Harkin, Paul in St. John Chrysostom: Baptismal Instructions (New York: Paulist, 1963). Stav. 1–8 correspond to Instructions 1–8 in ACW; P-K 1–3 = Instructions 9–11 in ACW; Montf. 1 (= PK 1) = Instruction 9 in ACW; and Montf. 2 = Instruction 12 in ACW. Internal evidence identify Stav. 1–3 as pre-baptismal and Stav. 4–8 as post-baptismal. Quotations are from Harkin's translation (occasionally modified).Google Scholar

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55. Horn, de beato Philogono (PG 48:753); trans. Mayer, Wendy and Allen, Pauline, John Chrysostom, The Early Church Fathers (London: Routledge, 2000), 192.Google Scholar

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58. Ibid., 2.20 (SC 50:145; ACW 31:51).

59. Ibid., 3.8 (SC 50:155; ACW 31:58).

60. Ibid., 3.12 (SC 50:158; ACW 31:60).

61. Ibid., 2.23 (SC 50:146–47; ACW 31:52)

62. Ibid., 3.15 (SC 50:159; ACW 31:61).

63. Ibid., 2.12 (SC 50:140; ACW 31:47).

64. Ibid.

65. Ibid., 3.15 (SC 50:159; ACW 31:61). See also n. 49.

66. Ibid., 2.12 (SC 50:139; ACW 31:47).

67. Ibid., 2.29 (SC 50:149; ACW 31:54).

68. Ibid., 2.27 (SC 50:149–50; ACW 31:53).

69. 1 Cor. 3:16–17; also worth mentioning is the role of architecture in ancient memory systems: see Carruthers, Mary, The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400–1200, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 34 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 16–22.Google Scholar

70. Cat. (Stav.) 2.3–7; ACW 31:44–45.Google Scholar

71. Ibid., 2.6; ACW 31:45.

72. E.g., Chrysostom's idea that paradise before the Fall marks a time when humans were “able to listen” to God (Sertn. in Gen. 1.2 [SC 433:148]); or Ephrem the Syrian's evocative descriptions of the fragrance of paradise in Hymns on Paradise, 1.5; 4.7; 5.6; 9.17; 11.1, 9–10, 13, 15, citations taken from Harvey, Susan Ashbrook's innovative analysis in “St. Ephrem on the Scent of Salvation,” JTS 49 (1998): 109–28, esp. 122–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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74. Cat. (Stav.) 1.31 (SC 50:124).Google Scholar

75. Cat. (Stav.) 2.9–10 (SC 50:138), cf. 2.17, 28 (SC 50:143, 149); cf. 4.20 (SC 50:193). The term is also applied to biblical figures, such as Adam, “the firstformed man with prophetic eyes” (Cat. (Stav.) 1.13; ACW 31:27), or David, who saw with “prophetic eyes” (Cat. 3.2.25 [P-K]; SC 366:216; ACW 31:163 [= Horn. 11.2]) chose his words so as to prevent base perceptions and “[lead] your understanding upward” (Cat. 3.2.32–35 [P-K]; SC 366:218; ACW 31:163 [= Horn. 11.8]). On seeing biblical figures with the eyes of faith, see Frank, Memory of the Eyes, 102–70.Google Scholar

76. Cat. (Stav.) 2.9 (SC 50:138; ACW 31:46).Google Scholar

77. Cat. 3.3.9–22 [P-K]; SC 366:220–22; ACW 31:164 [= Horn. 11.11–12])Google Scholar

78. Cat. (Stav.) 2.9 (SC 50:138; ACW 31:46).Google Scholar

79. On the polemical role of the spiritual senses in theories of divine anthropomorphism, see esp. Dillon, “Aisthêsis Noêtê,” 445–48. My own thinking on the role of sense perception in engaging the ritual body has been shaped by the work of Bell, Catherine, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 160;Google ScholarBell, , “Performance,” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Taylor, Mark C. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 205–224, esp. 208–9.Google Scholar Recent work on the function of display in ritual (or, “showing and doing”) raises interesting questions about how the physical senses might engage that process. See Driver, Tom F., The Magic of Ritual (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 88–89;Google ScholarHarvey, Susan Ashbrook, “Embodiment in Time and Eternity: A Syriac Perspective,” St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 43 (1999): 105–30;Google Scholar on the relevance of performance theory to late antique asceticism see Miller, Patricia Cox, “Desert Asceticism and ‘The Body from Nowhere,’” JECS 2 (1994): 137–53.Google Scholar

80. Cat. (Stav.) 2.28 (SC 50:149):.Google Scholar

81. Ibid., 8.6; ACW 31:121.

82. Ibid., 7.18 (SC 50:238; ACW 31:111).

83. Montf. 2 (PG 49.235 = Harkin's ACW trans., Horn. 12.23–24 [31:180]). I thank Dr. Margaret Mitchell for bringing this passage to my attention.Google Scholar

