الأفخارستيا FIRST-CENTURY CHURCH FATHER: THE EUCHARIST IS TRULY THE BODY AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST St. Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of the apostle John and lived from around A.D. 35 until his martyrdom around A.D. 107. He wrote seven letters—one to St. Polycarp of Smyrna, and six others to various churches—that are indispensable resources for knowing what Christians believed and practiced less than a century after Christ. In his Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius addresses the issue of those who do not believe as the Church does: "But consider those who are of a different opinion with respect to the grace of Christ which has come unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God... They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes" (Ch 6, 7: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm). Also, in his Letter to the Philadelphians, he speaks of “one Eucharist,” which is “one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup for union with his blood” (Ch. 4: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0108.htm). It’s difficult, if not impossible, to square Ignatius’s high view of the Eucharist with anything found in the Protestant traditions that deny the Real Presence. The early bishop of Antioch calls it the flesh of Christ and the means by which Christians achieve eternal life. That’s a far cry from the “Sinner’s Prayer,” an altar call, or the warming of our hearts to Christ! For Ignatius of Antioch, as for so many other Church Fathers, the Eucharist was the center of the Christian life and liturgical worship.