ACC ~ John 6 v41 - 51

OVERVIEW:

Lacking the hunger of the inner person (AUGUSTINE), the Jews murmur against Jesus because they could not hear his words in the spiritual sense in which they were meant. They refer to him as the son of Joseph in obvious ignorance of his miraculous birth (CHRYSOSTOM). However, Jesus understands that their murmuring is due to their lack of hunger because they have not been drawn to Christ by the Father, which itself is a mystery (AUGUSTINE). The Father draws individuals to the Son, who later gives the kingdom to the Father, demonstrating love and mutual regard but not subordination (AMBROSE). Christ leads to the Father, and the Father leads to Christ (HILARY). We come to Christ by the gift of faith from the Father and should therefore be humble, since it is not our work but the Father’s. Christ is not speaking of one who is forced to be drawn but of one to whom Christ is revealed who longs to know him as one longs to know the truth (AUGUSTINE).

It is better to be taught by God than by the increasing number of unworthy clergy (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS). God as teacher teaches us through his Son since faith can ultimately be learned only from God (CHRYSOSTOM). The prophets wrote that they shall all be taught by God—not that they all come, but that no one comes in any other way. We hear what the Father teaches through the voice of his Son (AUGUSTINE) because only those in the Godhead can fully see God, and the Son through the Spirit then makes him known to us to the extent we are able to receive (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM). The one who receives and believes in Christ has life because Christ is the life who killed death (AUGUSTINE).

Jesus declares a second time “I am the bread of life,” perhaps emphatically because sin too has its own special bread—of death, which he opposes. Those who eat this bread die in their sins. That is why Christ calls on us to hunger and thirst for the infinitely more satisfying bread that he provides (ATHANASIUS). As the Bread of life, he kneads his body, mixing himself with us to form one loaf (CHRYSOSTOM) and through this union destroys the corruption and death that lurk there (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). The living bread of the sacrament is much greater than the manna because it gives the body of Christ, which is the substance of eternal life (AMBROSE, EPHREM). Whoever eats of this bread worthily has life (AUGUSTINE) because it is the forgiveness of sins (AMBROSE).

The Father offered himself to us as milk first because we were like infants (Irenaeus). Now he provides us with a whole new spiritual diet for our spiritual growth (CLEMENT) in the manna that still rains down from heaven today in the body of Christ given in the sacrament (AMBROSE). And so, as beggars before God we ask for what all beggars seek to receive: bread (AUGUSTINE). As we receive this bread, we as scattered grains are brought together in the one heavenly bread of Christ (CYPRIAN), which he calls his flesh. He gave his flesh as a ransom for all flesh; by becoming flesh the life-giving word made his flesh life-giving, thus giving life to all who partake of it (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

6:41 | The Jews Murmured

LACKING HUNGER OF THE INNER PERSON

AUGUSTINE: But they were far from being fit for that heavenly bread and did not know how to hunger for it…. For this bread requires the hunger of the inner person. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:168*.

THE CARNAL QUESTION

CHRYSOSTOM: His meaning is, “You must hear spiritually what relates to me, for he who hears carnally neither profits nor gathers any advantage.” It was carnal to question how Jesus came down from heaven, to consider him as the son of Joseph, to ask, “How can he give us his flesh to eat?” All this was carnal when, instead, they ought to have understood the matter in a mystical and spiritual sense. “But,” says someone, “how could they understand what ‘eating flesh’ might mean?” Then it was their duty to wait for the proper time and enquire, and not to abandon him. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 47.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:169-70*.

6:42 | Is This Not Jesus, the Son of Joseph?

IGNORANCE OF JESUS’ MIRACULOUS BIRTH

CHRYSOSTOM: It is evident that they did not yet know of his miraculous birth, for they call him the son of Joseph. Nor are they blamed for this. Our Lord does not reply, “I am not the son of Joseph,” not because he was his son but because the miracle of his birth would have overpowered them. And if the birth according to the flesh were above their belief, how much more that higher and ineffable birth? HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 46.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:164*.

