Victor R. Claveau, MJ
John 6:51-58—Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition[1]
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”
“In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord meets us, men and women created in God’s image and likeness, and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free, Christ becomes for us the food of truth.”(Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, #2)
It is the Solemn Teaching of the Catholic Church that in the Blessed Eucharist Christ Himself – His Body and Blood, His Soul and Divinity – is really, truly, and substantially, contained in the species (accidents, appearances) of bread and wine; that His presence is affected by transubstantiation, i.e., by a change of the substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; that He is wholly present both under the species of bread and under the species of wine; that when the sacred species of the bread or the wine are divided, He is wholly present in each part or division; that the Real Presence begins, the instant the consecration is completed; that it is not restricted to the moment in which the Blessed Eucharist is being consumed; that it continues in the hosts that may be reserved after Holy Communion has been given; and that Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is to be worshipped with the supreme worship due to God alone.[2]
John 6:51a: The Living Bread from Heaven
Aphraates The Persian Sage
They Condemned Him
“But the Lord was not yet arrested. After having spoken thus, the Lord rose up from the place where He had made the Passover and had given His Body as food and His Blood as drink, and He went with His disciples to the place where He was to be arrested. But he ate of His own Body and drank of His own Blood, while He was pondering on the dead. With His own hands the Lord presented His own Body to be eaten, and before he was crucified, He gave His blood as drink; and He was taken at night on the fourteenth, and was judged until the sixth hour; and at the sixth hour they condemned Him and raised Him on the cross.” (Treatises 12.6).
Macarius Magnes
Bread and Wine from the Earth
“[Christ] took the bread and the cup, each in a similar fashion, and said: ‘This is My Body and this is My Blood.’ Not a figure of His body nor a figure of His blood, as some persons of petrified mind are wont to rhapsodize, but in truth the Body and the Blood of Christ, seeing that His body is from the earth, and the bread and wine are likewise from the earth.” (Apocriticus 3,23).
Saint Ambrose of Milan
Redeeming the People
“Before it be consecrated it is bread; but where the words of Christ come in, it is the Body of Christ. Finally, hear him saying: ‘All of you take and eat of this; for this is My Body.’ And before the words of Christ the chalice is full of wine and water; but where the words of Christ have been operative it is made the Blood of Christ, which redeems the people.” (The Sacraments 4.5.23).
Saint Augustine of Hippo
How is it Possible for a Man to Carry Himself?
“’And he was carried in his own hands.’ But, brethren, how is it possible for a man to do this? Who can understand it? Who is it that is carried in his own hands? A man can be carried in the hands of another; but no one can be carried in his own hands. How this should be understood literally of David, we cannot discover; but we can discover how it is meant of Christ. For Christ was carried in his own hands, when, referring to his own Body, he said, ‘This is My Body.’ For He carried that Body in his hands.” (Psalm 33.1.10).
Saint Basil the Great
Question and Answer
“Question: What is the fear with which the Body and Blood of Christ are to be received by us? A kind of certainty, or a kind of feeling?
Answer: The Apostle teaches us this fear when he says, ‘Anyone who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment upon himself.’ Certainty is effected by faith in the words of the Lord, when he says, ‘This is my Body, which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me.’” (Rules Briefly Treated 172).
Saint Caesarius of Arles
The Healing Eucharist
“As often as some infirmity overtakes a man, let him who is ill receive the Body and Blood of Christ.” (Sermons 13 (265), 3).
Saint Clement of Alexandria
A New Spiritual Diet
“God elaborates on a suitable and wholesome new diet for the newly-formed and newborn 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)
A Praiseworthy and Excellent Gift
“The Bread of the Lord, indeed is two-fold. There is His corporeal Blood, by which we are redeemed from corruption; and His spiritual Blood, that with which we are anointed. That is to say, to drink the Blood of Jesus Christ is to share in his immortality. The strength of the Word is the Spirit, just as the blood is the strength of the body. Similarly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with man. The one, the Watered Wine, nourishes in faith, while the other, the Spirit, leads us on to immortality. The union of both, however, — of the drink and of the Word — is called the Eucharist, a praiseworthy and excellent gift. Those who partake of it in faith are sanctified in body and in soul. By the will of the Father, the divine mixture, man, is mystically united to the Spirit and in the Word.” (The Instructor of Children 2.2.19.4).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
By Some Secret
“He states demonstratively: ‘This is My Body,’ and ‘This is my Blood.’ Lest you might suppose the things that are seen are a figure. Rather, by some secret of the all-powerful God the things seen are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, truly offered in a sacrifice which we, as participants, receive the life-giving and sanctifying power of Christ.” (Commentary on Matthew 26:27).
