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5. Chrysostom
works. He is more occupied with the thought of a "mystery" in general and with that of a "meal" (trophe) than with that of sacrifice. His language is baldly realis tia-the blood "reddens" the altar or the tongue (cf. Hom. xxiv., in 1 Cor., no. 1, MPG, ba. 2oo; Hom. tzzxai., in Matt., no. 5, MPG, lviii. 743; De socerdotio, iii. 4, MPG, xlviii. 642; Ad alluminandm catecheses, ii. 2, MPG, xlix. 234)-and he uses the epithets " awful" and " fearful " much more often than his predecessors. He feels fully the horror of the thought that a real body and real blood are present instead of the apparent bread and wine. Reflection on the" horror of the blood "appears first in the East in the pseudo-Ambrosian De sacramentis (vi. 3) belonging to the early fifth century (see be low, II., 2, ยง 2). But while here emphasis is put on the supposed benefit to us when the blood is offered in a "similitude," Chrysostom remarks that Christ was the first to drink his blood (Ham. lzxxii., in Matt., no. 1, MPG
1. The First Three Centuries
"sacrificial act" has only spiritual reference to Calvary. Chrysostom, furthermore, is the distinct witness to the custom which ultimately led almost to a separation of the "mass" and the "communion." He makes .it plain that many came to the service, but went away before the communion, and he condemns the practise in strong terms (Hom. iii., in Eph., no. 4, MPG, lxii. 29; De incomprehen stZilitate Dei natures, iii. 6, MPG, xlviii. 725-726). That he regarded the "sacrifice" and the com munion (metalepais) as two separable acts and the former as a purely "priestly" function is clear.

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