ACC ~ John 6 v52 - 59
OVERVIEW:
Incredulous, the Jews ask how Christ could give them his flesh to eat. Our senses too may struggle to understand Jesus’ words, but then let faith confirm that we do indeed receive Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM). It is the medicine of immortality (IGNATIUS), which benefits those in faith. The eternal flesh of Christ is life-giving because the enfleshed Word is present in it (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA), along with the Spirit (PHILOXENUS). This bread is both earthly and heavenly, joining our earthly flesh to divine flesh (APOLLINARIS) when we eat it, thus giving us eternal life (IRENAEUS).
Jesus wants us to know that this is not just a parable or enigmatic saying he has delivered, but that we must really eat the body of Christ (CHRYSOSTOM). This real eating also provides real satisfaction (AUGUSTINE). We are in God and he is in us when we partake of his true flesh and blood in the sacrament (HILARY). Just as two pieces of wax become one when joined, in the same way, the one who receives the flesh of Christ becomes one with him as we eat and drink life (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).
Christ, as the living image of the Father, says he lives because of the Father (HILARY). He is not saying he is dependent on the Father, so much as that he has his essence from the Father beyond all time and beyond all cause (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS). When he goes on to say that we eat him, this sounds strange; but when we eat Christ we are eating life because he is life (AUGUSTINE). We live in Christ because our nature is united to his nature in this eating (HILARY) by which he gives us not only life but also eternal life. Our Lord knew how precious life was in our eyes and so repeats this promise of life often in his Word (CHRYSOSTOM) and in the sacrament, which gives us the heavenly bread of immortality (ROMANUS).
6:52 | How Can This Man Give Us His Flesh to Eat?
LET FAITH CONFIRM YOU
CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: Failing to understand his words spiritually, [the Jews] were offended and drew back, thinking that the Savior was urging them to cannibalism. Then again in the old covenant there was the showbread. But that, since it belonged to the old covenant, has come to an end. In the new covenant there are the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, which sanctify body and soul. For as bread corresponds to the body, so the Word is appropriate to the soul. So do not think of them as mere bread and wine. In accordance with the Lord’s declaration, they are body and blood. And if our senses suggests otherwise, let faith confirm you. Do not judge the issue on the basis of taste, but on the basis of faith be assured beyond all doubt that you have been allowed to receive the body and blood of Christ. MYSTAGOGICAL LECTURES 4.4-6. [1]
[1] DECT 188-89*; SC 126:139.
6:53 | No Life Without the Flesh and Blood of the Son of Man
THE MEDICINE OF IMMORTALITY
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH: Come together in common one and all without exception in charity, in one faith and in one Jesus Christ, who is of the race of David according to the flesh, the Son of man and Son of God… and break one bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 20. [1]
[1] FC 1:95. See also Justin Martyr Apology 1.65-67.
THE MYSTERY IS REVEALED TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: How he will give them his flesh to eat he does not yet tell them, for he knew they were in darkness and would never in that state be able to understand what is ineffable…. But the power of learning suitably follows on those who believe…. It was therefore right that faith should first be rooted in them before understanding…. And it is for this reason (I suppose) that the Lord refrained from telling them how he would give them his flesh to eat, calling them to believe before they seek. For those who believed, however, he broke bread and gave it to them, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” [1] … Do you see how he does not explain the mystery to those who had senselessly rejected the faith without investigation? But, to those who believe, he declares it most clearly. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.2. [2]
[1] Mt 26:26.
[2] LF 43:417-18**. See also Augustine Sermon 228B.3 (WSA 3 6:262).
6:54 | Jesus’ Flesh and Blood Are for Eternal Life
THE ENFLESHED WORD IS LIFE
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Whoever eats the holy flesh of Christ has eternal life because his flesh has the Word which by nature is life. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.2. [1]
[1] LF 43:420-21*.
WITHIN THE ONE WHO PARTAKES
PHILOXENUS OF MABBUG: Now, in as much as a sinner receives our Lord’s body and blood in faith, he is in our Lord, and our Lord is in him, as our Lord himself says. Where the Lord dwells, there is his Spirit too. ON THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. [1]
[1] CS 101:125*. Theodore of Heraclea Fragments on John 38 (JKGK 75) speaks allegorically of the proclamation of the gospel as the flesh that is seen by all, but the blood is the true understanding of the gospel that is hidden like veins and capillaries under the flesh of the proclamation.
JOINED TO ALL FLESH, HE GIVES LIFE
APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: One cannot benefit from the Word of God for eternal life, except through his flesh. For until he was joined to the flesh, all flesh was held under the power of death. But now his life-giving flesh has been given. It nourishes the whole human race to life through the power suspended in it and joined in likeness to those who share the same physical nature. FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 28. [1]
[1] JKGK 13.
EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY BREAD
IRENAEUS: For we offer to him his own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For as the bread that is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies when they receive the Eucharist are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity. AGAINST HERESIES 4.18.5. [1]
[1] ANF 1:486.See also Against Heresies 5.2.2-3.
6:55 | True Food and Drink
REAL EATING
CHRYSOSTOM: Either he means to say that the true food was he who saved the soul. Or, he means to assure them that what he had said was no mere enigma or parable but that you must really eat the body of Christ. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 47.1. [1]
[1] NPNF 1 14:168*.
REAL SATISFACTION
AUGUSTINE: Or think of it this way: Whereas people desire meat and drink to satisfy hunger and thirst, real satisfaction is produced only by that meat and drink that make the receivers of it immortal and incorruptible. He’s talking here about the fellowship of the saints where there is peace and unity, full and perfect. Therefore… our Lord has chosen for the types of his body and blood things that become one out of many. Bread is a quantity of grains united into one mass, wine a quantity of grapes squeezed together. Then he explains what it is to eat his body and drink his blood: “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him.” So then to partake of that meat and that drink is to dwell in Christ and Christ in you. Whoever does not dwell in Christ, and in whom Christ does not dwell, neither eats his flesh nor drinks his blood; rather, he eats and drinks the sacrament of it to his own damnation. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.17-18. [1]
[1] NPNF 1 7:173**.
WE ARE ONE, BECAUSE THE FATHER IS IN CHRIST AND CHRIST IN US
HILARY OF POITIERS: If in truth the Word has been made flesh and we in very truth receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that he abides in us naturally? [Jesus], born as a man, has assumed the nature of our flesh now inseparable from himself and has joined together the nature of his own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which his flesh is communicated to us. For in this way we are all one because the Father is in Christ and Christ is in us…. And so, if indeed Christ has taken to himself the flesh of our body, and that man who was born from Mary was indeed Christ, and we indeed receive in a mystery the flesh of his body—and because of this we shall be one, because the Father is in him and he in us—how can a unity of will be maintained, seeing that the special property of nature received through the sacrament is the sacrament of a perfect unity?…
As to what we say concerning the reality of Christ’s nature within us, unless we have been taught by him our words are foolish and impious. For he says himself, “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” As to the verity of the flesh and blood there is no room left for doubt. For now, both from the declaration of the Lord himself and our own faith, it is truly flesh and truly blood. And these when eaten and drunk enable both that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Yet those who affirm that Christ Jesus is not truly God are welcome to find it false. He therefore himself is in us through the flesh and we are in him, while together with him our own selves are in God. ON THE TRINITY 8.13-14. [1]
[1] NPNF 2 9:141*. See also Ambrose On the Mysteries 6.1.1.
6:56 | Jesus’ Flesh and Blood Unite Us
ONE WITH CHRIST
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: If one joins two pieces of wax, one will see that one has become part of the other. In a similar manner, I suppose, the person who receives the flesh of our Savior Christ and drinks his precious blood … shall be one with him. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.2. [1]
[1] LF 43:422**.
EAT AND DRINK OF THE ONE WHO IS LIFE
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: O sublime condescension! The Creator gives himself to his creatures for their delight. Life bestows itself on mortals as food and drink. “Come, eat my body,” he exhorts us, “and drink the wine I have mingled for you. I have prepared myself as food. I have mingled myself for those who desire me. Of my own will I became flesh and have become a partaker of your flesh and blood…. Eat of me as I am life, and live, for this is what I desire…. Eat my bread, for I am the life-giving grain of the wheat, and I am the bread of life. Drink the wine I have mingled for you, for I am the draught of immortality…. I am the true vine; [1] drink my joy, the wine that I have mingled for you. [2] MEDITATION ON THE MYSTICAL SUPPER 10. [3]
[1] Jn 15:1.
[2] Prov 9:5.
[3] SSGF 3:155-57**; PG 77:1017D, 1020C, 1021A.
6:57 | The Living Father Sent Christ
CHRIST IS THE LIVING IMAGE OF THE LIVING
HILARY OF POITIERS: Can lifeless copies be put on a level with their living originals? Can painted or carved or molten effigies be put on a level with the nature that they imitate? The Son is not the image of the Father after such a fashion as this; he is the living image of the Living. The Son who is born of the Father has a nature in no way different from his. And, because his nature is not different, he possesses the power of the nature that is the same as his own. The fact that he is the image proves that God the Father is the author of the birth of the Only Begotten, who is himself revealed as the likeness and image of the invisible God. And hence the likeness, which is joined in union with the divine nature, is indelibly his own because the powers of that nature are inalienably his own. ON THE TRINITY 7.37. [1]
[1] NPNF 2 9:134*.