6:43 | Murmuring Among Themselves

MURMURING AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE

AUGUSTINE: As if to say, I know why you do not hunger after this bread and so cannot understand it and do not seek it…. “No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him.” This is the doctrine of grace: none comes unless they are drawn. But whom the Father draws, and whom not, and why he draws one and not another, do not presume to decide if you want to avoid falling into error. Take the doctrine as it is given to you: and, if you are not drawn, pray that you may be. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:168**.

6:44 | The Father Draws Us

JESUS NOT SUBORDINATE TO THE FATHER

AMBROSE: And you say that the Son of God is subject by reason of weakness—the Son, to whom the Father brings men and women that he may raise them up in the last day. Does this seem in your eyes to be subjection where the kingdom is prepared for the Father and the Father brings it to the Son? There is no place for perversion of words since the Son gives the kingdom to the Father and none is preferred before him. For as the Father gives to the Son, and the Son, again, to the Father, here are plain proofs of love and regard: seeing that they [i.e., Father and Son] give to each other that neither he who receives obtains, as it were, what was another’s, nor he that gives loses anything. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2.12.104. [1]

CHRIST LEADS TO THE FATHER AND THE FATHER TO CHRIST

HILARY OF POITIERS:

There is no approach to the Father except through Christ. But there is also no approach to Christ, unless the Father draws us. ON THE TRINITY 11.33. [2]

[1] NPNF 2 10:237-38*.

[2] NPNF 2 9:212-13*.

WE HAVE COME TO CHRIST BY THE GIFT OF FAITH

AUGUSTINE: How have you come? You have come by believing, but you have not yet come through to the end. We are still on the road. We have come, but we have not yet come through. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with trembling, in case the Lord might be angry and you perish from the way of justice.” [1] When you arrogate to yourself the discovery of the way of justice, be afraid of perishing from the way of justice through this very arrogance. “I have come,” he says, “I have come of my own accord, I have come of my own free will.” Why such consternation? Do you want to hear that even this much has been bestowed on you as well? Listen to him calling: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” [2] SERMON 30.10. [3]

[1] Ps 2:11-12.

[2] Jn 6:44.

[3] WSA 3 2:129*. Chrysostom attributes a great role to the will; see Homilies on the Gospel of John 46.1.

THE REVELATION OF TRUTH IS THE DRAWING

AUGUSTINE: Do not think that you are drawn against your will. The soul is drawn also by love…. And in case someone says to us, “How can I believe with the will if I am drawn?” I say that it is not enough to be drawn by the will; you are drawn even by delight. What is it to be drawn by delight? “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.” [1] There is a certain craving of the heart to which that bread of heaven is sweet. If the poet could say, “Every person is drawn by his own pleasure” [2] —not necessity but pleasure; not obligation but delight—how much more boldly ought we to say that a person is drawn to Christ when he delights in the truth, when he delights in blessedness, delights in righteousness, delights in everlasting life? Do not the bodily senses have their pleasures, and the soul its?… Give me one who loves, who longs, who burns, who sighs for the source of his being and his eternal home, and he will know what I mean….

But why did he say, “Except my Father draw him”? If we are to be drawn, let us be drawn by him to whom his love said, “We will run after the fragrance of your ointment.” [3] But let us see what is meant by this. The Father draws to the Son those who believe on the Son because they consider that God is his Father. For the Father begat the Son equal to himself. And those who think and believe truly and seriously that he on whom they believe is equal to the Father, these are the ones the Father draws to the Son. Arius believed the Son to be a creature; the Father did not draw [Arius]…. One whom the Father has drawn said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” [4] … And so was said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven.” [5] This revelation is itself the drawing…. For if earthly objects, when put before us, draw us… how much more shall Christ, when revealed by the Father? For what does the soul long for more than truth?… Here, we can more easily be hungered than satisfied, especially if we have good hope…. There, we shall be filled…. This is why he adds, “And I will raise him up at the last day,” as if he said, he shall be filled with that for which he now thirsts at the resurrection of the dead, for I will raise him up. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.4-6. [6]

[1] HE WORD IN THE BEGINNING | JOHN 1:1

[2] Lat trahit sua quemque voluptas (Virgil Eclogue 2.65).

[3] Song 1:3.

[4] Mt 16:16.

[5] Mt 16:17.

[6] NPNF 1 7:169-70**.