Sufficient to Sanctify Thousands
“Our Lord Jesus took in His hands what in the beginning was only bread; and He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy in the name of the Father and in the name of the Spirit; and He broke it and in His gracious kindness He distributed it to all His disciples one by one. He called the bread His living Body, and did Himself fill it with Himself and the Spirit., And extending His hand, He gave them the Bread which His right hand had made holy: ‘Take, all of you eat of this; which My word has made holy. Do not now regard as bread that which I have given you; but take, eat this Bread, and do not scatter the crumbs; for what I have called My Body, that it is indeed. One particle from its crumbs is able to sanctify thousands and thousands, and is sufficient to afford life to those who eat of it. Take, eat, entertaining no doubt of faith, because this is My Body, and whoever eats it in belief eats in it Fire and Spirit. But if any doubter eat of it, for him it will be only bread. And whoever eats in belief the Bread made holy in My name, if he be pure, he will be preserved in his purity; and if he be a sinner, he will be forgiven.’ But if anyone despise it or reject it or treat it with ignominy, it may be taken as certainty that he treats with ignominy the Son, who called it and actually made it to be His Body.” (Homilies 4.4).
A Covenant New and Old
“After the disciples had eaten the new and holy Bread, and when they understood by faith that they had eaten of Christ’s body, Christ went on to explain and to give them the whole Sacrament. He took and mixed a cup of wine. The He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy, declaring that it was His own Blood, which was about to be poured out…. Christ commanded them to drink, and He explained to them that the cup which they were drinking was His own Blood: ‘This is truly My Blood, which is shed for all of you. Take, all of you, drink of this, because it is a new covenant in My Blood. As you have seen Me do, do you also in My memory. Whenever you are gathered together in My name in Churches everywhere, do what I have done, in memory of Me. Eat My Body, and drink My Blood, a covenant new and old.” (Homilies 4.6)
The Sweet Unguent
“‘And your floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow equally with wine and oil.’ … This has been fulfilled mystically by Christ, who gave to the people whom He had redeemed, that is, to His Church, wheat and wine and oil in a mystic manner. For the wheat is the mystery of His sacred Body; and the wine His saving Blood; and again, the oil is the sweet unguent with which those who are baptized are signed, being clothed in the armaments of the Holy Spirit.” (On Joel 2:24).
This is Really Me
“We see that the Savior took [something] in His hands, as it is in the Gospel, when He was reclining at the supper; and He took this, and giving thanks, He said: ‘This is really Me.’ And He gave to His disciples and said: ‘This is really Me.’ And we see that It is not equal nor similar, not to the incarnate image, not to the invisible divinity, not to the outline of His limbs. For It is round of shape, and devoid of feeling. As to Its power, He means to say even of Its grace, ‘This is really Me.’; and none disbelieves His word. For anyone who does not believe the truth in what He says is deprived of grace and of a Savior.” (The Man Well-Anchored 57).
Saint Irenaeus
The Perfect Bread from Heaven
“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; and therefore, it was that He, who was the perfect bread of the Father, offered Himself to us as milk, [because we were] as 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, Book IV, Chapter 38.1)
He Confessed
“Again, giving counsel to His disciples to offer to God the first-fruits from among his creatures, not as if he needed them, but so that they themselves might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. He took from among creation that which is bread, and gave thanks, saying, ‘This is My Body.’ The cup likewise, which is from among the creation to which we belong, he confessed to be his Blood.”
(Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 4.17.5)
Thanksgiving
“For thanksgiving is consistent with our opinion; and the Eucharist confirms our opinion. For we offer to Him those things which are his, declaring in a fit manner the gift and the acceptance of flesh and spirit. For as the bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two elements, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible but have the hope of resurrection into eternity.” (Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 4.18.4)
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
One Body
“Thus the cup of the Lord is not indeed water alone, nor wine alone, unless each be mingled with the other; just as, on the other hand, the body of the Lord cannot be flour alone or water alone, unless both should be united and joined together and compacted in the mass of one bread; in which very sacrament our people are shown to be made one, so that in like manner as many grains, collected, and ground, and mixed together into one mass, make one bread; so in Christ, who is the heavenly bread, we may know that there is one body, with which our number is joined and united.” (Epistle 62,13).
