We Are Made Holy
From a treatise against Fabianus by Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop (468-533)
We are made holy by our sharing in Christ’s body and blood
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
In our offering of the holy sacrifice we fulfill the command of our Savior, as recorded by the apostle Paul: The Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said: This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way after the supper, he took the cup saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you shall proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
This sacrifice is offered, then, to proclaim the Lord’s death: it is offered in remembrance of him who laid down his life for our sake. As he says: Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends. Because Christ died for us out of love, we ask, when we make remembrance of his death at the time of sacrifice, that we too may be granted love through the coming of the Holy Spirit. We pray that by the love which Christ had for us when he braved the cross, we may receive the grace of the Spirit and be crucified to the world, and the world to us. The death Christ died, he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Let us imitate our Lord’s death, and also live a new life. Strengthened with the gift of his love, let us die to sin and live for God.
For God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Indeed our sharing in the Lord’s body and blood when we eat his bread and drink his cup teaches us that we should die to the world, and that we should keep our life hidden with Christ in God, crucifying our flesh with its vices and evil desires.
That is why all the faithful who love God and their neighbor truly drink the cup of the Lord’s love even though they may not drink the cup of his bodily suffering. And becoming inebriated from it, they put to death whatever in their nature is rooted in earth. They clothe themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not indulge fleshly desires. They do not fix their gaze on visible things, but contemplate things which the eye cannot see. Thus they drink the Lord’s cup by preserving the holy bond of love; without it, even if a man should deliver his body to be burned, he gains nothing. But the gift of love enables us to become in reality what we celebrate as mystery in the sacrifice.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Fulgentius (468-533) was born in 468 of a noble Roman senatorial family of Carthage. He helped manage the family estate when his father died and was well known for his ability. He was appointed procurator and tax receiver of Byzacena but then, at twenty-two, he was led to the religious life by the writings of St. Augustine, whose influence remained with him the rest of his life. He entered a monastery governed by an orthodox bishop, Faustus, who had been driven from his see by Arian King Huneric. Fulgentius’ mother caused such an uproar with over Faustus accepting her son into the monastery that both Faustus and Fulgentius left to enter another monastery nearby. In 499 they were forced to flee the invading Numidians and went to Sicca Veneria. There they were arrested by an Arian priest who had them scourged and tortured. But they refused to apostatize from their orthodoxy and they were eventually released. Fulgentius went to Rome to visit the tombs of the apostles and on his return to Byzacena built another monastery there and became its abbot. He lived as a hermit but in 508 was appointed bishop of Ruspe.
He became a defender of the Catholic position upholding veneration of images of the saints when the Byzantine Emperors had issued edicts prohibiting this practice. Fulgentius produced a collection of outstanding written works, among them Fount of Wisdom, on philosophy, heresies, and the orthodox faith, and De Fide Orthodoxa, a comprehensive presentation of the teachings of the Greek Fathers on the main Christian doctrines. This work is one of the most notable theological presentations of antiquity. He died at Sabas in 533 and was the last of the Greek Fathers of the Church. He was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1890.