Augustine in His Own Words
The Preacher 155 answer: "We have lifted it up to the Lord."64 And you should not attribute this lifting-up of the heart to the Lord to your own strength, to your own merits, to your own hard work—for this lifting-up of your hearts to God is a gift of God. That is why the bishop or the presbyter who is offering [the Eucharist], after people answer, "We have lifted them to the Lord," goes on to say, "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God," because we have lifted up our hearts. Let us give thanks, because unless he did give [this grace] we would still have our hearts on earth. And you bear witness to this, saying, "It is right and just," for we give thanks to Him who caused us to lift up our hearts to our Head.
Then after the sanctification65 of God's sacrifice—for He wanted our very selves to be His sacrifice, which is demonstrated by where that sacrifice first took place and that's the sign of the thing itself, what we ourselves are. See, that's where, once the sanctification is finished, we say the Lord's Prayer, which you received and which you handed back. After this, the "Peace be with you" is said, and Christians kiss one another with a holy kiss. This is a sign of peace. As the lips indicate, make peace in your conscience; that is, when your lips draw near to those of your brothers or sisters, do not let your heart draw back from their hearts.
Great, therefore, are these sacraments, extraordinarily great. Do you want to know how they are to be commemorated? The Apostle says: "Whoever eats the body of Christ or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27). What is "receiving unworthily"? To receive in contempt, to receive in mockery. Do not let [the sacrament] seem of little value to you just because you can see it. What you see passes away, but the invisible reality it is a sign of does not pass away, but endures. Look: it is received, it is eaten, it is consumed. Is the body of Christ really consumed? Is the Church of Christ really consumed? Are the members of Christ really consumed? Hardly! Here they are cleansed; there they will be crowned. The "what" that it is a sign of will endure even though the sign seems to pass away. Receive, then, that you may understand, that you may hold unity in your hearts, that your heart be lifted up, fixed always on high. Let your hope not be on earth, but in heaven. Let your faith be firm in God. Let it be acceptable to God. Because what you do not see now, but believe, that you will see there, where you will rejoice without end.66
64. "Lift up your heart" (Sursum cor): Augustine quotes here and elsewhere in this paragraph from the traditional opening dialogue of the eucharistic prayer. See Enrico Mazza, The Origins of the Eucharistic Prayer, trans. Ronald E. Lane (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995).
65. "Sanctification" (sanctificatio): Augustine uses this term rather than "consecration" to refer to the change of the eucharistic elements.
66. S. 227 (PL 38:1099–101); my trans., based on Muldowney, FOTC 38:195–98. On this within Augustine's broader theology, see J. Patout Burns, "The Eucharist as the Foundation of Christian Unity in North African Theology," 2000 St. Augustine Lecture, Augustinian Studies 32 (2001): 1–23.