CHAPTER XXIII

THE PREPARATION OF THE MAIN BREAD, THE LAMB

T he priest and deacon begin the proskomidia by making three small bows before the table of preparation and both say :

0 God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13).

You have redeemed us from the curse oftheLaw(Gal. 3:13) by your precious blood. Nailed to the cross and pierced with a lance, you have bestowed immortality upon men. Our Saviour, glory be to you.

The prelude is a plea to God for mercy in the words of the publican in the Gospel parable. Though brief, this prayer is full of the pathos of a sinful but humble man deeply conscious of his guilt. What justified the publican, i.e., "made him right" (with God), 8e8Lx<XL<.Uµblot;, 1 was probably not the words themselves, but his humble spirit and deeply felt need. Christ chose his opposite carefully, the vainly complacent Pharisee. The name Perushim ~ the separated ones") signifies a class apart because of its deep and genuine piety. By our Lord's time, the majority of the Pharisees had become proud, self-righteous hypocrites. Josephus describes them as" a sect of Jews who esteemed themselves more religious than others and thought their interpretation of the Law more accu­rate. " 1 The Pharisee's prayer also typifies his spirit. In contrast, the Publican beats his breast repeatedly and expresses his dire need of divine mercy. Justification can be attained only by a contrite and humble spirit.

There are passages of the Scriptures easier to understand than Paul's "curse of the Law,'' mentioned in the next prayer. Its meaning must be gleaned from the whole context of Gal. 3:10-14. Those, he says, who rely solely on the deeds prescribed by the Law

1 It relates to " trusted in themselves as just " of verse 9 in same chapter tLuke I8).

1 Cf. J. Bonsirven, Judaisme palestinien au temps de J. C., I (Paris, 1934), 5, :2,

PREPARATION OF THE LAMB 261

are under a curse, and he quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 to prove it. His argument is elliptical. He presupposes that no human can perfectly and at all times observe all the prescriptions of the Law if left to his own resources. God can bestow the necessary aid but the Law itself does not have, nor did it offer, such aid for man. Therefore, left to his own strength and to mere Law, man is doomed to fail and thus to fall under the curse leveled against transgressors. The Law could only reveal the deficiences of human conduct; it could not cure them nor atone for them. Christ's redemption has freed man from this curse not only by taking away all value from legal observances but by actually atoning for all of mankind's trans­gressions. His redemption, accomplished by his Passion and death (the shedding of his precious blood, by being nailed to the cross, being pierced with a lance) gives immortality, eternal life, to man. The prayer ends by glorifying the Saviour who accomplished all this.

After this prayer, the deacon says :

Bless, sir.

Priest : Blessed be our God at all times, now and always and for ever and ever.

Deacon : Amen.

Taking the prosphora (a small loaf) into his left hand and the kopia or lance into his right, the priest makes the sign of the cross with it over the bread; this he does three times, and each time he repeats the words:

In remembrance of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Thrusting the lance into the right siik of the imprint on top of the loaf, he cuts it and says :

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).

Then he cuts the left siik and says :

And as a spotless lamb is silent before his shearers, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:7).

CHAPTER XXIIl

As he cuts the upper side, he says :

In his humiliation his judgment was taken away (Acts 8:33).

Then, cutting the lower side, he says :

Who shall indeed describe his generation? (Isaiah 53:8).

In the meantime the deacon, reverently looking on and holding his orar in his right hand, says at each incision:

Let us pray to the Lord.

When the priest finishes cutting the four sides, the deacon says :

Lift up, sir.

The priest thrusts the lance sideways into the bread and cuts off the crust at the bottom; then, lifting out the cube of bread with the inscription on top, he says :

For his life shall be taken away from the earth (Acts 8:33).

He lays the bread on the diskos with the inscription downward, while the deacon says :

Sacrifice, sir.

As the priest cuts the sign of the cross into the bread, he says :

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is sacrificed for the life and salvation of the world (John 1:29).

While the priest turns the bread O'Der, the deacon says:

Pierce, sir.

The priest pierces the holy bread with the lance in the upper-right corner where the letters IC are imprinted; as he does this, he says :

One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance and imme­diately there came forth blood and water. And he who saw it bore witness, and his testimony is true (John 19:34-35).

