The Eucharist and the Burning Coal

Recently in my studies in the Deaconate program, I had the opportunity to delve into the Prophets of the Old Testament. I was drawn to Isaiah, chapter 6 in particular. There, we read about the sending of Isaiah and the vision of God in the temple. Here, Isaiah in the presence of God in the temple feels unworthy. I think many of us feel the same when we are in front of God in the temple, the church with the tabernacle in front of us. We proclaim like the seraphim did:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Is 6:3)

Like Isaiah, we think “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips…(Is 6:5)” In fact, in the liturgy, we at the invitation to receive the Eucharist recite “Lord, I am not worth that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” In verses 6 and 7 we read:

⁶Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”  

At this point it is impossible to overlook the significance of Isaiah in Christian theology. In this chapter we can see as Catholic Christians its application in the sacrament of the Eucharist and how our sins (venial) are taken away.

Admittedly I did not see the Eucharist in this chapter of Isaiah. But much more intelligent men than myself did! Let’s take a look through the lens of a couple early Church Fathers as they saw it in the call of Isaiah. First observe the words of St. Cyril of Alexandria, a brilliant theologian and Egyptian archbishop who died about A.D. 444. Discoursing on the spiritual meaning of the call of Isaiah, he says:

 One of the seraphim is sent to Isaiah with a burning coal which he took from the altar with tongs. This is clearly a symbol of Christ, who, on our behalf, offered himself up to God the Father as a pure and unblemished spiritual sacrifice with a most pleasing fragrance. In the same way, Christ is received from the altar. We must, however, explain why Christ is like a burning coal. It is customary in Holy Scripture for the divine nature

 So, according to St. Cyril “Christ is like a burning coal”. We receive this burning coal each Sunday and each daily Mass we attend! The Eucharist!

 Additionally, St. John of Damascus who was a priest and monk and lived in Syria at the Mar Saba monastery in Palestine until his death in AD 749 wrote⁵:

 Wherefore, in all fear and with a pure conscience and undoubting faith let us approach .. . let us receive the body of the Crucified One. With eyes, lips, and faces turned toward it, let us receive the divine burning coal, so that the fire of the coal may be added to the desire within us to consume our sins and enlighten our hearts, and so that by this communion of the divine fire we may be set afire and deified.

 Here we have two great minds from early in the church reaching the same conclusion-the eucharistic imagery of the burning coal. In the literal sense we have the setting of Isaiah encountering the Lord in the 8^th century B.C. But, considering the spiritual sense which these two Fathers do we can relate to the purification we obtain from receiving the Eucharist (for our venial sins-see CCC 1393-94). Just as Isaiah received on his lips the burning coal in purification, we receive on our lips the “burning” away of our sins through the Eucharist.  Isaiah’s encounter was divine, so is ours each time we receive the Eucharist when we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).

 May God bless you all!