There Moses was sent by God into Egypt; here Christ was sent from the Father into the world. Moses’ mission was to lead out of Egypt a persecuted people; Christ’s was to rescue all the people of the world who were under the tyranny of sin. There the blood of a lamb was the charm against the destroyer; here, the blood of the unspotted Lamb, Jesus Christ, is appointed your inviolable sanctuary against demons.

The cloud is the grace of the Holy Spirit, while the sea represents baptism.

What took place, as the apostle says, was the mystery of baptism. Clearly this was a kind of baptism, where the cloud covered the people and water carried them. But the same Christ the Lord who did all these things now goes through baptism before the Christian people in the pillar of his body—he who at that time went through the sea before the children of Israel in the pillar of fire. . . . Through this faith—as was the case with the children of Israel—the one who walks calmly will not fear Egypt in pursuit.

The Jews had already obtained that most ancient baptism of the law and of Moses.

Paul says the Jews were under the cloud in order to point out that everything that happened to them is meant to be understood as a picture of the truth which has been revealed to us. Under the cloud they were protected from their enemies until they were delivered from death, analogous to baptism. For when they passed through the Red Sea they were delivered from the Egyptians who died in it,^[1] and their death prefigured our baptism, which puts our adversaries to death as well.

The history of the exodus was an allegory of the Christian people that was yet to be.

The sea is a figure of baptism with water; the cloud of the grace of baptism in the Spirit.

The cloud was a figure standing for the grace of the Spirit. For just as the cloud covered the Israelites and protected them from the Egyptians,^[1] so the Spirit’s grace shields us from the wiles of the devil. Likewise, just as the crossing of the sea protected them from their enemies and gave them real freedom, so baptism protects us from our enemies. That was how the Israelites came to live under the law of Moses. This is how we, in baptism, are clothed with the Spirit of adoption and inherit the covenants and confessions made in accordance with the commands of Christ.

The divine apostle also, in calling the Lord spiritual food and drink, suggests that he knows that human nature is not simple, but that there is an intelligible part mixed with a sensual part and that a particular type of nurture is needed for each of the elements in us—sensible food to strengthen our bodies and spiritual food for the well-being of our souls.

All those who ate that bread [manna] died in the desert, but this food which you receive, this living bread which came down from heaven, furnishes the energy for eternal life. Whoever eats this bread will not die forever, for it is the body of Christ.^[1] . . . That manna was subject to corruption if kept for a second day. This is foreign to every corruption. Whoever tastes it in a holy manner shall not be able to feel corruption. For them water flowed from the rock. For you blood flows from Christ. Water satisfied them for the hour. Blood satisfies you for eternity.

What we eat, what we drink, the Holy Spirit expresses to you elsewhere, saying; Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Blessed is the one who trusts in him.^[1] Christ is in that sacrament, because the body is Christ’s. So the food is not corporeal but spiritual.

Paul calls the food supernatural because it gave those who ate it the power of the Holy Spirit.^[1] However, it did not of itself make them spiritual people.

This surely referred not to his divinity but to his flesh, which flowed over the hearts of the thirsting people with the perpetual stream of his blood.

I considered the Word of the Creator and likened it to the rock that marched with the people in Israel in the wilderness; it was not from the reservoir of water contained within it that it poured forth for them glorious streams. There was no water in the rock, yet oceans sprang forth from it. Just so did the Word fashion created things out of nothing.

The manna and the water which flowed from the rock are called spiritual because they were formed not according to the law of nature but by the power of God working independently of the natural elements.^[1] They were created for a time as figures of what we now eat and drink in remembrance of Christ the Lord.

We also will be a rock, imitating, as far as possible in our changing nature, the unchanging and permanent nature of the Master.

All symbols seem in some way to personify the realities of which they are symbols. So, St. Paul says, The rock was Christ, because the rock in question symbolized Christ.

Why does Paul say these things? He was pointing out that just as the Israelites got no benefit from the great gift which they enjoyed, so the Corinthian Christians would get nothing out of baptism or holy communion unless they went on and manifested a life worthy of that grace.

Surely this refers more to his physical body than to his divinity, for the hearts of the thirsty people were satisfied by the endless stream of his blood.

Paul wants to remind us that we are not saved merely because we happen to have been the recipients of God’s free grace. We have to demonstrate that we are willing recipients of that free gift. The children of Israel received it, but they proved to be unworthy of it, and so they were not saved.

The Israelites were not in the land of promise when God did these things to them. Thus it was that he visited them with a double vengeance, because he did not allow them to see the land which had been promised to them, and he punished them severely as well.

These things were written as examples for us, so that when we read about their sins we shall know to avoid them.

Just as the gifts are symbolic, so are the punishments symbolic. Baptism and holy Communion were prefigured in prophecy. In the same way the certainty of punishment for those who are unworthy of this gift was proclaimed beforehand for our sake, so that we might learn from these examples how we must watch our step.

