[86] Exod. xxviii. 4 sq.
[87] 2 Cor. iii. 10.
[88] The Holy Eucharist is frequently called by St. Chrysostom and other Greek Fathers the Sacrifice, sometimes the "unbloody Sacrifice," partly as being an offering of praise and thanksgiving, partly as being a commemoration or representation of the sacrifice of Christ. We must bear in mind that no controversy had then arisen about this Sacrament, and that writers could freely use expressions which in later times would have been liable to objection or misconstruction. The passage before us must be read in the light of other passages in Chrysostom's works; but one of these is sufficient to indicate the sense in which it is to be understood. In Homily xvii. c. 3. on the Epistle to the Hebrews, after contrasting the many and ineffectual sacrifices of the Jews with the one perfect and efficient sacrifice of Christ, he proceeds, "What then? do we not make an offering every day? We do, certainly, but by making a memorial of His death; and this memorial is one, not many. How one, not many? Because the sacrifice was offered once for all, as that great sacrifice was in the Holy of Holies. This is a figure of that great sacrifice, as that was of this: for we do not offer one victim to-day and another to-morrow, but always the same: wherefore the sacrifice is one. Well, then, as He is offered in many places, are there many Christs? No, by no means, but everywhere one Christ, complete both in this world and in the other, one body. As then, though offered in many places, He is but one body, so is there but one sacrifice. Our High Priest is He who offers the sacrifice which cleanses us. We offer that now which was offered then: which is indeed inconsumable. This takes place now, for a memorial of what took place then. Do this,' said He, for my memorial.' We do not then offer a different sacrifice, as the high priest formerly did, but always the same; or rather we celebrate a memorial of a sacrifice."
[89] This may be only a rhetorical expression, but perhaps there is an allusion to a custom which prevailed in some churches, that the worshippers after receiving the cup applied the finger to the moistened lip, and then touched their breast, eyes and ears.
[90] The caution mentioned just now in note 3 must be repeated here. A comparison of passages in the writings of Chrysostom and his contemporaries proves clearly enough that they did not hold that the elements of bread and wine were transmuted into the body and blood of Christ in such a sense as to cease to be bread and wine. The authenticity of the letter of Chrysostom to Cæsarius is doubtful, but whoever the writer may have been, he is clearly representing the current orthodox belief of the Church in his day. He maintains, in opposition to the Apollinarian or perhaps the Eutychian heresy, that there are two complete natures in the one person of God the Son Incarnate, and illustrates it by the following reference to the holy elements in the Eucharist: "Just as the bread before consecration is called bread, but when the Divine Grace sanctifies it through the agency of the priest it is released from the appellation of bread, and is deemed worthy of the appellation of the Lord's Body,' although the nature of bread remains in it, and we speak not of two bodies, but one body of the Son: so here the Divine nature being seated in the human body, the two together make up but one Son--one Person."
[91] Some mss. omit the word pisteos "of faith," having in its place tote "at that time."
[92] In the Liturgy which bears the name of St. Chrysostom, the following invocation of the Holy Spirit occurs: "Grant that we may find grace in thy sight that our sacrifice may become acceptable to Thee, and that the Good Spirit of thy grace may rest upon us, and upon these gifts spread before Thee, and upon all Thy people," and presently the deacon bids the people, "Let us pray on behalf of the precious gifts (i.e., the bread and wine) which have been provided, that the merciful God who has received them upon His holy spiritual altar beyond the heavens may in return send down upon us the divine grace and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost."
[93] Matt. xviii. 18.
[94] John xx. 23.
[95] John v. 22.
[96] James v. 14, 15.
[97] 2 Cor. xi. 3.
[98] 1 Cor. ii. 3.
[99] 2 Cor. xii. 4.
[100] 2 Cor. xi. 9; 1 Thess. ii. 9.
[101] 2 Cor. xi. 29.
[102] Rom. ix. 3.
[103] Chrysostom himself experienced the truth of this, for it was through the influence of Eudoxia, the wife of the Emperor Arcadius, that he was deposed from the See of Constantinople and banished.
[104] 1 Cor. xiv. 34; 1 Tim. ii. 12.
[105] Possibly the building, not the body of Christians is here signified: for in the contest between Damasus and Ursicinus for the See of Rome, A.D. 367, which Chrysostom probably had in his mind, 137 persons are said to have been slain in one of the Churches in a single day.
[106] According to another reading the passage must be rendered, "shun the burden at the outset."
[107] 1 Tim. iii. 1.
[108] Matt. v. 1.
[109] Matt. v. 22.
[110] Prov. xv. 1, the Septuagint Version.
[111] Dan. iii.
[112] 1 Cor. xii. 26.
[113] 1 Cor. ii. 11.
[114] It is not possible to say precisely who the electors to bishoprics were at this time, but probably a mixed body of the clergy and leading laymen of the diocese. Chrysostom calls the electors "fathers," i. ch. 6, and "great men," ch. 7, and here he speaks of a "council of elders," which may mean the whole body of clergy of the second order, or a select body of laymen, or possibly the two combined. In one way or other, during the first five centuries, the people certainly had a considerable voice in the election of bishops. Socrates, the historian, vi. c. 2, says that Chrysostom himself was chosen for the See of Constantinople "by the common vote of all, clergy and people." Pope Leo (A.D. 440-461) lays down the rule that "when the election of a bishop is handled he is to be preferred who is demanded by the unanimous consent of clergy and people." Epist. 84. A law of the Emperor Justinian restricted the right of election to the clergy and the "optimates" or people of chief rank.
[115] A narrow strait between the island of Euboea and the mainland of Greece, in which the tide was very rapid. Hence the "condition of Euripus" became a proverbial expression indicative of agitation and fluctuation.
[116] i.e., the business of elections. Chrysostom seems to have passed on from the elections of bishops to the consideration of elections to clerical offices over which the bishop had to preside.
[117] That is, "put upon the Church-roll." From apostolic times as we know from 1 Tim. v. 9, 10, the Church had recognized the care of widows as a duty; but one to be exercised with caution, lest unworthy persons should take advantage of it. In Chrysostom's time there was an "order of widows," which had departed very much from the primitive simplicity and devotion to religious works which distinguished the order of earlier days. The Church strongly encouraged abstinence from a second marriage: and many women seem to have taken a vow of widowhood, and secured a place in the Church-roll, only in the hope of throwing a decent veil over an irreligious, if not immoral life.
[118] Ecclus. iv. 8.
[119] Ecclus. xviii. 15-17.
[120] i.e., a life of religious contemplation, not, however, as a member of a monastic community, for Chrysostom, throughout this section, appears to be speaking of the canonical or ecclesiastical virgins who were consecrated to a religious life, yet remained at home under the care of their parents (if living) or of the Church. The first notices of separate houses for women who had taken the vow of virginity occur in the middle of the 4th century. St. Ambrose mentions one at Bologna. De Virg. i. 10. St. Basil is said to have founded some (see St. Greg. Naz. Orat. 47).
[121] Ecclus. xlii. 9.
[122] Matt. iii. 10.
[123] 2 Cor. ii. 7.
[124] Hebrews xiii. 17.