Gregory the Dialogist : Concerning this lamb it is added further: "And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted with fire." Indeed we eat the lamb at night, because we now receive the Lord's body in the sacrament when we do not yet see one another's consciences. Yet these meats must be roasted with fire, because fire indeed dissolves the meats that water has boiled; but those that fire cooks without water, it strengthens. And so fire cooked the meats of our Lamb, because the very power of His passion rendered Him stronger for resurrection and strengthened Him for incorruption. For He who recovered from death—clearly His flesh was hardened by fire. Hence also through the Psalmist He says: "My strength has dried up like a potsherd." For what is a potsherd before fire except soft clay? But it is subjected to fire so that it may become solid. Therefore the strength of His humanity dried up like a potsherd, because from the fire of passion it grew into the power of incorruption. But having received the sacraments of our Redeemer alone is not sufficient for the true solemnity of the mind, unless good works are also joined to them. For what does it profit to receive His body and blood with the mouth, and to oppose Him with perverse conduct? Hence it is well added concerning the eating: "And unleavened bread with wild lettuce." For he eats bread without leaven who performs righteous works without the corruption of vainglory, who shows the commands of mercy without admixture of sin, lest he wickedly seize what he seems to dispense rightly. They had also mixed this leaven of sin into their good action, to whom the Lord spoke through the voice of the prophet in rebuke: "Come to Bethel and act impiously." And after a few words: "And sacrifice praise from what is leavened." For he offers praise from what is leavened who prepares a sacrifice to God from robbery. Wild lettuces are indeed very bitter. Therefore the flesh of the Lamb must be eaten with wild lettuces, so that when we receive the body of the Redeemer, we afflict ourselves with weeping for our sins, so that the very bitterness of repentance may cleanse from the stomach of the mind the humor of a perverse life. — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 22 Maximus of Turin : Yet they were also completely ignorant of the commands of Moses himself, who ordered them specially to eat this bitterness when he established the paschal sacraments for them to observe and said, "You will eat it with bitterness, for it is the pasch of the Lord." For he did not order, as they think, the consuming of the very bitter juices of insignificant herbs with the roasted flesh of a lamb. Rather, he commanded the fruitful devouring of the bitter words of Christ's precepts with the sacrament of the Lord's passion. For do not the words of the Lord seem to be bitter when he says: "If you wish to be perfect, leave all that you have and come, follow me?" And when he says that one is not to possess two tunics or a wallet or sandals, that bitterness of such words is a medicine for souls. — SERMON 25.2 Origen of Alexandria : Christians every day eat the flesh of the Lamb, that is, they daily take the flesh of the word. "For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed." And because the law of the Passover is such that it should be eaten in the evening, therefore the Lord suffered in the evening of the world, so that you may always eat of the flesh of the word, because you are always in the evening, until the morning comes. And if in this evening you are watchful and lead your life "in weeping and fastings" and in every labor of righteousness, you too will be able to say: "Weeping shall tarry until the evening, and joy until the morning." For you will rejoice in the morning, that is, in the age to come, if in this age you gather "the fruit of righteousness" in weeping and labor. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 10.3 Origen of Alexandria : And we must eat the meat roasted with fire with unleavened bread. For the Word of God is not only flesh. He says, indeed, "I am the bread of life," and "This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever."36We must not, however, fail to remark that all food is loosely said to be bread, as it is written in the case of Moses in Deuteronomy: "He did not eat bread for forty days, and he did not drink water," instead of saying he partook of neither dry nor wet nourishment. Now I have noted this because it is also said in the Gospel according to John, "And also the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF John 10.99-101 Origen of Alexandria : Finally, the unleavened bread too is commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs; nor is it possible to reach the land of promise unless we pass through bitter things. For just as physicians insert certain bitter ingredients into their medicines with a view to the safety and health of the sick, so too, with a view to our safety, the physician of our souls has willed us to suffer the bitter things of this life in various trials, knowing that the end of this bitterness gains for our soul the sweetness of salvation; just as, on the contrary, the end of the sweetness which is in bodily pleasure, as the example of that rich man has taught, yields a bitter end in the hell of punishments. — HOMILIES ON Numbers 27.10 Origen of Alexandria : But we eat the flesh of the lamb and the unleavened bread with bitter herbs either by being grieved with a godly grief because of repentance for our sins, a grief which produces in us a repentance unto salvation which brings no regret, or by seeking and being nurtured from the visions of the truth which we discover because of our trials. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF John 10.102