Do you see how Paul even calls the Israelites idolaters? He says it first, and then gives examples to support his contention.^[1] He also gives us the reason for their idolatry, which is gluttony.

What is as similar to the play of children as the worshiping of idols?

Note that it was not just idolatry which led to death [but their immorality as well].

Why does Paul mention fornication again, when he has said so much about it already? It is always Paul’s custom, when he admonishes people of many sins, to put them down in order before proceeding to deal with them individually, and then to refer to earlier topics as he goes down the list. God himself does this in the Old Testament when, in mentioning each particular transgression he keeps going back to the golden calf, reminding the Jews of that sin.^[1] Paul is doing this here, reminding them of the sin of fornication and pointing out that the cause of that evil was sloth and gluttony.

The Jews were putting Christ to the test, because it was he who spoke to Moses. Paul is warning us here not to do the same as they did.

Those who were destroyed prefigured Judas, who betrayed Christ and was eliminated from the number of the apostles by the judgment of God.^[1]

What is required is not only to suffer for Christ, but to endure what we suffer nobly and with all gladness, since this is the nature of every athlete’s crown. If we do not do so, punishment will come upon us who take disaster with bad grace. This is why the apostles rejoiced when they were beaten, and Paul gloried in his sufferings.

Some of the Corinthians were grumbling that they had only received the lesser spiritual gifts, when they wanted them all.

Paul mentions the end of the ages in order to startle the Corinthians. For the penalties which come then will not have a time limit but will be eternal. Although the punishments in this world end with our present life, those in the next world remain forever.

Paul says this to those who, relying on their knowledge that it was lawful to eat anything, were a cause of scandal to their weaker brethren. Thinking that they had risen to a higher level, they in fact declined because of the teaching of the false apostles and condemned Paul when they were the guilty ones.

Once again, Paul casts down the pride of those who think they know it all. For if the Israelites, who had such great privileges, suffered these things, and if some were punished merely because they were heard to complain, how much more shall we suffer if we are not careful. Anyone who relies on himself will soon fall. For the way in which we stand in this world is not secure and will not be until we are delivered out of the waves of this present life into the peaceful haven of eternal rest. Therefore, do not be proud of your standing, but pay attention so that you will not stumble. If Paul was afraid that it might happen to him, how much more ought we to be afraid also.

Paul did not pray that we should not be tempted, for a man who has not been tempted is untried, but that we should be able to bear our temptations as we ought.

Many do not bear it but are conquered by temptation. What God gives us is not the certainty that we shall bear it but the possibility that we may be made able to bear it.

Paul implies that there must be temptations which we cannot bear. What are these? Well, all of them in effect. For the ability to bear them comes from God’s grace, which we obtain by asking for it. God gives us patience and brings us speedy deliverance. In this way the temptation becomes bearable.

Why is this written if we are now so endowed that by the strength of our free will we are able to overcome all temptations merely by bearing them?

When the apostle says: Flee from the worship of idols, he means idolatry whole and entire. Look closely at a thicket and see how many thorns lie hidden beneath the leaves!

Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to avoid any connection with idolatry, so that not only their bodies but their minds as well might be separated from it in order to destroy any form of temptation. For anyone involved in idolatry will expect something out of it. To trust in an idol is to turn away from God.

You see that everything Paul has been saying up to now is to reinforce this single point.

It is a sign that a man is very sure of the rightness of his case when he is prepared to let the accused be their own judges.

Paul called it a cup of blessing, because as we hold it in our hands we exalt him in our hymns, wondering and marveling at his unspeakable gift, blessing him for having poured out this draft so that we might not abide in error, and not only for having poured it out but also for having imparted it to us all. This is what lovers do. When they see those whom they love desiring what belongs to strangers and despising their own, they give what belongs to themselves and so persuade them to turn away from the gifts of those others.

That chalice, or rather, what the chalice holds, consecrated by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. Through those elements the Lord wished to entrust to us his body and the blood which he poured out for the remission of sins. If you have received worthily, you are what you have received.

The body of Christ is not many bodies but one body. For just as the bread, which consists of many grains, is made one to the point that the separate grains are no longer visible, even though they are still there, so we are joined to each other and to Christ. But if we are all nourished by the same source and become one with him, why do we not also show forth the same love and become one in this respect too? This was what it was like in ancient times, as we see in Acts [4:32]: For the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul.

Thus every soul which receives the bread which comes down from heaven is a house of bread, the bread of Christ, being nourished and having its heart strengthened by the support of the heavenly bread which dwells within it. Hence Paul says: We are all one bread. Every faithful soul is Bethlehem, just as that is called Jerusalem which has the peace and tranquility of the Jerusalem on high which is in heaven. That is the true bread which, after it was broken into bits, has fed all humanity.

So by bread you are instructed as to how you ought to cherish unity. Was that bread made of one grain of wheat? Were there not, rather, many grains? However, before they became bread, these grains were separate. They were joined together in water after a certain amount of crushing. For unless the grain is ground and moistened with water, it cannot arrive at that form which is called bread. So, too, you were previously ground, as it were, by the humiliation of your fasting and by the sacrament of exorcism. Then came the baptism of water. You were moistened, as it were, so as to arrive at the form of bread. But without fire, bread does not yet exist.

