The Eucharist - With Us From Day One

DID THE EARLY CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN THE EUCHARIST ? 

Yes—the early Christians not only believed in the Eucharist, they centered their entire worship around it. 

From the earliest days of the Church, the Eucharist was not seen as a mere symbol, but as the real presence of Jesus Christ—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This belief is deeply rooted in Scripture and confirmed by the writings of the early Church Fathers.

1. Scripture: Jesus Meant What He Said

In John 6, Jesus tells the crowd: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). 

When many followers found this teaching hard and walked away, Jesus did not soften His words or clarify them as symbolic. Instead, He let them leave—confirming He meant what He said.

At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and wine and declared, “This is My Body… This is My Blood” (Matthew 26:26-28). The early Christians took these words literally and faithfully obeyed His command to “Do this in memory of Me.”

2. The Early Church Gathered Around the Eucharist

Acts 2:42 tells us that the first Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” 

The “breaking of bread” was not a casual meal of pita bread — it was the Eucharist, celebrated in homes, and later in established churches. This sacred meal was the heart of their worship and identity.

By the second century, the Eucharistic liturgy was well established and celebrated at each worship gathering. These were the early forms of what we today call, "the Mass."

For example, in about 155 A.D., St. Justin Martyr wrote to the Roman emperor explaining Christian worship. 

He described how the community gathered on Sunday, listened to Scripture, offered prayers, and then brought forward bread and wine, which were consecrated by the presider and received as the Body and Blood of Christ.

This was obviously not something new by this point....it was commonplace among those early Church services.

3. Church Fathers Testify to the Real Presence

Many early Christian leaders affirmed belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

- St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing around 107 A.D., warned against heretics who “abstain from the Eucharist because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.”

- St. Cyril of Jerusalem taught the faithful not to treat the Eucharist as ordinary bread: “Since He Himself has declared and said of the bread, ‘This is My Body,’ who shall dare to doubt any longer?”

From the beginning, the Eucharist has been the source and summit of Christian life. The early Christians believed it, lived it, and even died for it.

Reflect: If THEY believed so deeply what Jesus made clear, why do many Christian sects treat The Eucharist as a mere symbolic gesture, one to be played at occasionally, without the real sincerity Jesus obviously intended?

And why WOULD they?

Shouldn’t we all approach the Eucharist with the same awe those early believers possessed ?

And as often as possible?

Francis Mary

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