The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself.
For the Lord has said, “This is My body”, not, this is a figure of My body. And “My blood”, not, a figure of My blood.
And on a previous occasion He had said to the Jews, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed.
And again, He that eateth Me, shall live (John 6:51-55).
Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing.
Let us pay homage to it in all purity both of soul and body: for it is twofold.
Let us draw near to it with an ardent desire, and with our hands held in the form of the cross let us receive the body of the Crucified One.
And let us apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine coal.
May the fire of the longing that is in us, together with the additional heat derived from the coal, utterly consume our sins and illumine our hearts.
And so may we be inflamed and deified by the participation in the divine fire.
[...] The body and blood of Christ are making for the support of our soul and body, without being consumed or suffering corruption…but for our being and preservation, a protection against all kinds of injury, a purging from all uncleanness.
[...] Being purified by this, we are united to the body of Christ and to His Spirit and become the body of Christ.
[...] For the Lord’s flesh is life-giving spirit because it was conceived of the life-giving Spirit. For what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
I do not say this to take away the nature of the body, but I wish to make clear its life-giving and divine power (John 6:63).
[...] Participation is spoken of; for through it we partake of the divinity of Jesus.
Communion, too, is spoken of, and it is an actual communion, because through it we have communion with Christ and share in His flesh and His divinity.
Indeed, we have communion and are united with one another through it. For since we partake of one bread, we all become one body of Christ and one blood, and members one of another, being of one body with Christ.
John Damascene (c.675-749): De Fide Orthodoxa 4, 13.
