Cornelius a Lapide

John VI

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

First, Christ feeds five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. Second, verse 17, He walks upon the sea. Third, verse 27, He discusses the spiritual food of the soul. Fourth, verse 55, He treats of the bread of the Eucharist.

Vulgate Text: John 6:1-72

1. After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias; 2. and a great multitude followed Him, because they saw the signs which He did upon those who were infirm. 3. Jesus therefore went up into a mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. 4. Now the Passover, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand. 5. When Jesus therefore had lifted up His eyes, and seen that a very great multitude was coming to Him, He said to Philip: Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6. And this He said to try him; for He Himself knew what He would do. 7. Philip answered Him: Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little. 8. One of His disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Him: 9. There is a boy here that has five barley loaves, and two fishes; but what are these among so many? 10. Then Jesus said: Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. The men therefore sat down, in number about five thousand. 11. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to those who were sitting; in like manner also of the fishes, as much as they would. 12. And when they were filled, He said to His disciples: Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they be lost. 13. They gathered up therefore, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to those who had eaten. 14. Now those men, when they had seen what a sign Jesus had done, said: This is of a truth the prophet, that is to come into the world. 15. Jesus therefore, when He knew that they would come to take Him by force, and make Him king, fled again into the mountain, He Himself alone. 16. And when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea. 17. And when they had gone up into a ship, they went over the sea to Capharnaum; and it was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them. 18. And the sea arose, by reason of a great wind that blew. 19. When they had rowed therefore about five and twenty or thirty stadia, they see Jesus walking upon the sea, and drawing near to the ship, and they were afraid. 20. But He said to them: It is I; be not afraid. 21. They were willing therefore to take Him into the ship; and presently the ship was at the land to which they were going. 22. The next day, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea, saw that there was no other ship there but one, and that Jesus had not entered into the ship with His disciples, but that His disciples were gone away alone. 23. But other ships came in from Tiberias; near the place where they had eaten the bread, the Lord giving thanks. 24. When therefore the multitude saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they took shipping, and came to Capharnaum, seeking Jesus. 25. And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him: Rabbi, when did You come here? 26. Jesus answered them, and said: Amen, amen I say to you, you seek Me, not because you have seen signs, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 27. Labor not for the food which perishes, but for that which endures unto life everlasting, which the Son of man will give you. For Him has God the Father sealed. 28. They said therefore to Him: What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? 29. Jesus answered, and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. 30. They said therefore to Him: What sign therefore do You do, that we may see, and may believe You? What do You work? 31. Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. 34. They said therefore to Him: Lord, give us always this bread. 35. And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life; he that comes to Me shall not hunger; and he that believes in Me shall never thirst. 36. But I said to you, that you also have seen Me, and you believe not. 37. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him that comes to Me, I will not cast out. 38. Because I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. 39. Now this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up on the last day. 40. And this is the will of My Father that sent Me: that every one who sees the Son, and believes in Him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up on the last day. 41. The Jews therefore murmured at Him, because He had said: I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 42. And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does He say: I came down from heaven? 43. Jesus therefore answered, and said to them: Murmur not among yourselves. 44. No man can come to Me, except the Father, who has sent Me, draw him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45. It is written in the Prophets: And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that has heard of the Father, and has learned, comes to Me. 46. Not that any man has seen the Father, but He who is of God, He has seen the Father. 47. Amen, amen I say to you: He that believes in Me, has everlasting life. 48. I am the bread of life. 49. Your fathers ate manna in the desert, and are dead. 50. This is the bread which comes down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 52. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is My flesh, for the life of the world. 53. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us His flesh to eat? 54. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. 55. He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has everlasting life: and I will raise him up on the last day. 56. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 57. He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, abides in Me, and I in him. 58. As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats Me, the same also shall live by Me. 59. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate manna, and are dead. He that eats this bread, shall live for ever. 60. These things He said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum. 61. Many therefore of His disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard, and who can hear it? 62. But Jesus, knowing in Himself, that His disciples murmured at this, said to them: Does this scandalize you? 63. If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before? 64. It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life. 65. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning, who they were that did not believe, and who he was that would betray Him. 66. And He said: Therefore did I say to you, that no man can come to Me, unless it be given him by My Father. 67. After this, many of His disciples went back; and walked no more with Him. 68. Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away? 69. Simon Peter therefore answered Him: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 70. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Christ, the Son of God. 71. Jesus answered him: Did I not choose you twelve; and one of you is a devil. 72. He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot; for he it was who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

Verse 1: After These Things Jesus Went Across the Sea of Galilee

1. AFTER THESE THINGS JESUS WENT ACROSS THE SEA OF GALILEE, WHICH IS THAT OF TIBERIAS — that is to say, this sea is now called the Sea of Galilee, because it was adjacent to Galilee; now it is called the Sea of Tiberias, because the city called Tiberias lay beside it, named after Tiberius Caesar, in whose honor it was built by Herod the Tetrarch, as Josephus testifies, Antiquities, Book XVIII, chapter III. He names Tiberias because near it was the desert in which Christ fed 5,000 with five loaves, as I showed at Matthew xiv, 13.