THE SHARED BEING OF THE FATHER AND THE SON
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: All things that the Father has are the Son’s. [1] On the other hand, all that belongs to the Son is the Father’s. Nothing then is unique to either one, because all things are in common. For their being [essence] itself is common and equal, even though the Son receives it from the Father. It is in this respect… that it is said, “I live by the Father,” not as though his life and being were kept together by the Father but because he has his being from him beyond all time and beyond all cause. ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4(30).11. [2]
[1] Jn 16:15.
[2] NPNF 2 7:313. Basil solves the dilemma differently in Against Eunomius 4 (NPNF 2 8:xxxviii; PG 29:693-96) by inferring that the words must be referring to the incarnation, and not to the Godhead.
TO EAT CHRIST?
AUGUSTINE: The Lord and master was inviting his slaves, and the food he had prepared for them was himself. Who would ever dare to eat his own Lord and master? And yet he said, “Whoever eats me lives because of me.” When Christ is eaten, life is eaten. Nor is he killed in order to be eaten, but he brings life to the dead. When he is eaten, he nourishes without diminishing. So do not be afraid, brothers and sisters, of eating this bread, in case we should possibly finish it and find nothing to eat later on. Let Christ be eaten; when eaten he lives because when slain he rose again. SERMON 132A.1. [1]
[1] WSA 3 4:329*.
CHRIST HAS THE FATHER WITHIN HIMSELF
HILARY OF POITIERS: So then he lives through the Father, and just as he lives through the Father we live through his flesh. For all comparison is chosen to shape our understanding so that we may grasp the subject we are treating with the help of the analogy set before us. Christ dwelling within our carnal selves through the flesh is the reason we have life, and we shall live through him in the same way as he lives through the Father. If, then, we live naturally through him according to the flesh, that is, if we have partaken of the nature of his flesh, must not Christ naturally have the Father within himself according to the Spirit since he himself lives through the Father? And he lives through the Father because his birth has not implanted in him an alien and different nature. This is because his very being is from the Father yet is not divided from the Father by any barrier of an unlikeness of nature because within himself he has the Father through the birth in the power of the nature. ON THE TRINITY 8.16. [1]
[1] NPNF 2 9:142**. See also Ambrose On the Christian Faith 4.10.135.
NOT ONLY LIFE, BUT ETERNAL LIFE
CHRYSOSTOM: The “life” of which he speaks here is not merely life but the excellent [1] life. For it is clear from this that he spoke not simply of life but of that glorious and ineffable life. For everyone lives, even unbelievers and the uninitiated who do not eat of that flesh…. And he is not speaking of the general resurrection either (for all alike rise again), but he is speaking of that special, glorious resurrection that has a reward. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 47.1. [2]
[1] Gk eudokimon.
[2] NPNF 1 14:168**.
6:58-59 | Eat This Bread and Live Forever
LENGTH OF LIFE VERSUS LIFE WITHOUT END
CHRYSOSTOM: If it was possible without harvest or fruit of the earth, or any such thing, to preserve the lives of the Israelites of old for forty years, much more will he be able to do this, having come for a greater purpose…. He knew how precious a thing life was in people’s eyes, and therefore he repeats his promise of life often, just as the Old Testament had done. But the Old Testament only offered long life, whereas he offers life without end. This promise was an abolition of that sentence of death that sin had brought on us…. He said these things in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum, where many displays of his power took place…. He taught in the synagogue and in the temple, with the intention of attracting the multitude and as a sign that he was not acting in opposition to the Father. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 47.1-2. [1]
THE HEAVENLY BREAD OF IMMORTALITY
ROMANUS MELODUS:
All the angels on high marvel at the affairs of earth
For earth-born men dwelling here below
Are exalted in spirit and reach what is on high
As they share in Christ, crucified. [2]
For all together partake of His body,
As they eagerly come to the bread of life,
They hope for eternal salvation from it.
Even though visibly, to all appearances, it is bread
It sanctifies them spiritually because it is
The heavenly bread of immortality.
That the bread which we take is the flesh of the Immanuel,
The Master Himself was the first to teach us;
For when He voluntarily went to His Passion,
Christ broke the bread of salvation, [3]
And said to His apostles, as it is written:
“Now draw near; eat of this,
And eating, you will receive eternal life,
For this is my flesh, this food,
Since really, I whom you behold, am
The heavenly bread of immortality.
We all know, we who possess complete faith in Christ,
That as we approach, eager for the mystic bread
And in addition take the cup of salvation,
If we are of pure heart and without dissimulation
We are all participants of the flesh and blood
Of Christ with faith in Him, and we hope
From this a life like that of the angels;
For, in very truth, the body of the One who suffered,
The very holy body of Jesus Christ is
The heavenly bread of immortality.
KONTAKION ON THE MULTIPLICATION OF LOAVES 13.1-3. [4]
[1] NPNF 1 14:169**.
[2] Heb 3:14.
[3] Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-25.
[4] KRBM 1:129-30.