We've been having this conversation about the Eucharist, and there are a couple Church fathers, in particular Clement of Alexandria and Augustine, who use words like symbol and figure when talking about the Eucharistic elements. What we have to keep in mind is that these words are English translations of Greek and Latin concepts that do not mean exactly what the English words mean. To the point, symbolic does not mean "only a symbol," and figurative does not mean "only a metaphor."
The word symbol (especially in Augustine, but reading Augustine correctly will help you understand Clement of Alexandria correctly) should be understood very much like the way the word SIGN is used in the Gospel of John. A sign is something that points to a deeper reality. So the bread and wine are symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ, in the sense that they point to the deeper reality of the Body and Blood. The Body and Blood are MORE real than the bread and wine, because after the consecration, the bread and wine only exist in the tangible aspects (accidents) and do not have substance (essence), but the Body and Blood of Christ exist in substance, even though they do not have tangible accidents. The point is that to say the bread and wine are symbols, does not mean that what they symbolize is not really there - actually it's the opposite - to say that the bread and wine are symbols means that they are the less real reality that "show" us the more real reality that underlies it. Another way that Augustine would say this is that the symbol BECOMES the reality.
The word "figure/figurative" is more tricky, but for all practical purposes you can read this word in the same way. The bread and wine are present "in a figure" - the point being that the Body and Blood are present IN REALITY.
One final note, for fun, as a reward if you read this to the end. In the ANF translation of Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2, where Clement is trying to tell us not to get drunk, there is a Greek word there that means "the discomfort and nausea that follow the immoderate use of wine and the intoxication" and that is characterized by "head shaking." In other words, a hangover. The Greek word for a hangover is apparently kraipale - which the translator renders as "crapulousness." What a great word! So the next time you have a hangover (not that I'm advocating that), you can say, "Man, I feel crapulous!"
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
As you all know, I'm shutting down this platform on Saturday.
So just a reminder, I hope you all will keep in touch. If you don't' already have an email for me, keep this one:
Thanks,
Jim
Hi folks,
When I was putting together my list of how to read the rest of the NT chronologically, I now realize that I left out the Letter to the Hebrews!
As you know, in the early and medieval Church there was a debate over whether St. Paul wrote this, and whether it should be included among his letters. Since most scholars do not include Hebrews among the letters of Paul, I had left it off my chronology of Paul's life. If he did write it, we don't know when - but I suspect that if he wrote it, it would have his name on it. In any case, it has to have been written before 70 AD because it speaks of the temple sacrifices as ongoing, and Clement of Rome quotes it in 1 Clement a couple decades later. So I would put Hebrews either with James (after the prison epistles of Paul) or with Peter's letters (after the pastoral epistles of Paul). I'm not saying that I think James or Peter wrote it, but they would be interesting candidates for authorship.
And if you want a couple short, but ...
Hi Folks,
I'm planning to shut down the platform this Saturday. It will be 3 years almost to the day since we started. It's been a lot of fun, and I hope we keep in touch.
Stay subscribed to my YouTube channel for all the upcoming episodes of The Way of the Fathers podcast. The second episode on St. Thomas Aquinas will air on the 29th, and in November we're jumping out of the chronological sequence to talk about the newest doctor, St. John Henry Newman! (And I will be taking December off, getting back into it with St. Catherine of Siena in January.)
And make sure you're on the email mailing list, so you'll know about new books and future pilgrimages (HINT: Mike Aquilina and I are already planning ROME 2026 - probably right about a year from now - so stay tuned...). You can sign up for the email list, which comes no more than once a month, at my home page: https://jimpapandrea.wordpress.com/
Thanks again for all your support!
- Jim