Unlike the Latin priest who uses precut, dried hosts of unleavened bread for Mass, the Byzantine priest cuts out the hosts from small loaves of fresh, leavened bread for each Eucharistic liturgy during the proskomidia. These small loaves of bread are called by their ancient name, prosphory (sing. prosphora). Five are used (one for

PREPARATION OF nm LAMB

the large host, and the others for the small hosts) to represent the five loaves with which Christ fed the Five Thousand People. 3

The word prosplwra derives from the Greek word for offering (see above, p. 65), and that is just what these loaves of bread were in ancient times, the bread which the priest offered in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. ' The bread which Christ used at the Last Supper must have been unleavened, since the Last Supper, a paschal meal, was celebrated on the " feast of the Azymes, " i.e. " of the unleavened bread. " ' If our Lord celebrated the paschal supper at all he would have used unleavened bread. 8 The Gospel accounts simply call it &p"t"o<;;, a word which means either leavened or unleavened bread. In any case, the Apostles did not attach any importance to this particular paschal practice of using only unleavened bread, for both kinds of bread were considered lawful matter for the Eucharist from the earliest times. If anything, leavened bread probably was used more frequently for the simple reason that it was more readily available to the early Christians. The faithful merely took bread from their household supply and brought it to the Eucharistic service. 1 From pictorial illustrations and written accounts, we

• The use of precut "dried hosts" is absolutely forbidden; the bread must be fresh. The Russians almost always use five loaves when they celebrate the Liturgy with more solemn ceremony. The Old Believers use seven, a practice dating back at least to I 100 when the Typikon of Empress Irene ordered that seven loaves be used (PG 127, 1056). The Ruthenians have traditionally used five loaYes, but can use three or even one. The most recent tendency among the Ruthenians is to use one and the same loaf for several Liturgies; this was officially permitted by a Circular Letter of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church, Sept. IO,

1941, to the Protoarchimandrite of the Basilians and to the Rector of the Ruthenian College in Rome, Prot. N. 1219/28. Cf. Ordo Celebrationis (iuxta recensionem Ruthenorum), Rome, 1941, p. 47, n. 98.

• Technically, the word n:pompopti or n:poa<ptpe:tv, its verbal form, is now used to denote any of the three presentations or offerings : (r) by the layman to the priest, (2) by the deacons to the priest or bishop at the Great Entrance, and (3) by the priest or bishop to God during the anaphora.

• While the " feast of the Azymes " was celebrated during the whole week from the evening of the 14th Nisan to the evening of 21st Nisan, the term was applied in particular to the first day of the week's feast, that is, from sunset 14th Nisan to sunset I 5th Nisan.

• Christ and the Galilean pilgrims probably celebrated the paschal supper on the day before the Jerusalemites (fur John 18:28 clearly indicates that Christ's enemies celebrated their paschal supper on the evening of the following day, Friday). Even so, it would have been with unleavened bread, unless Christ would have deviated from paschal custom. This is conceivable but unlikely.

' The finest loaves were selected.

CHAPTER XXIII

know that the Eucharistic loaves did not differ from those used in the home. s

Among the various shapes used by the Romans for domestic use were small round loaves bearing two crossed incisions ( panis decus­tus, panis quadratus). The early Christians gave preference to this type of loaf for Eucharistic use because they saw the image of the cross in the incisions. 9 The original purpose of these incisions-to facilitate division-also lent itself to Christian use.

Until the seventh century, ecclesiastical writers never concerned themselves with the distinction between leavened and unleavened bread in the Sacrifice. From that time on, in the West, unleavened bread gradually came to be preferred. 10 The custom spread until the ninth century, when some local churches imposed the exclusive use of unleavened bread. 11 Even so, it was not until about the middle of the eleventh century that the use of unleavened bread was universally established. The Byzantine Church showed equally strong preference for leavened bread from the sixth century on. Too much has been made of the different usages. During the first ten centuries, no dispute ever arose between East and West. 12 The Councils never raised the question. Writers never disputed it. Even Photius, so eager to find matters for contention with the Latins, is silent about it. The first dispute occurred in the middle of the eleventh century, under circumstances which make it look like a pretext for schism created by Michael Cerularius. 18 In 1439, the Council of Florence declared both uses legitimate. 14 Not all Eastern Rites use leavened bread even now, though most of them do (see above, chap. XIV, for particulars).

•Cf. Dolger, Antike u. Christentum, I (1929), 1-46; also R. M. Wooley, The Bread of the Eucharist (London, 1913).

