THE FATHERS KNOW BEST
The Fathers Know Best is the book by Jimmy Akin that I have been consulting in my study of the Early Church. Jimmy was a Protestant Minister who by giving a more in depth study of the early Church found to its surprise that it was very Catholic and so converted to the Catholic Church. As I studied the Mass Jimmy quoted a Protestant scholar J.N.D Kelly who had this to say about the Mass in the early Church.
..the Eucharist was regarded as the distinctively Christian Sacrifice......Malachi's prediction (1.10-11) that the Lord would reject Jewish sacrifices and instead would have a 'pure offering' made to him by the Gentiles in every place was seized upon by Christians as a prophecy of the Eucharist. Didache indeed actually applies the term thus or sacrifice to the Eucharist.
It was natural for early Christians to think of the Eucharist as a sacrifice. The fulfillment of prophecy demanded a solemn Christian offering, and the rite itself was wrapped in the sacrificial atmosphere with which the Lord invested the Last Supper. The words of institution "Do this" must have been charged with sacrificial overtones for second-century ears, Justin at any rate understood these to mean "Offer this", the bread and wine moreover are offered as 'a memorial of the passion' which in view of the identification of them with the Lord's Body and Blood implies much more than an act of purely spiritual recollection. (Early Church Doctrines 196)
When Catholics are studying the Mass is it no imperative then that the study the Early Church Fathers like Ignatius of Antioch, Clement, Justin Martyr, John Chrysostom, Cyprian, and so many others. We do not argue from the Bible for the church existed at least four hundred years before it got round to sorting out the scriptures that would bring slpioritual benefit to people. In the books it chose it was not saying that the writings of others have no importance - the Church regards the Early Fathers as saints and gives their writings great honour, but this has bee lost somewhere in our disagreements with Protestants since the Reformation. But our Church dates back to the Apostles and their contemporaries and they, as Jimmy Akins acclaims, The Fathers Know Best.
..the Eucharist was regarded as the distinctively Christian Sacrifice......Malachi's prediction (1.10-11) that the Lord would reject Jewish sacrifices and instead would have a 'pure offering' made to him by the Gentiles in every place was seized upon by Christians as a prophecy of the Eucharist. Didache indeed actually applies the term thus or sacrifice to the Eucharist.
It was natural for early Christians to think of the Eucharist as a sacrifice. The fulfillment of prophecy demanded a solemn Christian offering, and the rite itself was wrapped in the sacrificial atmosphere with which the Lord invested the Last Supper. The words of institution "Do this" must have been charged with sacrificial overtones for second-century ears, Justin at any rate understood these to mean "Offer this", the bread and wine moreover are offered as 'a memorial of the passion' which in view of the identification of them with the Lord's Body and Blood implies much more than an act of purely spiritual recollection. (Early Church Doctrines 196)
When Catholics are studying the Mass is it no imperative then that the study the Early Church Fathers like Ignatius of Antioch, Clement, Justin Martyr, John Chrysostom, Cyprian, and so many others. We do not argue from the Bible for the church existed at least four hundred years before it got round to sorting out the scriptures that would bring slpioritual benefit to people. In the books it chose it was not saying that the writings of others have no importance - the Church regards the Early Fathers as saints and gives their writings great honour, but this has bee lost somewhere in our disagreements with Protestants since the Reformation. But our Church dates back to the Apostles and their contemporaries and they, as Jimmy Akins acclaims, The Fathers Know Best.
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