6:45 | All Shall Be Taught by God

THOSE UNWORTHY OF THE OFFICE

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: I was ashamed of all those others who… intrude into the most sacred offices and, before becoming worthy to approach the temples, lay claim to the sanctuary. [1] They push and thrust around the holy table as if they thought this order to be a means of livelihood instead of a pattern of virtue, or an absolute authority instead of a ministry of which we must give account. In fact they are almost more in number than those whom they govern…. Soon enough, as time and this evil alike progress, they will not even have anyone left to rule when all are teachers instead of taught by God, as the promise says, and all prophesy. [2] IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT TO PONTUS, ORATION 2.8. [3]

[1] The reference is to the priesthood.

[2] See also Num 11:29; 1 Cor 14:24.

[3] NPNF 2 7:206*.

FAITH CAN BE LEARNED ONLY FROM GOD

CHRYSOSTOM: He then shows the way in which the Father draws. “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’” [1] You see the excellence of faith: that it cannot be learned from people or by the teaching of people but only from God himself…. If then all shall be taught by God, how is it that some shall not believe? Because all here only means in general. Besides, the prophecy does not mean absolutely everyone but all who have the desire. For the Teacher sits ready to impart what he has to everyone and dispenses his truth to all. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 46.1. [2]

[1] Is 54:13.

[2] NPNF 1 14:164**.

NO ONE COMES IN ANY OTHER WAY

AUGUSTINE: Or think of it in this way. When a schoolmaster is the only one in a town, we say loosely, “This person teaches all here to read,” not that all learn from him but that he teaches all who do learn. And in the same way we say that God teaches all to come to Christ: not that all do come but that no one comes in any other way. PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 14. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 5:505**.

THE FATHER TAUGHT, THE SON SPOKE

AUGUSTINE: See then how the Father draws; not by laying a necessity on a person but by teaching the truth. See how he draws: “They shall all be taught by God.” To draw belongs to God: “Everyone who has heard and has learned of the Father comes to me.” What then? If every person who has heard and learned of the Father comes to Christ, has Christ taught nothing here? What if people saw not the Father teaching but the Son? So then, the Father taught and the Son spoke…. As I teach you by my word, [the Son says], so the Father teaches by his Word…. But the Son himself explains the matter, if we read on: “Not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God, he has seen the Father.”… This is as if he said: When I tell you, “Everyone that has heard and learned of the Father,” do not say to yourselves, We have never seen the Father, so how then can we have learned from him? Hear him then in me [Jesus]…. I know the Father and am from him, just as a word is from him who speaks it; that is, not the mere passing sound but that which remains with the speaker and draws the hearer. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.7-9. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:170-71**.

6:46 | Only He Who Is from God Has Seen God

ONLY MEMBERS OF THE GODHEAD FULLY SEE GOD

CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: The angels behold as much as they can bear, and archangels as much as they are able; and thrones and dominions more than the former, but still less than his worthiness. For with the Son, the Holy Spirit alone can rightly behold him. For “he searches all things and knows even the deep things of God,” [1] as indeed the only begotten Son also with the Holy Spirit knows the Father fully. “For neither,” he says, “does anyone know the Father, except the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” [2] For he [the Son] fully beholds and reveals God through the Spirit to each person as he is able to receive, since the only begotten Son together with the Holy Spirit is a partaker of the Father’s Godhead. He who was begotten knows him who begat. And he who begat knows him who is begotten. Since angels then are ignorant (for the Only Begotten reveals him through the Holy Spirit to each according to his own capacity, as we have said), let no one be ashamed to confess his ignorance. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 6.6. [3]

[1] 1 Cor 2:10.

[2] Mt 11:27.

[3] NPNF 2 7:34-35**.

6:47 | One Who Believes Has Eternal Life

LIFE KILLED DEATH

AUGUSTINE: Our Lord wishes to reveal what he was. He might have said that he who believes in me has me…. But what is it “to have me”? It is to have eternal life. Eternal life took death on itself; eternal life willed to die…. Life underwent death, that life might kill death…. For eternal life is the Word that “in the beginning was with God, and the Word was God, and the life was the light of humanity.” [1] The same eternal life gave eternal life also to the flesh that it assumed. He came to die; but on the third day he rose again. Between the Word taking flesh and the flesh rising again, death, which came between, was consumed. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.10. [2]

[1] See Jn 1:1-4.