• Ibid., 39-43. Two Ravenna mosaics, however, picture the bread shaped into a twisted, braid-like circlet or crown. Gregory the Great refers to this corona­shaped bread (Dial., IV, 55 [PL 77, 417 BJ).

10 Cf. A. Michel, Byzant. Zeitschrift, 36 (1936), 119 f. 11 Alcuin, Ep., 69 (PL 100, 289); Rabanus Maurus, De inst. cler., 1, 31 (PL 107,

318 D). Cf. F. Cabrol, "Azymes," DACL I, 3254-3260. ••During that period, however, the use of leaven had been the subject of a

dispute between the Byzantine and the Armenian Churches. " Cf. A. Michel, Humbert und Kerutlarius, II (Paderborn, 1930). "Denzinger-Umberg, n. 693.

PREPARATION OF THE LAMB

When unleavened bread began to supplant leavened bread in the West, the faithful gradually discontinued providing it. In the East, out of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, the making of altar bread was entrusted to the clergy alone. 16 It was made sometimes by sacristans, but almost never by women. 16 Countless documents from almost every one of the Eastern Churches stress the care to be exercised in the making and baking of altar bread, and its freshness.

A vestige of the ancient custom has remained in many churches in Russia on major feasts : before the Divine Liturgy, the faithful give loaves of wheat bread to the priest, who takes a small piece of each and puts it on the diskos, for the intentions of the giver.

The word prosphora has generally come to mean only the small loaf of wheat bread from which the hosts are cut. On top of this small loaf is an impression made before baking, using a bread­stamp showing a cross with the inscription IC XC NI KA. 17

These letters are an abbreviation of the Greek works 'IHCOYC XPICTOC, and NIKA, meaning, Jesus (IC) Christ (XC) cqnquers (NIK.A). The explanation generally given is that this " seal "

u E.g., for the Armenians, cf. the Canons of Sion I (eighth century), Canon 12 (A. Mai, SVNC, X, ii, p. 308); for the Chaldeans, cf. John V Bar Abgarus (patri­arch, 900-905), Canon 3, (BO III, p. 239); ibid., Canon 5, p. 240; for the Copts, cf. Cyril III Ibo Laclac (Coptic patriarch, 1235-1243), Constitutions (E. Renaudot, LOC, I, p. 172); for the Ethiopians, cf. Emmanuel d' Almeida, Historia de Ethiopia, l, VI (edit. C. Beccari), Vol. VI, p. 162, etc.

11 In North America, the Ruthenians allow nuns to bake the Eucharistic bread. n The Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox have an identical imprint. That

of the Old Believers or Old Ritualists consists in a cross around which are the words, " This is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. " This was the imprint of the whole Russian Orthodox Church before the reform of Patriarch Nikon in 1655.

266 CHAPTER xxm

represents the sign that Constantine the Great saw in the heavens : a flaming cross bearing the inscription In hoc signo 'Dinces ("In this sign thou shalt conquer"). Under the standard of the cross, Con­stantine vanquished the army of Maxentius beneath the very walls of Rome and entered the city in triumph. There is, however, no historical evidence concerning the time of its first use on altar breads. Pagans often stamped their bread with symbols or inscriptions. A bread-stamp dating from the fourth-fifth century, evidently Christian, has a superimposed XP symbol. 18 This could have been used for the Eucharist, but it could equally have been for purely domestic use. In the following centuries, Eucharistic bread was probably imprinted in various ways, generally with some form of cross. 19 The first references in the Byzantine Liturgy to an imprint or " seal" date from the eleventh century. 16

Since the very beginning, the preparation of the bread and wine was the function of the deacon. The celebrant would prepare them only if he were alone. 21 The deacon mixed the wine and water in the chalice, and in the Church of Constantinople, he cut the host out of the loaf and placed it on the diskos (paten) after cutting it cross­wise. The covering of the gifts and the prayer of offering were reserved to the priest. aa At present, the whole rite of preparation is performed by the priest, even when he is assisted by a deacon. The change probably took place in the fifteenth century or just

18 Dolger, Antike und Christentum, l (1929), 17-20. 11 Ibid., 21-29.

••Cf. Nicolas Grammaticus, Patriarch of O>nstantinople (1084-uu); cf. A. S. Pavlov, Nomokanon pry bolshem trebnyku, p. 411; also Ad Paulum Hypopslt'­phium Gallipolitanum, written by an anonymous Patriarch of O>nstantinople of the eleventh century (in Mai, NPB, X, ii, p. 166).

u Thus even up to the twelfth century, it was the deacon who was charged with performing the proskomidia. This is attested, for example, by the Missal of Barlaam of Khutinsk (twelfth century), MS. of the Synodal Library of Moscow, N. 343; cf. Gorsky-Nevostrujev, Opysanie slaoianskikh rukopisej Moskooskoj Synodal'noj biblioteky, III (Moscow, 1859), 1, 6; so also a twelfth century MS. of the Studion which states, "the deacon •.. celebrates the proskomidia," MS. of the Synodal Library of Moscow, N. 38o, Gorsky-Nevostruiev, op. cit., p. 248.