Saint John Chrysostom
Power and Grace are from God
“It is not the power of man which makes what is put before us the Body and Blood of Christ, but the power of Christ Himself who was crucified for us. The priest standing there in the place of Christ says these words but their power and grace are from God. ‘This is My Body,’ he says, and these words transform what lies before him.” (Homilies on the Treachery of Judas 1,6).
Eyes of the Mind
“When the word says, ‘This is My Body,’ be convinced of it and believe it, and look at it with the eyes of the mind. For Christ did not give us something tangible, but even in His tangible things all is intellectual.” (Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 82.4)
Saint John Damascene
Perish the Thought!
“For those who partake worthily and have faith, it is for the remission of sin and for life everlasting, and a safeguard to soul and body….The Bread and the Wine are not a type of the Body and Blood of Christ,—perish the thought!—but the deified Body Itself of the Lord, since the Lord himself has said: ‘This is My Body,’ He did not say a type of His Body, but His Body; not a type of His Blood, but His Blood….If some have called the bread and wine antitypes of the Body and Blood of the Lord, as does the divinely inspired Basil, they said this not after the consecration but before the consecration, giving this name to the offering itself.” (The Source of Knowledge 3.4.13).
Saint Serapion of Antioch
Accept the thanksgiving of Your people
“‘Holy, holy, holy Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth is full of Your glory.’ Heaven is full, and full is the earth with your magnificent glory, Lord of Virtues. Full also is this Sacrifice, with your strength and your communion; for to You we offer this living Sacrifice, this unbloody oblation.,
To you we offer this bread, the likeness of the Body of the Only-begotten. This bread is the likeness of His holy Body because the Lord Jesus Christ, on the night on which He was betrayed, took bread and broke it and gave to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat, this is My Body, which is being broken for you, unto the remission of sins.’ On this account too do we offer the Bread, to bring ourselves into the likeness of His death; and we pray: Reconcile us all, O God of truth, and be gracious to us. And just as this Bread was scattered over the mountains and when collected was made one, so too gather Your holy Church from every nation and every country and every city and village and house and make it one living Catholic Church.,
We offer also the cup, the likeness of His Blood, because the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup after He had eaten, and He said to His disciples, ‘Take, drink, this is the new covenant, which is My Blood which is being poured out for you unto the remission of sins.’ For this reason too we offer the chalice, to benefit ourselves by the likeness of His Blood. O God of truth, may Your Holy Logos come upon this Bread, that the Bread may become the Body of the Logos, and on this Cup, that the Cup may become the Blood of the Truth. And make all who communicate receive the remedy of life, to cure every illness and to strengthen every progress and virtue; not unto condemnation, O God of truth, nor unto disgrace and reproach!
For we invoke You, the Increate, through Your Only-begotten in the Holy Spirit. Be merciful to this people, sent for the destruction of evil and for the security of Your Church. We beseech You also on behalf of all the departed, of whom also this is the commemoration: – after the mentioning of their names: – Sanctify these souls, for You know them all; sanctify all who have fallen asleep in the Lord and count them among the ranks of Your saints and give them a place and abode in your kingdom. Accept also the thanksgiving of Your people and bless those who offer the oblations and the Thanksgivings, and bestow health and integrity and festivity and every progress of soul and body on the whole of this Your people through your Only-begotten Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, as it was and is and will be in generations of generations and unto the whole expanse of the ages of ages. Amen.” (The Sacramentary of Serapion, Prayer of the Eucharistic Sacrifice 13.3-5).
Tertullian
Our Daily Bread
“Nevertheless, we had rather understand give us this day our daily bread in a spiritual sense, For Christ is our Bread, because Christ is Life, and bread is life. ‘I am,’ He said, “the Bread of Life;’ and shortly before: The Bread is the Word of the Living God, which comes down from heaven,’ And then, that His Body is included in the term bread: ‘This is my Body.’ In asking, therefore, for our daily bread, repetition for continued existence in Christ and indivisibility from his body.” (Prayer 6.2).