[2] NPNF 1 7:171**.

6:48 | I Am the Bread of Life

SIN HAS ITS OWN SPECIAL BREAD TOO

ATHANASIUS: God by his living Word enlivens everyone and gives his Word as food and life to the saints, as the Lord declares, “I am the bread of life.”… But sin, too, has its own special bread—of death, calling to those who are lovers of pleasure and lack understanding. [Sin] says, “Touch with delight secret bread and sweet waters that are stolen.” [1] For one who merely touches them has no idea that what is born from the earth perishes with [sin]. For even when the sinner thinks he is going to find pleasure, the end result of that food is anything but pleasant, as the Wisdom of God again reminds us: “Bread of deceit is pleasant to a person; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” [2] … The end result is, he eats and rejoices for a little while, but afterwards he spurns it the further his soul has moved away [from God]. For the fool does not know that those who depart far from God shall perish. [3] … “Leave foolishness behind so that you may live, seek understanding so that you may remain.” [4] For the bread of Wisdom is living fruit, as the Lord said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever.” For when Israel ate of the manna, which was indeed pleasant and wonderful, they still died, and whoever ate it did not live forever as a consequence of eating it; rather, the whole multitude died in the wilderness….

Now wicked people hunger for bread like this, for weak souls will hunger. But the righteous alone, being prepared, shall be satisfied, saying, “I shall behold your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when your glory is seen by me.” [5] For he who partakes of divine bread always hungers with desire. And he who hungers in this way has a never-failing gift, as Wisdom promises, saying, “The Lord will not slay the righteous soul with famine.” [6] He promises too in the Psalms, “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.” [7] We may also hear our Savior saying, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” [8] It is much more satisfying then for the saints and those who love the life that is in Christ when they elevate themselves to a longing after this food. FESTAL LETTER 7.4-6. [9]

[1] Prov 9:17.

[2] Prov 20:17.He also cites Prov 5:3-4.

[3] He cites Jer 2:18; Prov 9:1-5, 6, 18.

[4] Prov 9:6.

[5] Ps 17:15 (16:15 LXX).

[6] Prov 10:3.

[7] Ps 132:15 (131:15 LXX).

[8] Mt 5:6.

[9] NPNF 2 4:525**; NPB 6 1:76.

KNEADING HIS BODY WITH OURS

CHRYSOSTOM: Those people then at the time of Jesus reaped no fruit from what was said. We, on the other hand, enjoy the benefit in seeing these things truly realized [in the present]. And so, it is necessary to understand the marvel of the mysteries: [1] what they are, why they were given and how they are profitable. We become one body and “members of his flesh and of his bones.” [2] Let the initiated follow what I say. In order then that we may become this not only by love, but in action, let us be blended into that flesh. This is effected by the food that he has freely given to us, desiring to show the love that he has for us. This is why he has mixed up himself with us. He has kneaded up his body with ours, so that we might be one distinct entity, like a body joined to a head. For this belongs to those whose love is strong…. This is also what Christ has done in order to lead us into a closer friendship and to show his love for us. He has allowed those who desire him not only to see him but even to touch, and eat him, and fix their teeth in his flesh and to embrace him and satisfy all their love. Let us then return from that table like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil, ruminating on our head and on the love that he has shown for us. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 46.3. [3]

[1] The sacrament.

[2] Eph 5:30.

[3] NPNF 1 14:166*.

THE BREAD OF LIFE DESTROYS CORRUPTION AND DEATH

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: [Jesus] at length reveals himself to the [children of Israel], saying, “I am the bread of life.” He does this so that they may now learn that if they want to get rid of the corruption that rules their lives and avoid the death that fell upon us because of sin, then they must draw near and participate in the only one who is strong enough to save them by destroying corruption and death. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.2. [1]

[1] LF 43:406**.