84. E.g., Cat. (Stav.) 1.25; 2.27; 3.1; 4.17–18; 7.3, 23–25, 27.Google Scholar

85. Cf. ibid., 3.12 (SC 50:158; ACW 31:60). It is interesting to note that John Chrysostom's biographer, Palladius, uses similar pigmentation metaphors to describe the effects of Chrysostom's reforms on Constantinople. The city changed color to piety. Dial. 5 (SC 341:24):

86. Bradshaw, , Search for the Origins, 122–23, esp. n. 43.Google Scholar

87. Text and translation by Mingana, A. in Woodbrooke Studies, vol. 6, Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Lord's Prayer and on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist (Cambridge: Heffer and Sons, 1933).Google Scholar

88. Horn. cat. 5; Mingana, 84.Google Scholar

89. Ibid., 5; Mingana, 85.

90. Ibid., 5; Mingana, 86.

91. Ibid., 5; Mingana, 88.

92. Ibid., 5; Mingana, 87.

93. Cf. Schulz, Byzantine Liturgy, 18–19.Google Scholar

94. Horn. cat. 5; Mingana, 85–86.Google Scholar

95. Mary Carruthers captures this dialectic between “social memory-making” and “social forgetting” in her insightful analysis of John Chrysostom's recollection of the contested sanctuary at Daphne in his panegyric on the martyr Babylas (The Craft of Thought, esp. 46–57).Google Scholar

96. I borrow the term from Spence, Jonathan's study of Jesuit missionaries and the arts of memory, The Memory Palace ofMatteo Ricci (New York: Viking Penguin, 1984).Google Scholar

97. Horn. cat. 5; Mingana, 87–88.Google Scholar

98. Ibid., 5; Mingana, 88.

99. Ibid.

100. Ibid.

101. Ibid., 5; Mingana, 95; a scene recapitulated in the opening of the following sermon, Ibid., 6; Mingana, 97–98.

102. Ibid., 6; Mingana, 99.

103. Ibid.

104. Ibid., 6; Mingana, 105.

105. Ibid., 6; Mingana, 103.

106. Ibid., 6; Mingana, 107.

107. Ibid., 6; Mingana, 108–9.

108. Ibid., 6; Mingana, 113.

109. Ibid.

110. E.g., Vasaly, Ann, Representations: Images of the World in Ciceronian Oratory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 20, 89–102; on the link between visualization and ekphrasis, see Frank, Memory of the Eyes, 16–29.Google Scholar

111. On the importance of visualization for these descriptive techniques, see James, Liz and Webb, Ruth, ‘“To Understand Ultimate Things and Enter Secret Places’: Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium,” Art History 14 (1991): 1–17, esp. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On this trope, see Zanker, G., “Enargeia in the Ancient Criticism of Poetry,” Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie 124 (1981): 297–311. Mary Carruthers offers an important reminder that enargeia appealed to all the senses and not just to vision (Craft of Thought, 132–33).Google Scholar

112. Longinus, , De subl. 15.1–2 (LCL 214–17).Google Scholar

113. I am indebted to Mary Carruthers' recent work on the role of mental imagery in Christian meditation, Carruthers, The Craft of Thought, esp. 7–99.Google Scholar

114. My thinking on this process has been shaped by the work of Elliott Wolfson's study of how rabbinic prayer depended on a carefully orchestrated series of mental images, even bodily ones, “Iconic Visualization and the Imaginal Body of God: The Role of Intention in the Rabbinical Conception of Prayer,” Modern Theology 12 (1996): 137–62, esp. 140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

115. The eyes of faith come close to what theorist Catherine Bell (Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, 90) would call the “strategies of differentiation” by which ritual actors differentiate a ritual act from similar, conventional acts.Google Scholar

116. The terms are borrowed from Driver's discussion of the “commitment of the body” to “display” in the context of ritual performance (Magic of Ritual, 88): “Doing and showing are so wed that the display becomes a permanent part of the body.”Google Scholar

117. Dix, Gregory, The Shape of the Liturgy (New York: Seabury, 1945; reprint 1982), 305: “As the church came to feel at home in the world, so she became reconciled to time. The eschatological emphasis in the eucharist eventually faded … the Eucharist came to be thought of primarily as the representation, the enactment before God, of the historical process of redemption, of the historical events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus by which redemption had been achieved.”Google Scholar

118. Taft, , “Historicism Revisited,” Studio Liturgica 14, 2–4 (1982): 97–109, reprinted in Taft, Beyond East and West, 31–49, esp. 33, 40–41.Google Scholar

119. Baldovin, , Urban Character, 104.Google Scholar