Recently, I was reading St. Justin Martyr's First Apology, and I decided to write about how this text attests to the Holy Mass celebrated by Catholics every Sunday being practiced in the 2nd century!
Justin Martyr was born in 100 AD, the year of the death of the last apostle. As such, we can reasonably conclude that the teachings of the twelve apostles were still ringing loudly in the ears of the second-century Christians, since many living in Justin's time were taught directly by them. Think of Polycarp, who was taught by John, and Papias, who was also taught by him. St. Ignatius of Antioch is purported to have known Peter. And St. Irenaeus of Lyon, a contemporary of Justin Martyr, was taught by Polycarp, and was thus only two generations away from the apostle John. The Church Fathers are important to read, because they can tell us how the earliest Christians interpreted doctrine and sacred Scripture. They provide a necessary link to apostolic teaching, which all modern Christians today find authoritative.
St. Justin's First Apology
The First Apology was written in about 155-157 AD to the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, the father of future emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. In this apology (which is Greek for "defense"), Justin makes the case for Christianity against false rumors that spread during Christian persecution in the empire. Additionally, he argues that Jesus Christ is the Logos, or the incarnate Word of God, and that all people can therefore come to know God through reason. He shows that the Greek philosophers, such as Plato, already had seeds of the truth, but the fullness of truth is in Christianity. Lastly, Justin concludes with a description of the rituals and practices in the Church at that time, including the rite of baptism, the Eucharist, and Sunday worship. This last section is the part we will focus on today.
Justin on Baptism
In Chapter 61, Justin explains not only how the ritual of baptism was carried out in the second century, but also the apostolic teaching behind it. He says that prior to baptism, the convert fasts and prays, as the rest of the assembly does in their honor. Then he writes that "they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water." So the earliest Christians baptized converts for the specific purpose of spiritual regeneration, washing away their sins up to that point and making them a new creation. He then quotes John 3:5 to back this up: "For Christ also said, 'Unless you be born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'"
From this we can clearly see that the earliest Christians understood Christ's words as referring to the regenerative nature of baptism, the means through which God pours out His saving grace to us. To make it even better, Justin then refers to the teaching of the apostles themselves, saying they taught that "in order that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father."
We can know that the teachings in Justin's Apology were not an isolated incident; there is a wide consensus among the early Church Fathers that baptism is the regenerative sacrament that gives us initial justifying grace. For instance, Theophilus of Antioch states that "Those things which were created from the waters were blessed by God, so that men would at a future time receive repentance and remission of sins through water and the bath of regeneration." Origen of Alexandria, when arguing not to withhold baptism from infants, says that "the Apostles...knew that there is in everyone the innate stain of sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit." Clement of Alexandria writes that "He [God] wishes us to be converted and to become as children acknowledging Him who is truly our father, regenerated by water." The list goes on and on.
Justin on the Eucharist
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 by the Word of God, had both 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 by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh (First Apology Ch. 66).
Justin testifies to the ancient Christian belief that the Eucharist is the real body and blood of Our Lord. The above quote, which attests to the belief that our human flesh and blood are nourished by transmutation, hearkens back to Christ's words in John 6:55-56:
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Notice the continuity between Jesus' words and those of Justin Martyr. Whoever eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ is nourished. Nourished in what sense, you may ask? In the sense that Jesus describes in John 6:54: "[H]e who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The Eucharist, as the early Church called the transubstantiated bread and wine (see First Apology Ch. 66), understood Jesus' command in John 6 as referring to consuming His body and blood, not symbolically, but really and truly.
Lastly, Justin Martyr provides descriptions of the ancient 2nd-century Mass, showing that it closely resembles the Catholic Mass as celebrated today. For example, he explains the ritual practice of the Liturgy of the Word: "[O]n the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read...then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs" (Ch 67). This reflects the Catholic liturgy today, in which the First Reading from the Old Testament is read, followed by the Responsorial Psalm, then by the Second Reading from the New Testament (but not the Gospels), and lastly by a reading from one of the four Gospels. Furthermore, the instruction that the priest gives after the readings is called the "homily," in which he instructs the people on what has just been read.
Then Justin describes the Liturgy of the Eucharist: "Then we all rise together and pray, and...when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings...and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each" (Ch. 67). In the Catholic Mass today, we see these ancient roots at play. For instance, after the homily, the priest and the whole congregation stand up and pray the Nicene Creed together, as well as the Prayers of the Faithful. After the prayers are over, bread and wine are offered, usually by laypeople bringing them to the priest, and the priest himself brings the water to the altar. Then the priest offers the eucharistic prayers and consecrates the bread and wine, asking the Holy Spirit to transubstantiate them into the body and blood of Christ. Afterwards, we all receive communion.
As we can see, therefore, thanks to the writing of St. Justin Martyr, the Catholic sacraments of baptism and Holy Eucharist, as well as the Mass itself, has strong connections to the ancient Church of the first few centuries A.D. I recommend that all Christians, both Catholic and non-Catholic, take a closer look at what the Church Fathers have to say about the teaching that they received from the apostles and those who knew the apostles.
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