6:49 | Manna in the Wilderness

THE ADVANTAGE OF LIVING BREAD

AMBROSE: It has been proven that the sacraments of the church are more ancient; now realize that they are more powerful. In very fact it is a marvelous thing that God rained manna on the ancestors and they were fed by daily nourishment from heaven. Therefore, it is said, “Humankind has eaten the bread of angels.” [1] And yet all those who ate that bread died in the desert, but this food that you receive, this “living bread, which came down from heaven,” furnishes the substance of eternal life, and whoever eats this bread “will not die forever,” for it is the body of Christ. ON THE MYSTERIES 8.47. [2]

[1] Ps 78:25 (77:25 LXX). For a fuller discussion of the bread of angels, see Ambrose On Paradise 9.42 (FC 42:320-21).

[2] FC 44:22-23. See also Ambrose The Sacraments 4.5.24 (FC 44:305).

6:50 | The Bread from Heaven Brings Eternal Life

CHRIST IS THE BREAD OF THE SACRAMENT

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: There remained yet another act that would abolish that Passover and would become the Passover of the Gentiles, a source of life until the end. Our Lord Jesus took bread [1] in his hands, plain bread at the beginning, and blessed it, made the sign of the cross over it and sanctified it in the name of the Father and in the name of the Spirit, and he broke and distributed it in morsels to his disciples in his kindness. He called the bread his living body, and he filled it with himself and with his Spirit. He stretched forth his hand and gave them the bread that his right hand had sanctified: “Take, eat, all of you [2] of this bread that my word has sanctified. Do not regard as bread what I have given you now… eat it, and do not disdain its crumbs. For this bread that I have sanctified is my body. Its least crumb sanctifies thousands of thousands, and it is capable of giving life to all who eat it. Take, eat in faith, doubting not at all that this is my body. And he who eats it in faith eats in it fire and the Spirit. [3] If anyone doubts and eats it, it is plain bread to him. He who believes and eats the bread sanctified in my name, if he is pure, it will keep him pure; if he is a sinner, he will be forgiven. He, however, who despises it or spurns it, he may be sure that he is insulting the Son, who has called the bread his body and truly made it so. Receive of it, eat of it, all of you, and eat in it the Holy Spirit, for it is truly my body, and he who eats it will live forever. This is the heavenly bread that has come down from on high onto the earth. This is the bread that the Israelites ate in the wilderness and did not esteem. The manna that they gathered, which came down to them, was a figure of this spiritual bread that you have now received. Take and eat of it, all of you. In this bread you are eating my body. It is the true source of forgiveness. MEMRA FOR THE FIFTH DAY OF GREAT WEEK (HOLY THURSDAY), SERMON 4. [4]

[1] Mt 26:26.

[2] Mt 26:26.

[3] Mt 3:11.

[4] MFC 7:139-40.

WORTHILY EATING OF THE BODY

AUGUSTINE: But are we, who eat the bread that comes down from heaven, relieved from death? From visible and carnal death, the death of the body, we are not: we shall die, even as they died. But from spiritual death, which their fathers suffered, we are delivered. Moses and… many who were acceptable to God ate the manna and did not die because they understood that visible food in a spiritual sense, spiritually tasted it and were spiritually filled with it. And we too on this day receive the visible food. But the sacrament is one thing, the virtue of the sacrament another. Many a one receives from the altar and perishes in receiving; eating and drinking his own damnation, as the apostle said. [1] … To eat the heavenly bread spiritually then is to bring innocence to the altar. Though your sins are daily, at least let them not be deadly. Before you go to the altar, attend to the prayer you repeat, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” If you forgive, you are forgiven: approach confidently; it is bread, not poison…. None then that eat of this bread shall die. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.11-12. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 11:29.

[2] NPNF 1 7:171-72**.

THIS BREAD IS THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

AMBROSE: I [Jesus] was not speaking previously about temporal life or death. Even if someone dies such a death, if he has taken my bread he will live forever. For he who proves himself, takes it. [1] But he who takes it will not die the death of a sinner because this bread is the forgiveness of sins. ON THE PATRIARCHS 9.39. [2]

[1] See 1 Cor 11:28.

[2] FC 65:264*.

