5.
Then, again, how can they say that the flesh, which is nourished with the body of the Lord and with His blood, goes to corruption, and does not partake of life? Let them, therefore, either alter their opinion, or cease from offering the things just mentioned. 1 But our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. 2
For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, 3 but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity.
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"Either let them acknowledge that the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, or let them cease to offer to God those elements that they deny to be vouchsafed by Him." --Harvey. ↩
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That is, according to Harvey, "while we offer to Him His own creatures of bread and wine, we tell forth the fellowship of flesh with spirit; i.e., that the flesh of every child of man is receptive of the Spirit." The words kai homologountes ... egersin, which here occur in the Greek text, are rejected as an interpolation by Grabe and Harvey, but defended as genuine by Massuet. ↩
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See Harvey's long note on this passage, and what immediately follows. [But, note, we are only asking what Irenaeus teaches. Could words be plainer,--"two realities,"--(i.) bread, (ii.) spiritual food? Bread-- but not "common bread;" matter and grace, flesh and Spirit. In the Eucharist, an earthly and a heavenly part.] ↩