Theodore of Mopsuestia
Symbol or Reality?
“When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my blood,’ but, ‘This is my blood’; for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord. We ought . . . not regard [the elements] merely as bread and cup, but as the body and blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit” (Catechetical Homilies 5:1).
“We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his holy flesh and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it . . . but as truly the life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself.” (Session 1, Letter of Cyril to Nestorius).
John 6:51b: The Bread Jesus Gives Us is His Flesh
Saint Ambrose
Manna Still Rains Down from Heaven
“You asked me why the Lord God does not now rain down manna as He did on our fathers’ people. If you reflect, you will realize that He does, even daily, rain down manna from heaven upon 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 that which is perfect has come. That which is perfect is the Bread from heaven, the Body from a virgin, of which the Gospel tells us with sufficiency. 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.”
(Letter 77, Ambrose to Irenaeus.)
Transformation
‘My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink’ (Jn. 6:56). You hear Him speak of His Flesh and of His Blood, you perceive the sacred pledges (conveying to us the merits and power) of the Lord’s death, and you dishonor His Godhead? Hear His own words: ‘A spirit has not flesh and bones’ (Lk. 24:39). Now we, as often as we receive the Sacramental Elements, which by the mysterious efficacy of holy prayer are transformed into the Flesh and the Blood,’ ‘do show the Lord’s Death’ (1 Cor. 11:26). (To Gratian, On the Christian Faith, Bk. 4, Ch. 10.)
Saint Augustine of Hippo
As Beggars Before God We Ask for Bread
“You are God’s beggar. I mean, we are all God’s beggars when we pray. We are standing at the door of a great householder, or rather, lying prostrate, and begging with tears. We are longing to receive a gift—the gift of God himself. What does a beggar ask of you? Bread. And you, what do you ask of God, if not Christ, who said: ‘I am the living bread that has come down from heaven?’” (Sermon 83.2).
We Though Many, are One Body
“You ought to know what you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily. That Bread which you see on the altar, consecrated by the word of God, is the Body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what the chalice holds, consecrated by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ. Through those accidents the Lord wished to entrust to us His Body and the Blood which He poured out for the remission of sins. If you have received worthily, you are what you have received, for the Apostle says: The bread is one; we though many, are one body’ (1 Cor. 10:17). Thus, he explained the Sacrament of the Lord’s Table: ‘The bread is one; we though many, are one body: So by bread you are instructed as to how you ought to cherish unity. Was that bread made of one grain of wheat? Were there not, rather, many grains? However, before they became bread, these grains were separate; they were joined together in water after a certain amount of crushing.’” (Sermon, No. 227).
Crucified for Us
“’Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man,’ Christ says, ‘and drink Hisblood’, you have no life in you’ (Jn. 6:54). This seems to enjoin a crime or a vice; it is therefore a figure, enjoining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our Lord, and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded and crucified for us”. (On Christian Doctrine, Bk. 3, Ch. 16).
The Flesh He Gives is Life Because It Transforms Our Flesh
“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 man. For this became I like to you, man (that is) and of the seed of Abraham, that I might be made like in all things unto my brethren…. For no otherwise was it possible that he that hath the power of death should be destroyed, and death itself also, had not Christ given himself for us, a ransom, one for all, for he was in behalf of all.… But that Christ gave his own flesh for the life of the world, we shall know by his words also, for he says, ‘Holy Father keep them’; and again, ‘For their sakes I sanctify myself.’ He here says that he sanctifies himself, not aiding himself unto sanctification for the purification of the soul or spirit (as it is understood of us), nor yet for the participation of the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit was in him by nature, and he was and is holy always, and will be so ever.…Wherefore the Body of Christ gives life to all who partake of It. For it expels death, when it comes to be in dying men, and removes corruption, full in itself perfectly of the Word which abolishes corruption.” (Commentary on the Gospel of John 4.2)
John 6:52: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Saint Augustine of Hippo
We are Many
“’My flesh,’ he says, ‘is for the life of the world.’ Believers know the Body of Christ if they do not neglect to be the Body of Christ. They can become the Body of Christ if they will live by the spirit of Christ. None lives by the spirit of Christ except the Body of Christ…The Body of Christ cannot live except by the spirit of Christ. That is why the Apostle Paul, explaining this bread, says, ‘One Bread and one Body, we are many.’ O Sacrament of piety! O sign of unity! O Bread of love! Anyone who wants to live has both where to live and whence to live. Let him draw near, let him believe, let him be embolden, that he may be made to live.” (Homilies on John 26-13).
