During the past several weeks, I have been sharing thoughts about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We should keep this in mind when we refer to the Eucharist: It was not until the 16th century of the Common Era that Christians began to interpret the Scriptures to mean that the Holy Gifts were merely and only symbolic. Why would the Holy Spirit be silent until the modern era? Could it be true that it was only until then that the Church was finally restored after falling into apostasy for 1500 years and then rescued by modern day prophets who found the truth? Or should we simply accept that the body of older Christian believers has been correct in what it has believed everywhere, always and by all. The Church has always loved and known the Scriptures. The Church Fathers lived, breathed, and dreamed the Scriptures. Reading their works testifies to this. They believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Some educated opponents to the belief in the Real Presence object and quote the Church Fathers (first-of all Eusebios) calling the Holy Gifts symbols. Yes, they are symbols. The Eastern Church to this day refers in the Epiclesis of its Divine Liturgy to the Holy Mystery as the spiritual and unbloody sacrifice. Those praying the Liturgy clearly ask the Holy Spirit to make this bread the precious Body of Your Christ and that which is in this chalice, the precious Blood of Your Christ.

The word symbol literally means to bring two together into one. The Church Fathers used the word symbol in the Platonic sense, not in the modern, English sense. In America when someone asks if the Holy Eucharist is symbolic they generally mean to ask if it only represents the Body and Blood of Christ in a figurative and not a literal sense.

In the Eastern Church it’s both because we don’t think according to modern philosophical terms and see and believe that the transformed gifts communicate a Higher Reality. We believe that Christ is truly present even though that which He is present within remains the same. It is not merely   symbolic, that is just a sign that represents Christ. We believe that the Holy Eucharist IS actually Christ, present because of the power of the Holy Spirit to transform bread and wine into Christ’s Real Presence.