6:51a | The Living Bread from Heaven

THE PERFECT BREAD FROM HEAVEN

IRENAEUS: He might easily have come to us in his immortal glory, but in that case we could never have endured the greatness of the glory. Therefore it happened that he, who was the perfect bread of the Father, offered himself to us as milk, [because we were] like infants. He did this when he appeared as a man, that we, being nourished, as it were, from the breast of his flesh, and having, by such a course of milk-nourishment, become accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father. AGAINST HERESIES 4.38.1. [1]

[1] ANF 1:521*.

A NEW SPIRITUAL DIET

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: God elaborates on a suitable and wholesome new diet for the newly-formed and new-born babe. He says it consists of the one who nourishes and who is the Father of all that are generated and regenerated—just as manna, the celestial food of angels, flowed down from heaven on the ancient Hebrews… But when our kind and loving Father rained down the Word, he himself became spiritual nourishment to the good. This is a truly amazing mystery, because… this is the kind of diet the Lord administers: he offers his flesh and pours out his blood so that nothing is lacking for his children’s growth. This is almost too much to take in! And then we are to throw out the old and carnal corruption, our old diet, receiving in exchange a totally new diet—Christ himself as we ingest him for him to remain hidden there. Then, with our Savior enshrined in our souls, as it were, we can correct the affections of our flesh. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 1.6. [1]

[1] ANF 2:219-20*.

MANNA STILL RAINS DOWN FROM HEAVEN

AMBROSE: You asked me why the Lord God does not now rain down manna as he did on our ancestors’ people. If you reflect, you will realize that he does, even daily, rain down manna from heaven on his servants. In fact, a corporeal manna is found today in many places, but it is not now a matter of such great wonder, because what is perfect has come. [1] This is the Bread from heaven, the Body from a virgin, of which the gospel sufficiently tells us. How much more excellent this is than what went before! Those who ate that manna, or bread, are dead, but he who eats this Bread will live forever…. Whoever experiences this downpour of divine Wisdom is delighted, and, needing no other food, lives not on bread alone but on every word of God. [2] LETTER 77. [3]

[1] 1 Cor 13:10.

[2] Mt 4:4.

[3] FC 26:432*.

AS BEGGARS BEFORE GOD WE ASK FOR BREAD

AUGUSTINE: You are God’s beggar. I mean, we are all God’s beggars when we pray. We stand in front of the great householder’s gate. In fact we go so far as to prostrate ourselves, we whine and implore, wanting to receive something, and that something is God himself. What does the beggar ask from you? Bread. And you, what do you ask from God, if not Christ, who says, “I am the living bread who came down from heaven”? SERMON 83.2. [1]

[1] WSA 3 3:382.

MANY GRAINS JOINED TOGETHER

CYPRIAN: The body of the Lord cannot be flour alone or water alone, unless both are united and joined together and compacted in the mass of one bread. In this very sacrament our people are shown to be made one, so that as many grains, collected and ground and mixed together into one mass, make one bread, so also in Christ, who is the heavenly bread, we may know that there is one body with which our number is joined and united. LETTER 62.13. [1]

[1] ANF 5:362*. Augustine cites this same passage of Cyprian in On Baptism 7.50. See also the liturgy of the Reformed Dutch communion, which retains his imagery as well.

6:51b | The Bread Jesus Gives Is His Flesh

THE FLESH HE GIVES IS LIFE BECAUSE IT TRANSFORMS OUR FLESH

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: I die (he says) for all, that I may quicken all by myself. And I made my flesh a ransom for the flesh of all. For death shall die in my death, and with me shall rise again (he says) the fallen nature of humankind. This is why I became like you, that is, human and of the seed of Abraham, so that I might be made like in all things to my brothers. [1] … For there was no other way for the power of death to be destroyed, as well as death itself, unless Christ gave himself for us as a ransom, one for all, for he was in behalf of all….

Christ therefore gave his own body for the life of all, and again through that body he makes life to dwell in us. Now I will try to tell you how. For since the life-giving Word of God indwelt in the flesh, he transformed it into his own proper good, that is, life, and by the unspeakable character of this union, coming wholly together with it, rendered it life-giving as he himself is by nature. Wherefore the body of Christ gives life to all who partake of it. For it expels death when it comes to be in dying people, and [it] removes corruption, perfectly full, in itself, of the Word which abolishes corruption. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.2. [2]

[1] Heb 2:17.

[2] LF 43:409-10**.