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
The Medicine of Immortality
“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).
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
They Were Scandalized
“Once when Christ was discoursing with the Jews, he said, ‘If you do not eat my Flesh and drink my Blood, you do not have life in you.’ Not hearing his words in a spiritual way, they were scandalized and went away to the hinterland believing that He had them to the eating of flesh.” (Catechetical Lectures, 22 Mystagogic 4.6).
Let Faith Confirm You
“Failing to understand his words spiritually, many [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 is 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 suggest otherwise, let faith confirm you. Do not judge on the issue 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)
6:53 No Life Without the Flesh and Blood of the Son of Man
The Mystery is Revealed to Those Who Believe
For this cause (I suppose) did the Lord with reason refrain from telling them how He would give them His Flesh to eat, and calls them to the duty of believing before seeking. For to them that had at length believed He broke bread, and gave to them, saying, Take, eat, This is My Body… 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)
6:54 Jesus’ Flesh and Blood Are for Eternal Life
Apollinaris of Laodicea
Nourishment for the Whole Human Race
“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),
Within the One Who Partakes
“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)
Saint Augustine of Hippo
A Treasured Remembrance
“If a preceptive statement [in the Scriptures] forbids either vice or crime, or commands what is either useful or beneficial, it is not figurative. ‘Unless,” he says, ‘you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.’ It seems to command crime or vice; therefore, it is a figure, prescribing that there be communication in the Lord’s passion and a grateful and salutary treasured remembrance that His flesh was crucified and wounded for us.” (Christian Instruction 3.16.24).
If You Do Not Eat
“Will anyone dare to make this statement, [‘Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood you shall not have life in you’], does not pertain to infants, and that without participating in his Body and Blood they can have life in themselves, on the grounds that he does not say: ‘Whoever does not eat,’ as when he says about Baptism: ‘Whoever is not reborn,’ but says instead; ‘If you do not eat,’ as if he were speaking to those who could hear and understand Him, which, of course, infants cannot do? But anyone who says this is not attentive of the fact that unless the statement embrace all, so that without the Body and Blood of the Son of Man they cannot have life, it is in vain even for those of more advanced years to be concerned about it.” (Forgiveness and the Just Deserts of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants 1.20.27).
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
Our Daily Bread
“As the prayer continues, we ask and say, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’…And we ask that this bread be given us daily, so that we who are in Christ and daily receive the Eucharist as the food of salvation, may not, by falling into some more grievous sin and then in abstaining from communicating, be withheld from the heavenly Bread, and be separated from Christ’s Body…. He himself warns us, saying, ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.’ Therefore do we ask that our Bread, which is Christ, be given to us daily, so that we who abide and live in Christ may not withdraw from his sanctification and from his Body.” (Treatise on the Lord’s Prayer 18).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
Nature is Life
“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).
Baptism is Necessary
“But that which Your Fraternity asserts the Pelagians preach, that even without the grace of Baptism infants are able to be endowed with the rewards of eternal life, is quite idiotic. For unless they shall have eaten the Flesh of the Son of Man and shall have drunk His Blood, they shall not have life in them. But those who defend this for them without rebirth seem to me to want to quash Baptism itself, when they preach that infants already have what is believed to be conferred on them only through Baptism.” (Letter of Pope Innocent I to the Fathers of the Council of Melevis; January 27, 417)
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon
Earthly and Heavenly Bread
“For we offer to him his own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For 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)’
Saint Jerome
The Two Ways
“The flesh and blood of Christ is understood in two ways; there is either the spiritual and divine way, by which He himself said: ‘My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink’; and ‘Unless you shall have eaten my flesh and drunk my blood you shall not have eternal life.’ Or else there is the flesh and blood which was crucified and which was poured out by the soldier’s lance.” (Commentaries on the Epistle to the Ephesians 1.1.7).