11 This is attested by several authors, e.g., the interpolator of the Commentary of St. Germanus of O>nstantinople (PG 98, 397 D-400 A); Theodore of Andida (thirteenth century) in his Commentaria liturgica, IO (PG 140, 429 BC); likewise, the eleventh century Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, translated by Leo Thuscus, Liturgiae sive missae sanctorum patrum (Paris, IS6o), p. 52.

PREPARATION OF THE LAMB

before, since Arcudius tells us that Simeon of Thessalonica ruled that " the deacons must not offer the particles, for they do not have the grace of offering to God. " 23

As already indicated, the priest, after taking the prosphora into his hand to cut out the large host, first makes the sign of the cross with the liturgical lance or kopia over it. Every time he does so, he repeats the prayer : " In remembrance of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ." An almost identical rubric is shown in an eleventh- or tenth-century description of the proskomidi.a. u

With these words, the priest emphasizes the fact that the transub­stantiation will occur precisely because of Christ, that the power and words of the consecration will be exercised in virtue of Christ's commission to the apostles at the Last Supper when he said : " Do this for a commemoration of me" (Luke 22:19).

Then the priest cuts the bread on the four sides, first the right, then the left, then the top, and finally the bottom. While doing so, he recites some of the prophecies of Isaiah concerning the passion and death of Christ (Isa. 53:7-8). St. Philip quoted the same passage to the eunuch, as recounted by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (8:32-33). In fact, the words as used in the rite of prepar­ation were probably taken from the Acts as quoted from Isaiah.

The coming of the Messiah and his death were foretold by the prophets hundreds of years before the actual events. These same prophetical words introduce the Eucharistic Liturgy, 'which is an unbloody commemoration of the passion.

"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter" (Isa. 53:7). This pro-

.. Arcudius, De conccmlia Ecclesiae occidentalis et orientalis in septem sacramen­torum administratione, I. III, chap. 17, pp. I8o f •

.. " Therefore, the priest or the deacon ... when he approaches the holy prothesis and takes the sacred bread into his hand and with the other the lance. • . with devotion and faith, signs the bread thrice in the form of the cross with the lance, exclaiming : ' (In) the name of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Chri.st, who has been sacrificed for the salvation of the world. ' " This rubric is found in the document Ad Paulum Hypopsephium Gallipolitanum, written by an unknown Patriarch of Constantinople of the eleventh century (edit. A. Mai [A. Rocchi], NPB, X, ii, pp. 166-169.) The translation is ours.

At least two cenruries before thfa, Theodore of Stud.ion mentions the custom of tracing the sign of the cross over the bread with the liturgical lance. Cf. n. 14, p. 259, above.

phecy was fulfilled when Christ was led unprotesting to his death.

" And as a spotless lamb is silent before his shearers, so he did not open his mouth" (Isa. 53:7). At the house of Caiphas, where the first trial of Christ was held, the chief priests and the whole council brought in many false witnesses to testify against Jesus so that they might put him to death. " But Jesus held his peace, " as Matthew is careful to point out (Matt. 26:63). Thus also, Christ "answered nothing" (Luke 23:9) to the many questions of Herod. After the cowardice of Pilate was revealed in that he had the innocent Jesus scourged and mocked by the soldiers, Jesus refused to answer him, as St. John tells us : "But Jesus gave him no answer" (John 19:9). Indeed, the Lamb of God was uncomplaining in all that they did to him during his passion.

" In his humiliation his judgment was taken away" (Acts. 8:33; Isa. 53:8). The meaning perhaps is better understood if this is rendered : " In his humiliation, justice was denied him. " There was no greater humiliation in the history of mankind than in Christ, for in him God himself was spat upon, mocked, and suffered what was then considered the most shameful death, crucifixion on a cross, a death reserved for the lowest criminals. This was also the most shameful travesty of justice that man had known, for not only was the God-man Christ completely innocent but, being God, he could do no evil!