The one who is properly said to eat the body of Christ and to drink his blood is the one who is incorporated into the unity of his body. Heretics and schismatics can receive the sacrament but to no avail—in fact, to their harm—since the result is to increase their pain rather than to curtail the length of their punishment.

The Jews were partners in the altar, but this is different from Christian communion. The Jews shared in something which was burned, but we share in the living Christ. It is with him that we have communion.

Paul does not want anyone to think that sacrifices as such have any power or that they can corrupt the one who eats them afterward.

For as the bread and wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were ordinary bread and wine, while after the invocation the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine becomes his blood, so these foods of the pomp of Satan, though of their own nature ordinary food, become profane through the invocation of evil spirits.

Paul is saying that beneath the surface of the idol there is a demonic power which is out to corrupt faith in the one God.

This is the reason why we should not eat food which has been sacrificed to idols. The uncleanness is not in the food but in the intentions of the sacrificers and the attitude of the receivers.

Anyone who drinks the cup of demons insults the cup of Christ, and anyone who eats at the table of demons revolts against the table of Christ, that is to say, the altar of the Lord, and crucifies his body again.

Do you see how terribly Paul rebukes the Corinthians, shaking their very nerves and reducing them to an absurdity? Why, you may ask, did he not say this at the beginning? Because it is Paul’s custom to prove his point by many details, placing the strongest last and prevailing in the argument by proving more than is strictly necessary. Thus he began here with the smaller matters and made his way up toward the greatest of evils, so that the minds of the Corinthians had been prepared by the things already said. In this way the last point is more easily absorbed.

If the Lord were from other than the Father, how could he rightly take bread, which is of the same creation as our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?

He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase to our bodies. When the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receive the Word of God and become the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life—flesh that is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is in fact a member of him?

“And she has furnished her table”: That denotes the promised knowledge of the Holy Trinity; it also refers to his honored and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper”.

It has come to the knowledge of the holy and great synod that, in some districts and cities, the deacons administer the Eucharist to the presbyters [i.e., priests], though neither canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer [the Eucharistic sacrifice] should give the body of Christ to them that do offer [it].

[A]s the bread and wine of the Eucharist before the invocation of the Trinity, which is holy and worthy of adoration, were simple bread and wine, after the invocation the bread becomes the body of Christ, and the wine the blood of Christ.

Consider therefore the bread and the wine not as bare elements, for they are, according to the Lord’s declaration, the body and blood of Christ; for even though sense suggests this to you, let faith establish you. Judge not the matter from the taste, but from faith be fully assured without misgiving, that the body and blood of Christ have been vouchsafed to you. . . . Having learned these things, and been fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to taste, but the body of Christ; and that the seeming wine is not wine, though the taste will have it so, but the blood of Christ; and that of this David sung of old, saying, “And bread strengthens man’s heart, to make his face to shine with oil, strengthen your heart,” by partaking of it as spiritual, and “make the face of your soul to shine”.

I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lord’s table. . . . The bread you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. The chalice, or rather, what is in the chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ.

What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But your faith obliges you to accept that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice is the blood of Christ. This has been said very briefly, which may perhaps be sufficient for faith; yet faith does not desire instruction.

We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his Resurrection from the dead, and his Ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his holy flesh and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it; God forbid: nor as of a man sanctified and associated with the Word according to the unity of worth, or as having a divine indwelling, but as truly the life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself. For he is the life according to his nature as God, and when he became united to his flesh, he made it also to be life-giving.

Take heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of his blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow servants: that so, whatsoever you do, you may do it according to [the will of] God.

Then having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual hymns, we beseech the merciful God to send forth his Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before him; that he may make the bread the body of Christ, and the wine the blood of Christ; for whatever the Holy Spirit has touched is surely sanctified and changed. Then, after the spiritual sacrifice, the bloodless service, is completed, over that sacrifice of propitiation we entreat God for the common peace of the Churches, for the welfare of the world; for kings; for soldiers and allies; for the sick; for the afflicted; and, in a word, for all who stand in need of succor we all pray and offer this sacrifice.

Reverence now, oh reverence, this table of which we all are partakers! [1 Cor 10:16–18.] Christ, who was slain for us, the victim who is placed thereon!

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?” Very persuasively spoke he, and awfully. For what he says is this: “This that is in the cup is what flowed from his side, and of that do we partake.” But he called it a cup of blessing, because holding it in our hands, we so exalt him in our hymn, wondering, astonished at his unspeakable gift, blessing him, among other things, for the pouring out of this self-same draught that we might not abide in error: and not only for the pouring it out, but also for imparting it to us all. “Wherefore if you desire blood,” says he, “redden not the altar of idols with the slaughter of brute beasts, but my altar with my blood.” Tell me, what can be more tremendous than this?