Saint Leo the Great
Amen
“When the Lord says: ‘Unless you shall have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man and shall have drunk his blood, you shall not have life in you,’ you ought to so communicate at the Sacred Table that you have no doubt whatever of the truth of the Body and Blood of Christ. For that which is taken in the mouth is what is believed in faith; and in vain do those respond, ‘Amen,’ who argue against that which is received.” (Sermon 91.3).
6:55 True Food and Drink
Saint Athanasius
There is Only Bread and Wine
“You shall see the Levites bringing loaves and a cup of wine, and placing them on the table. So long as the prayers of supplication and entreaties have not been made, there is only bread and wine. But after the great and wonderful prayers have been completed, then the bread is become the Body, and the wine the Blood, of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Sermon to the Newly Baptized).
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Real Satisfaction
“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, which 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 became 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 to 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 to drink 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 [spiritually] nor drinks his blood; rather, he eats and drinks the sacrament of it to his own judgement.” (Tractate on the Gospel of John 26.17-18).
Saint Basil the Great
Daily Communication
“To communicate each day and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ is good and beneficial; for He says quite plainly: ‘He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life.’ Who can doubt that to share continually in life is the same thing as having life abundantly?” (Letter of Basil to a Patrician Lady Caesaria, ca. 372).
Saint Clement of Alexandria
The Incredible Mystery
“She is at once Virgin and Mother: as a Virgin undefiled; as a Mother full of love.
Calling her children about her, she nourishes them with holy milk, that is, with the Infant Word… The Word is everything for a child: both Father and Mother, both Instructor and Nurse. ‘Eat my flesh,’ He says, ‘and drink My Blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutriments. He delivers over his Flesh, and pours out his Blood; and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children. O incredible mystery!” (The Instructor of Children 1.6.41.3).
Pomp of the Devil
“For just as the bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the Body of Christ and the wine the Blood of Christ, so that in the same way such foods belonging to the pomp of Satan, though in their own nature simple, become profane by the invoking of demons.”
(Catechetical Lectures 19 Mystagogic 1.7).
Who Will Dare Any Longer To Doubt?
The one teaching of the blessed Paul is enough to give you complete certainty about the Divine Mysteries, by your having been deemed worthy of which, you have become united in body and blood with Christ. For Paul proclaimed that: ‘On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ, taking bread and giving thanks, broke it and Gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat, This is my Body.’ And taking the cup and giving thanks, He said, ‘Take, drink, This is my Blood.’ He himself therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is my Body,’ who will dare any longer to doubt? And when He himself has affirmed and said, ‘This is my Blood,’ who can ever hesitate and say it is not his Blood?” (Catechetical Lectures 22 Mystagogic 4.1).
The Wedding Guests
“Once in Cana of Galilee He changed the water into wine, a thing related to blood; and is his changing of wine not credible? When invited to an ordinary marriage, with a miracle He performed that glorious deed. And is it not much more to be confessed that he has bestowed his Body and his Blood upon the wedding guests.” (Catechetical Lectures 22 Mystagogic 4.2).
Sanctified and Changed
“Then, having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual songs, we call on the benevolent God to send out the Holy Spirit upon the gifts which have been laid out: that He may make the bread the Body of Christ, and the wine the Blood of Christ; for whatever the Holy Spirit touches, that is sanctified and changed.” (Catechetical Lectures 23 Mystagogic 5.7).
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
We are one, Because the Father is in Christ and Christ is in us.
“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 conjoined 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 so are we all one, because the Father is in Christ and Christ in us.… And so, if indeed Christ has taken to Himself the flesh of our body, and that Man Who was born froth Mary was induced Christ, and we indeed receive in a mystery the flesh of His body–(and for this cause 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?…For 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 meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.’ 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 verily flesh and verily blood. And these when eaten and drunk, bring it to pass that both we are in Christ and Christ in us. Is not this true? Yet they 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 in Him, whilst together with Him our own selves are in God.” (On the Trinity 8.13-14).
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon
Our flesh is Increased
“When, therefore, the mixed cup and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, and from these the substances of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life — flesh which is nourished by the Body and Blood ou the Lord, and is in fact a member of Him? (Against Heresies 8.2.3).
Saint John Chrysostom
Real Eating
“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).