" Who shall indeed describe his generation?" (Isa. 53:8). This passage is difficult to explain. If we take" generation" as" beget­ting " or in the sense of ancestry as a single stage in the succession of natural descent, the Jews certainly did not know the generation of Christ, because he is begotten by the Father in heaven without a mother, and on earth he was conceived in time by a mother but without a human father. In the Gospel we read : " Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Jude and Simon? Are not also his sisters here with us? And they were scandalized in regard to him" (Mark 6:3). Hence, most Jews had not even an inkling of his true generation, or refused to believe it. This whole explanation is unacceptable because the Hebrew d0r cannot indicate the act of generating, the eternal or temporal

generation of Christ, since it usually means " generation" in the sense of a lifetime or a group of contemporaries, as, for instance, in the expression " this modem generation. "

The rest of the sentence from the Acts would seem to give a hint of the true explanation, " for his life shall be taken away from the earth " (Acts. 8:33), or as Isaiah has it, " Because he is cut off out of the land of the living" (Isa. 53:8). The translation would then be : " Who can describe the wickedness of his generation, which has taken his life ? "

After cutting the four sides, the priest then cuts sideways into the loaf and lifts out the square piece or cube of bread bearing the imprint, and says : " For his life shall be taken away from the earth. " In other words, the earthly life of the Messiah was to be shortened by violent death; the Messiah would be killed, his life would be taken, or as Isaiah put it," he is cut off out of the land of the living." In the Divine Liturgy, of which the proskomidia is a preparation, Christ will also die in an unbloody manner. In the proskomidia, then, the priest acts as a prophet of the unbloody death of Christ to be re-enacted in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

With minor exceptions, this part of the proskomidia remained unchanged for over a thousand years, as is evident from a description written between A.D. 867 and 886 : " Thereupon, the priest, after receiving the prosphora on the diskos from the deacon or subdeacon, takes the lance and cleanses it. Then, after marking it [the pros­phora] with the sign of the cross, he says : " As a sheep going to the slaughter. . . is dumb ...• " Then, after putting the bread on the diskos, he adds, while pointing with his finger : ' So he opened not his mouth. . . his life is taken away from the earth. • 26

When the priest has cut out the center cube bearing the inscription IC XC NIKA, he places it on the diskos with the inscription down. This will be the large host for the Eucharistic Sacrifice. In Greek, it is called o &ytot; (&p-rot;), the holy (bread), in Slavonic

11 From the interpolated text of the Commentary of St. Germanus, as translated into the Latin by Anastasius Bibliothecarius (edit. N. Borgia, II commentario iiturgico di S. Germano Patriarca Constantinopolitano e la versione latina di Anastasio Bibliotecario [Grottaferrata, x9x2], p. 20). The translation from the Anastasian version is ours.

CHAPTER xxm

ahnets, the lamb, an expression borrowed from the Scriptures. St. John in his mystical Apocalypse calls the Son of God a lamb about twenty-seven times. In his Gospel, he specifically includes the testimony of the Baptist who revealed Christ as the IAmb of God. " Look," he said, " there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John I:29). The full meaning of the expression implied victimhood, for only thus could Jesus take away sin. In the Old Law, a lamb was offered in the Temple for the sins of the people both in the morning and in the evening. If the memory of this practice failed to suggest the victim-image of Christ as the Lamb of God, then surely the prophecy of Isaiah (53:7) would be clear. The paschal lamb prefigured Christ very specially. God commanded the Israelites to kill an unblemished lamb and sprinkle its blood over the doorposts so that the avenging angel would" pass over» the houses thus marked (Exod. I2). The blood of the lamb saved the firstborn of the Israelites from the avenging angel. Mankind was saved from a more terrible fate by the " blood of Christ, that unblemished and spotless Lamb" (I Pet. I:I9). In the Divine Liturgy, the bread and wine will be changed into the body and blood of Christ and offered as the Victim-Sacrifice of the New Law. With every reason, therefore, the Eucharistic Bread can be called the lamb, the ahnets. Even in the proskomidia, before it becomes the Eucharistic Christ, the main host is called the lamb because of what is to come. The proskomidia rite prepares, pro­phesies, and prefigures what will take place in the Eucharistic Sacri­fice just as the Old Testament was a time of preparation, prophecy, and prefiguration as regards the historical events of the redemption. The role of sacrificial lamb in the Old Law was the same as that of the ahnets in the proskomidia; prefiguring the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The prophecies of Isaiah apply in both instances.

