Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Concerning sacrifices and oblations, and those who truly offer them.
The offering of the Church, then, which the Lord taught to be offered throughout the whole world, is counted before God as a spotless offering, and finds favor with him — not that he stands in want of any offering from us, but because whoever brings it wins glory for himself through what he presents, provided his gift is welcomed. For a gift shown to a king expresses both his honor and one's devotion toward him; and it was exactly this that the Lord wanted us to bring, in complete plainness and purity of heart, when he declared: "So, when you are bringing your gift up to the altar, and there recall that your brother holds some grievance against you, set your gift down there in front of the altar, go first and make peace with your brother, and only then return and present your gift." We are bound, then, to bring God the earliest yield of his creation, as Moses likewise says: "You must not come before the Lord your God with empty hands" — so that man, once he has proven himself thankful in this, might likewise be counted thankful by God, and obtain honor from him in return. And it is not the class of offerings that has been rejected — for there were offerings there, and there are offerings here; sacrifices among the people, and sacrifices in the Church — but only the kind has been changed, since now the offering is made not by slaves but by free men. For there is one and the same Lord; but the offering of a slave has its own character, and that of free men has its own, so that even through the offerings the mark of liberty may be shown. For with him nothing is idle, nor without meaning, nor without purpose. And for this reason they had their tithes set apart as sacred, while those who have received liberty appoint all that is theirs to the Lord's uses, giving cheerfully and freely — not merely the lesser things, since they have the hope of greater ones — as the poor widow put her whole livelihood into the treasury. Whom you reckon as dull as a beast.
From the beginning God looked with favor on Abel's gifts, because he offered them with simplicity and righteousness; but he did not look favorably on Cain's sacrifice, because in his heart he harbored division arising from envy and malice against his brother, just as God, exposing his hidden thoughts, said: "If you offer rightly but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be still" -- since God is not appeased by sacrifice as such. For if someone merely attempts, as far as appearances go, to offer purely, rightly, and lawfully, but in his own soul does not rightly maintain right fellowship with his neighbor, nor holds the fear of God, then the fact that the sacrifice was rightly offered outwardly does not deceive God, who sees the sin within; nor will such an offering profit him at all, but rather the cessation of the evil conceived within -- lest, through a pretended act of worship, or rather through sin itself, the man make himself a murderer of himself. This is why the Lord also said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful outwardly to men, but within they are crammed with the bones of corpses and every sort of foulness; so you likewise seem just to men from without, while inwardly you brim with malice and hypocrisy." While they were believed to be offering rightly on the outside, they harbored in themselves an envy like that of Cain; and that is why they killed the Just One, disregarding the counsel of the Word, just as Cain did. For to Cain God said, "Be still" -- and he did not consent. And what else is "being still" but ceasing from a rash impulse? Speaking similarly to the Pharisees, he said: "Cleanse first what is inside the cup, that what is outside may also be clean." But they did not listen. For, says Jeremiah, "Your eyes and your heart are set on nothing good, but on your own greed, and on shedding innocent blood, and on injustice and murder, to commit them." And again Isaiah says: "You reached decisions, yet not by my counsel, and struck agreements, yet not through my Spirit." So that their inner will and intention, brought out into the open, might show without blame that it is not God who works evil, but he who lays bare hidden things -- and not God who is the doer of evil -- when Cain would by no means be still, God said to him, "His desire shall be for you, and you shall rule over him." He said something similar also to Pilate: "You would have no power over me at all, unless it had been given you from above" -- God always granting that the just man, by what he suffers and endures, is approved and received, while the one who acts wickedly is condemned and cast out for what he has done. Sacrifices, then, do not sanctify a man, for God has no need of sacrifice; rather, it is the conscience of the one who offers, if it is pure, that sanctifies the sacrifice and moves God to accept it as from a friend. "But the sinner," it says, "who sacrifices a calf to me is as one who slays a dog."
Since, then, the Church offers with simplicity, her gift is rightly reckoned before God a pure sacrifice. As Paul writes to those in Philippi: "I have been supplied, taking from Epaphroditus what was sent by you, a sweet fragrance, a welcome offering, pleasing before God." For we ought to make an offering to God, and in all things be found grateful to God our Maker, offering the firstfruits of his own creatures with pure understanding, with faith free of hypocrisy, in firm hope and fervent love. And this offering the Church alone offers pure to the Maker, presenting to him, from his own creation, the giving of thanks. The Jews, however, do not offer it, for their hands are full of blood; they did not receive the Word through whom the offering is made to God. Nor indeed do all the synagogues of the heretics offer it. For some, saying that the Father is other than the Maker, in offering to him what belongs to our creation show him to be one who covets what is not his own and desires what is another's. Others, who say that the things pertaining to us came into being through defect and ignorance and passion, in offering the fruits of ignorance, passion, and defect, sin against their own Father, doing him insult rather than giving thanks. How, then, can they maintain that the loaf consecrated by thanksgiving is their Lord's own body, and the cup his blood, while refusing to call him Son of the world's Maker -- that is, his Word, by whom timber bears its fruit, springs pour forth, and the ground brings up first the blade, next the ear, then the ripened grain within the ear? How can they claim flesh sinks into corruption, seeing it is fed by the Lord's body and blood? Let them abandon that notion, or else stop presenting the offering described above. Our conviction, meanwhile, agrees with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist confirms our conviction in turn. We present to him what belongs to him already, rightly announcing the fellowship and joining of flesh and Spirit. Just as earthly bread, once God's invocation rests upon it, ceases to be ordinary food and becomes Eucharist -- a thing composed of two realities, one earthly, one heavenly -- so too our bodies, on partaking of it, cease to be subject to decay, possessing instead the hope of rising again. Just as, before the bread is sanctified, we call it simply bread, but when the divine grace sanctifies it through the priest, it is no longer called bread, but is deemed worthy of the name "the Lord's body," even though the nature of bread still remains in it -- and we proclaim it to be, not two bodies, but one body of the Son -- so, in receiving the Eucharist, we proclaim one body, no longer corruptible, but bearing the hope of resurrection. We offer to him, then, not as though he were in need, but giving thanks to his dominion, and sanctifying what he has created. For just as God lacks nothing from us, so likewise it falls to us to present God with something -- as Solomon puts it: "Whoever shows kindness to the poor makes a loan to God." God, wanting for nothing, accepts our good deeds unto himself so as to give us, in exchange, a portion of his own goodness -- as our Lord declares: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom made ready for you. For I hungered, and you fed me; I thirsted, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me." Thus, though he had no need of these things, he wills that we too offer our gift at the altar frequently and without ceasing, not because he needs it, but so that we may serve God. There is, then, an altar in the heavens -- for our prayers and offerings are directed thither -- and a sanctuary, as John states in the Revelation: "And God's sanctuary stood open" -- and a dwelling-place: "See," he states, "God's dwelling among mankind, where he shall abide with them."