Saint Justin the Martyr
We Call this Food Eucharist
“We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration, and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” (First Apology 66).
6:56 Jesus’ Flesh and Blood Unite Us
Saint Ambrose of Milan
A Spirit Has Not Flesh and Bones
“’My Flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink.’ You hear Him speak of his flesh, you hear him speak of his blood, you know the sacred signs of the Lord’s death; and you worry about his divinity? Hear His words when he says: ‘A spirit has not flesh and bones.’ As often as we receive the sacramental elements which through the mystery of the sacred prayer are transformed into the flesh and blood of the Lord, we proclaim the death of the Lord.” (The Faith 4.10.124).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
One With Christ
“For as if one should join wax with other wax, he will surely see (I suppose) the one in the other; in like manner (I deem) he 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).
Eat and Drink of the Wine Who is Life
“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; drink my joy, the wine I have mingled for you.” (Meditation on the Mystical Supper 10).
The Only-Begotten
“The Savior himself declares, ‘Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks my Blood abides in me and I in him.’ By this statement it is to be seen that Christ does not say he will be in us only after the fashion of some relation that is solely intellectual, but also through the participation truly according to nature. Just as if someone were to entwine two pieces of wax together and melt them with a fire, so that both are made one, so too through participation in the Body of Christ and in his Precious Blood, he is turned in us and we too in him. In no other way can that corruptible nature be vivified except by being united bodily to the Body of Him who is, by his very nature, life: that is, the Only-begotten.” (Commentary on John 10, 2 on John 15:1).
Origin
Formally Manna, Now True Food
“Formally, in an obscure way, there was manna for food; now, however, in full view, there is the true food, the Flesh of the Word of God, as he himself says: ‘My Flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink.’” (Homilies on Numbers [post 244]).
John 6:57 The Living Father Sent Christ
Saint Augustine of Hippo
To Eat Christ?
“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. Not 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 on. Let Christ be eaten; when eaten he lives because when slain he rose again.” (Sermon 133A.1).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
The Word Became Flesh
“’And he that eats Me,’ He says, ‘that person shall live.’ But we eat, not assimilating the divinity—away with such folly! —but the flesh proper to the Word, which has become life-giving because it became His, who lives by the Father.” (Memorials on the True Faith 4.5).
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus
The Shared Being of the Father and the Son
“All things that the Father has are the Son’s. 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 through 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).
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
The Nature of Christ
“Yet can lifeless copies be put on a level with their living originals? Painted or carved or molten effigies with the nature which 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 that 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 that nature which 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, because the powers of that nature are inalienably his own. (On the Trinity 7.37).
Christ’s Nature in Us
“When we speak of the reality of Christ’s nature being in us, we would be speaking foolishly and impiously—had we not learned it from him. For he himself says: ‘My Flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink. He that eats My Flesh and drinks my Blood remain in me and I in him.’ As to the reality of his Flesh and Blood, there is no room left for doubt, because now, both by the declaration of the Lord himself and by our own faith, it is truly Flesh and truly Blood. And these Elements bring about, when taken and consumed, that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Let those who deny that Jesus Christ is true God be free to find these things untrue. But He himself is in us through the flesh and we are in him, while that which we are with him is in God.” (On the Trinity 8.14).
Christ has the Father within Himself
“He lives through the Father in like manner we live through His flesh. For all comparison is chosen to shape our understanding, so that we may grasp the subject of which we treat by help of the analogy set before us. This is the cause of our life that we have Christ dwelling within our carnal selves through the flesh, and we shall live through Him in the same manner as He lives through the Father. If, then, we live naturally through Him according to the flesh, that is, have partaken of the nature of His flesh, must He not 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 inasmuch as His very being is from Him yet is not divided from Him by any barrier of an unlikeness of nature, for within Himself He has the Father through the birth in the power of the nature.” (On the Trinity 8.16).
Saint John Chrysostom
Not Only Life, But Life Eternal
“The life of which He speaks is not life merely, but the excellent life; for that He spoke not simply of life, but of that glorious and ineffable life, is clear from this. For all men live, even unbelievers, and uninitiated, who eat not of that flesh. Do you see that the words relate not to this life, but to that other? And what He says is of this kind: He that eats My flesh, when he dies shall not perish nor suffer punishment; He spoke not of the general resurrection, (for all alike rise again,) but concerning the special, the glorious Resurrection, that which has a reward.” (Homilies on the Gospel of John 47.1).
