God preserved the truth that we are to observe the Lord’s Supper and to perform Baptisms. What He did not preserve for us are details about exactly how these things should be done or exactly what their meaning is.
More accurately, God did not explicitly present the truth of how we are to observe and administer these sacraments in His written word. But, again, sacred Scripture is not the sole medium of divine revelation in the deposit of faith. It co-exists in harmony with sacred Tradition. So we must look at the ancient traditions of the Church for a clarification of the written word. St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the apostle John, clearly relates what the Christians of the nascent church understood about the Eucharist, and by his testimony he clarifies the meaning of John 6 and shows how the sacred text ought to be interpreted. He writes: “They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer (worship), because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again.” [Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Vll.l (c.A.D.110)]. St. Justin Martyr (d.165) adds: " For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh are by transmutation are noursished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh." [First Apology, 66]. That the Eucharist did not embody the Real Presence of Christ by transubstantiation, but merely symbolized the body and blood of Christ, or served as a means to draw Jesus to be present spiritually, was not a belief that was traditionally held by the early Christians who were taught either by one of the Twelve or a close successor of the apostles. According to what these Church Fathers wrote, the celebration of the Eucharist was an essential part of worship, and the Blessed Sacrament served as a physical instrument of grace. Many people abstained from attending worship and receiving the Eucharist because they couldn’t accept the belief that the bread and wine actually were the body and blood of Christ. But God has preserved the fullness of His truth concerning the Eucharist first and foremost through the transmission of sacred Tradition.
With regard to the question of the Sacrament of Baptism, the NT, for instance, only implies that infants and children before reaching the age of reason should be included among its recipients. Peter baptized the entire household of Cornelius which normally would include infants or at least very young children (Acts 10:47-49). Likewise, Paul baptized Lydia and her entire household (Acts 16:15). The word “household” comes from the Greek word
oikos, which means a household that includes infants and children. Further, Lydia’s household is baptized on account of her faith and not that of her family members or servants, just as in the Catholic tradition infants are baptized on the basis of their parents’ faith, for in sin we are conceived (Ps 51:5). Cornelius was a man “who feared God with his entire household”, so his children, too, would have been baptized on account of his faith. Again, we must look to Tradition and the practice of the early Church to confirm whether infants and young children actually were baptized together with adolescents and adults from the beginning according to God’s will. St. Justin Martyr (d.165): “And many, both men and women, who have been
Christ’s disciples from childhood, remain pure and at the age of sixty or seventy years.” [First Apology, 15:6]. Aristides: “And when a child has been born to one of them, they give thanks to God (reference to baptism); and if moreover it happen to die in childhood, they give thanks to God the more, as for one who has passed through the world without sin.” [Apology, 15 (A.D.140)]. “Polycarp declared, ‘Eighty and six years have I served him, and He never did me injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?’” [Martyrdom of Polycarp, 9 (156)]. St. Irenaeus: “For He came to save all through means of Himself – all I say who through Him are born again to God – infants, children, and boys, and youth, and old men.” [Against Heresies ll.22.4 (180)]. Christian division and dissension is the result of severance from the historic Christian faith and perusing the Scriptures divorced from Tradition.
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