The Presence in the Eucharist
To the 4th. century belong major developments in the history of the priesthood.
Firstly Christianity became the official religion of the Empire. Bishops were thus now, in a sense, civil servants. This explains why St. Ambrose could be elected as Bishop of Milan when he was not yet even baptised, being only a catechumen – he was an experienced Imperial official.
The number of Christians now vastly increased, and the old pattern of “one town, one bishop, one Eucharist” broke down under the strain. The bishop’s advisers – his “presbyters” – had to assume a new role, and something like the parish system began to emerge.
At the same time there was a growing emphasis on the “holiness” and “otherness” of the priesthood. Christ’s Second Coming had failed to take place, so to remain credible the Church needed to stress something else: Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. The Eucharist became less a simple act of thanksgiving, and more a focus on what actually happened to the bread and wine: their becoming Christ. We may see this shift by reference to the two Eucharistic Prayers still most commonly used by Orthodox Christians: the Liturgy of St. Basil (mid-4th. cent.) speaks of the bread and wine as “symbolic representations”, whereas the slightly later Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom prays that these elements may be “changed”. This change needed an agent – a priest.
The language of the Mass began to speak not so much of “giving thanks” as of “making sacrifice”, and this idea of sacrifice was carried right back in history to that mysterious figure Melchizedek whom we saw in Genesis 14, and who is named in the Roman Canon [or Eucharistic Prayer No. 1]. Melchizedek “offered bread and wine” – but in the story in Genesis he actually offered these to Abraham in hospitality when Abraham came to meet him; he didn’t offer them to God in a kind of primitive Mass! The story has been changed to suit the new message.
And on top of all this we have another new phenomenon: the monasteries