John 6:58
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Real Presence
“They hold aloof from the Eucharist and from services of prayer, because they refuse to admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins and which, in his goodness, the Father raised. Consequently, those who wrangle and dispute God’s gift face death.” (Letter to the to the Smyrnaeans 9).
Saint John Chrysostom
Eat This Bread and Live Forever
“This is that bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eats of this bread shall live forever.
Continually, He reminds them of the manna, showing the difference, (between it and His bread,) and guiding them to the faith; for if He was able to support their life for forty years without harvest, or grain, or other things in course; much more now will He be able to do so, as having come for greater ends. Moreover, if those things were but types, and yet men collected what came down without sweat or labor; much more shall this be the case, where the difference is great both in the never dying, and in the enjoying the true life. And rightly has He spoken often of life, since this is desired by men, and nothing is so pleasing to them as not to die. Since even under the old Covenant, this was the promise, length of life and many days, but now it is not length merely, but life having no end. He desires at the same time to show, that He now revokes the punishment caused by sin, annulling that sentence which condemns to death, and bringing in not life merely, but life eternal, contrariwise to the former things.” (Homilies on the Gospel of John 47.1-2).
The Heavenly Bread of Immortality:
“All the angels on high marvel at the affairs of earth.
For each-born men dwelling here below’
Are exalted in spirit and teach what is on high
As they share in Christ, Crucified.
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 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,
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 that of the angels;
For, in very truth, the body of the One who suffered,
The very body of Jesus Christ is
The heavenly bread of immortality.”
(Kontakion on the Multiplication of Loaves 13.1-3).
The Didache
But as touching the eucharistic thanksgiving give ye thanks thus.
First, as regards the cup:
We give Thee thanks, O our Father, for the holy vine of Thy son David, which Thou made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus;
Thine is the glory forever and ever.
Then as regards the broken bread:
We give Thee thanks, O our Father, for the life and knowledge which Thou didst make known unto us through Thy Son Jesus;
Thine is the glory forever and ever.
As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom;
for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever and ever.
But let no one eat or drink of this eucharistic thanksgiving, but they that have been baptized into the name of the Lord;
for concerning this also the Lord hath said:
Give not that which is holy to the dogs. (Chapter 9.1-12).
With the permission of the publishers, to whom grateful acknowledgment is here made, the translations used in Commentaries by the Early Church Fathers on John 6:51-58 have been based on the following series:
Ancient Christian Writers. The Works of the Fathers in Translation. Edited by]. Quasten, S.D., and Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., S.T.D., and the late J. C. Plumpe, Ph.D. Westminster, The Newman Press, 1946.
The Ante·Nicene Christian Library. Translation of/ the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. The Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.O., and James Donaldson, LL.D., editors. Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1873.
The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. The Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.O., and James Donaldson, LL.D., editors (American reprint of the Edinburgh edition). Revised and Chronologically Arranged, with Brief Prefaces and Occasional Notes, by A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899.
The Church Teaches. Documents of the Church in English Translation. The Rev. John F. Clarkson, S.J., et al., editors. St. Louis, B. Herder Book Company, 1955.
Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum. 2 vols. Paderborn, 1905.
S. Ephraemi Syri Carmino Nisibena. G. S. Bickell, editor. Lipsiae, 1866.
S. Ephraemi Syri Humni et Sermones. 4 vols. T. J. Lamy, editor. Mechelen, 1882-1902.
The Fathers of the Church. A New Translation. Founded by Ludwig Schopp. Editorial Director: Roy J. Deferrari, Ph.D. Washington, D.C., The Catholic University of America Press, 1948.
A New Eusebius. Documents Illustrative of the History of the Church to A.D. 337. James Stevenson, editor. Based on the collection edited by B. J. Kidd. London, S.P.C.K., 1957 (The Muratorian Fragment.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Translated into English with Prologomena and Explanatory Notes under the Editorial Supervision of Philip Schaff, D.O., LL.D. and Henry Wace, D.O. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904.
[1] The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition.
[2] Council of Trent, Thirteenth Session, 11 October 1551, Chapters 1-6, Canons 1-11.