The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name

by Brian C. Muraresku

In calling for a sober end to the intoxication, an “emergency so great and hazardous,” Augustine himself quotes the First Letter to the Corinthians, where Paul rebukes the Greeks’ routine of “getting drunk.” If that didn’t already lump the agape and the refrigerium together into one paleo-Eucharistic tradition that was slowly taking shape in the early centuries after Jesus, the Catholic Encyclopedia from 1907 removes any doubt. It says that the Eucharist, at its origin, is clearly marked as funerary in its intention, a fact attested by the most ancient testimonies that have come down to us. Our Lord, in instituting the Eucharist, used these words: “As often as you shall eat this Bread and drink this chalice, you shall show forth the Lord’s Death.” Nothing could be clearer. Our Lord chose the means generally used in His time, namely: the funeral banquet, to bind together those who remained faithful to the memory of Him who had gone.