The proskormaia carries the prophetic imagery further by act and word in the next action of the priest : with the liturgical lance the priest now cuts the sign of the cross into the ahnets (by making two deep incisfons crosswise, thus cutting the host into four equal parts). While making the incisions, he says : " The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is sacrificed for the life and salvation of

PREPARATION OF TIIE LAMB 271

the world. '' Here is prophecy in liturgical action relative to the Eucharistic Sacrifice : the bread, which is still not the Eucharist, is called the Lamb of God sacrificed for mankind. A definite sense of immolation and sacrifice is present already in the words of the deacon when he says, "Sacrifice, sir." In a vivid, graphic way, the cutting of the cross into the bread prefigures the unbloody Sacrifice of the Eucharistic Lamb that will not only be present on the altar but will truly be immolated. The celebrant, no less than St. John when he wrote the Apocalypse, beholds in mystical ecstasy Jesus as the Lamb that was slain, that purchased souls for God out of all tribes and nations, that washed them clean in his blood. From this bread, from this ahnets, will stream forth blessing, grace, salva­tion, and redemption.

This sense of oblation and immolation of the Lamb was present in the eighth century, at which early time the incisions in the bread were already being made during the proskomidia rite. 16 St. Gregory the Decapolitan refers to this some time before A.D. 820 when he tells of the Saracen miracle. 117 No one knows at what period in history the words were added to this ritual, but they certainly date back to the eleventh if not the tenth century. 118

The host is turned over and the priest pierces it with the lance in the upper-right comer, where the letters IC are imprinted, while saying : " One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance, " etc. 119

.. Cf. Germanus of Constantinople, Commentary, Nos. 20, 30 tedit. N. Borgia, op. cit., pp. 19-20, 28). The sense of immolation is evident also in the eighth or ninth century Codex Barberini, gr. 336 (Brightman, LEW, p. 309) whose prayer of the poslwmidia calls the bread " the immaculate lamb sacrificed for the welfare of the world. "

1' Gregory the Decapolitan, Senrume historico (PG 100, l20I C-1203 C). ••We know this from the following description of the rite contained in the

document, Ad Paulum Hypopsep'1ium Gallipolitanum (edit. A. Mai, NPB, X, ii, pp. 166-169) : "Afterwards, they put down the particle cut out by hand in such a way that its fleshy part is showing and with the sacred lance they make an incision [in it] in the form of a cross, saying, ' Sacrificed is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. ' Then they lay the bread on the diskos, but turned over, the fleshy part beneath, the seal on top." The translation is ours.

•• The words "there came forth from his side blood and water, and he who saw it bore witness, and his testimony is true " were found in the ninth-century proskomidia, but they were said by the priest when the deacon poured wine and water into the chalice (cf. the Anastasian version of interpolated Commentary of St. Germanus, edit. N. Borgia, op. cit., p. 20). This would indicate that the pierc­ing of the large host was introduced into the rite some time later. The same symbolical sense, however, held true.

272 CHAPTER XXIII

These words are taken from St. John's account of the Passion and death of Christ (John r9:34-35). St. John reports the facts as he saw them on Calvary, and here he specifically states that he saw the piercing of Christ's side. The usual Roman practice was the cruri­fragi"um or the breaking of the legs with a hammer or club to bring about immediate death, and shorten the suffering of dying men. In the case of Jesus, the soldiers came under orders to hasten his death at the request of the Jews, who feared that the Passover might begin before the crucified men were dead and removed, which would have constituted a legal impurity for the whole city.

When the soldiers came, they broke the legs of the two robbers, but when they found Jesus already dead, one of the soldiers thrust his lance into his side, to make certain that he was dead. Thus it was that the prophecies of the Scriptures were fulfilled almost as if by accident. It was foretold, as St. John is careful to point out, that " they shall look on him whom they pierced " and " you shall not break a bone of him" (John r9:36). The former is in Zechariah (Zech. u:rn), the latter, in Exodus (u:46) and the book of Numbers (9:r2), which concern themselves directly with the paschal lamb and indirectly with Christ himself.

The piercing of the bread with the liturgical lance has its obvious symbolism, as had the actual piercing of Christ's side on Calvary. In the proskomi.dia, the lance thrust is once more prophecy in action as regards the forthcoming Sacrifice.