SAINT AMBROSE ‘ON THE MYSTERIES’ ~ 1919; ‘The sacrament of the Eucharist prefigured in Psalm xxiii...’; Chapter VIII; points 43-45; pp. 63-65
[St. Ambrose – IV Century AD; born: Augusta Trevrorum, Gallia Belgica, Roman Empire/died: Mediolanum, Italia, Western Roman Empire – Resting Place – Crypt of Basilica Sant’Ambrogio – One of the Great Four Latin Church Fathers – Doctor of the Church – made Bishop by popular acclamation]Chapter VIII ~ The sacrament of the Eucharist prefigured in Psalm xxiii., in the incident of Melchizedek, and in the manna and water miraculously supplied to Israel in the wilderness.
43. Rich with these adornments the cleansed people hastens to the altar of Christ, saying, And I will go unto the altar of God, even unto the God that maketh glad my youth ; 1 for, putting off the slough of long-standing sin, renewed in the youth of the eagle, she hastens to approach that heavenly banquet. She comes, therefore, and seeing the holy altar duly ordered, cries and says, Thou hast prepared a table before me. z She it is whom David represents as the speaker, in the words, The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. In a place of pasture there he hath placed me ; by the water of rest he hath tended me. And below, For though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me : Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me. Thou hast prepared a table before me against them that trouble me: Thou hast anointed my head with oil; and Thy inebriating cup, how glorious it is!
44. Now let us consider the following point, lest perchance any one, seeing the visible things (for those that are invisible are not seen, nor can they be apprehended by human eyes) may say perchance, " For the Jews God rained manna? rained quails ; for the beloved Church are these things which he has prepared, of which it has been said, That which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and, which hath not entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
Therefore, that no one may say this, we wish with all earnestness to prove that the sacraments of the Church are both older than those of the synagogue and more excellent than manna is.
45. That they are older is taught by the lesson from Genesis which has been read. For the synagogue derived its origin from the law of Moses. But Abraham is far earlier; who, when he had won the victory, defeating the enemy and recovering his own nephew, was then met by Melchizedek who brought forth the gifts which Abraham received with reverence.
It was not Abraham that brought them forth, but Melchizedek, who is represented as being without father, without mother, having neither beginning of days nor end, but like unto the Son of God ; of whom Paul says in the Epistle to the Hebrews that he abideth a priest continually, who in the Latin version is called King of righteousness, King of peace.
Image: Peter Paul Rubens – ‘The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek’