Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book II: On the Real Presence, from the Testimonies of the Fathers
Chapter 19: The Testimony of St. Ephrem
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. IV, De Sacramento Eucharistiae, Book II: On the Truth of the Body of the Lord in the Eucharist, from the Testimonies of the Fathers. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Saint Ephrem was the equal of the foregoing Fathers, since he was familiar with Saint Basil, and of such authority that his writings were publicly read in the Church after the divine Scriptures, as Saint Jerome testifies in his Catalogue of Writers. He, then, in his book That the Nature of God Is by No Means to Be Scrutinized, chapter 5, says: “Why dost thou scrutinize things unscrutinizable? If thou searchest these things curiously, thou shalt no longer be called faithful, but curious. Be faithful and innocent; partake of the immaculate body of thy Lord, with fullest faith, certain that thou eatest the Lamb Himself entire. The mysteries of Christ are immortal fire; do not rashly search them out, lest in searching them out thou be burned.” So he. And below: “This truly exceeds all wonder, all mind, and all speech, which the only-begotten Son, Christ our Saviour, did for us. He gave us fire and spirit to eat and drink, namely His body and blood.” So he.
To this testimony the adversaries neither answer, nor can answer anything. For the difficulty of believing, the unscrutinizableness of the mystery, and the miracle surpassing all mind (which three things Saint Ephrem proclaims in this Sacrament) most clearly testify that the Eucharist is not material bread, which only signifies the body of the Lord, but is the very true body of the Lord. Add that Ephrem makes a certain antithesis; for he says it was marvelous that the Angels, who are incorporeal, in an assumed body ate bodily foods; but that it is more marvelous that we corporeal and earthen men eat fire and spirit, that is, the heavenly body of Christ. But there would be no cause of wonder if we ate the body of Christ only in a sign; nay, that eating of the Angels would have been much more marvelous than ours is.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XIX. Testimonium S. Ephrem. Sanctus Ephrem, aequalis superiorum Pa¬ trum luit, quippe sancto Basilio familiaris, ac tantae auctoritatis, ut ejus scripta publice post divinas Scripturas in Ecclesia legeren¬ tur, ut testatur S. Hieron. in Catal. scriptor , Is ergo in lib. do natura Dei minime scru¬ tanda cap. 5.« Quid scrutaris, inquit, inscru¬ tabilia ? si ista curiose rimaris, non jamfidelis vocaberis, sed curiosus. Esto fidelis, atque innocens participa de immaculato corpore Domini tui, fide plenissima, certus quod agnum ipsum integrum comedis. Ignis immor¬ talis sunt mysteria Christi, noli temere ea perscrutari, ne in ipsorum perscrutatione comburaris. » Ileec ille. Et infra :« Hoc sane excedit omnem admirationem, omnem men¬ tem, omnemque sermonem, quod fecit nobis unigenitus Filius Christus Salvator noster. Ignem, et spiritum manducandum, ac biben¬ dum praestitit nobis, corpus scilicet, et sam guinem suum. » Haec ille. Ad hoc testimonium neque respondent adversarii, neque respondere aliquid pos¬ sunt. Nam difficultas ad credendum, mysterii inscrutabilitas, et miraculum superans om¬ nem mentem ( quae tria in hoc Sacramento praedicat S. Ephrem) clarissime testantur, non esse Eucharistiam panem materialem, qui tantum significet corpus Domini, sed esse ipsum verum Domini corpus. Adde, quod Ephrem facit antithesim qamdam : dicit enim mirabile fuisse, quodAngeli ; quisuntincorpo- rei, in corpore assumpto manducarint cibos corporeos : sed mirabilius esse, quod nos ho¬ mines corporei, et lutei comedamus ignem, et spiritum, id est, corpus cadeste Christi. At nulla esset admirationis causa, si tantum in signo corpus Christi manducaremus ; imo mirabilior multo fuisset illa Angelorum manducatio, quam nostra sit. 100 LIBER II.