Kościół a Eucharystia w pierwszych wiekach chrześcijaństwa

Abstract

The Eucharist builds the Church, the Church offers the Eucharist – this concise and frequently repeated statement may summarise the whole instruction the Fathers left in their writings on the connection between the Church and the Eucharist A defined vision of the Church which emerges from the writings is not complete, but clear and authentic. The Fathers' statements touch the most essential matters, thus aptly pointing to what the Church and her nature are. Applying such pictures as the betrothed, paradise, house of God, Body of Christ to the Church is common in the whole tradition, whereas describing her reality with the help of such notions as pre-existence, wedding feast, sacredness, freedom, mutual love, unity indicates revealing the truth about Her at the very core. All this complements each other, but – what needs to be stressed here – serves as an illustration, or partial explanation and more still as initiation in the mystery of the Eucharist itself, because of which and for which the Church does exist. Mutual complementation between the reality of the Eucharist and the Church, which the Fathers traced in Biblical texts, will be taken up by later theology. It will deepen and systematise an intuitive approach of ancient Christians. The process will last for centuries, many a time amidst disputes and struggling with mistakes, but will always be a fruit of a study, deeply religious in nature, of the mystery of Christ and the Church.