AFTER THESE THINGS — not immediately, but after nearly one year. For the healing of the paralytic, and the consequent dispute of Christ with the Jews, which John treated a little before in chapter v, occurred at the beginning of the second year of Christ's preaching; but the events he narrates here took place at the end of that same year. This is clear from the fact that Christ healed the paralytic at Passover, as is evident from chapter v, verse 1, but He did these things when the Passover of the following year was approaching, as is evident here from verse 4. John therefore omits here the things Christ did during the entire second year of His preaching, namely the appointment of the twelve Apostles, the Sermon on the Mount which Matthew records in chapters v, vi, and vii, the sending of the Apostles to preach, and many other things which I reviewed in the Chronotaxis from numbers 20 to 29. He omits them, however, because they had been fully and at length narrated by the other Evangelists. But here he inserts the narrative of the multiplication of loaves done by Christ, even though it was recorded by the other Evangelists, because that event was the occasion for Christ's discourse on spiritual food and the food of the Eucharist, which John here appends at length, because it had been passed over by the other Evangelists.

Verse 2: A Great Multitude Followed Him

2. AND A GREAT MULTITUDE FOLLOWED HIM (as He went by boat) — on foot by a winding journey going around the Sea of Galilee, as Matthew says, chapter xiv, verse 13.

Verse 5: He Said to Philip: Whence Shall We Buy Bread?

5. HE SAID TO PHILIP: WHENCE SHALL WE BUY BREAD, THAT THESE MAY EAT? — Note: This was the order of events: Christ seeing from the mountain the crowd following Him and hungry, came down from the mountain to them and graciously received them, taught them, and healed the sick among them until evening; and when evening was approaching, the disciples warned Christ to dismiss the crowd so they might refresh their bodies with food; but Christ ordered them first to feed the hungry crowd. They declared this was impossible for them, because two hundred denarii worth of bread would not suffice for so great a crowd; then Christ puts the matter to Philip, perhaps because he, being more anxious than the rest, was urging Christ to dismiss the crowd and eat supper; Philip answered the same as the others, that two hundred denarii worth of bread was not enough. Now the rest up to verse 27 is continued by Matthew, xiv, 13 and following, where I explained those things.

Verse 11: Jesus Therefore Took the Loaves, and When He Had Given Thanks

11. JESUS THEREFORE TOOK THE LOAVES, AND WHEN HE HAD GIVEN THANKS (to God the Father, looking up to heaven, imploring God's help to multiply the loaves, He blessed them, as the other Evangelists and the Syriac have here), HE DISTRIBUTED TO THOSE WHO WERE SEATED (miraculously multiplying the loaves as He distributed them): LIKEWISE ALSO OF THE FISHES, AS MUCH AS THEY WANTED — multiplying them in like manner and by the same miracle. St. Dominic and St. Francis imitated Christ in this matter. For when at the General Chapter of the Order of Friars Minor there was nothing to eat, full of faith they said: "Let us go and beseech almighty God, who satisfied 5,000 men besides women and children in the desert; for He is not now of lesser power or mercy, that we should despair of His goodness." They persevered thus in prayer until God's will was made known to them. At the hour of dinner, therefore, St. Francis ordered the brothers to sit down in the refectory. While they were doing this, they saw enter the dining hall twenty outstanding young men, girded and ready to serve, who ministered bread, wine, and every kind of necessary food to the five hundred who were reclining. When dinner was finished, bowing their heads and saluting the Brothers, they went out of the refectory two by two in order, while the Brothers marveled and praised God for such great care and providence toward His own. So the Annals of the Friars Minor of Luke Wadding report, in the year of Christ 1219, no. 11.

St. Dominic did the same at Rome, at the church of St. Sixtus: for when there was nothing to eat at home, he ordered the Brothers to sit at table and blessed it; and behold, two angels entered in the form of elegant young men, and set before each of the Brothers (for there were a hundred) one of the whitest loaves, one on the right and the other on the left, and with bowed heads they disappeared. So the Life of St. Dominic, Book III, chapter IV relates. I visited this place at Rome, and venerated it, and there I beheld the entire scene depicted.

Verse 15: To Take Him by Force and Make Him King

15. TO TAKE HIM BY FORCE AND MAKE HIM KING — the Messiah, that is, whom the Jews believed would give them an abundance of grain, wine, oil, gold, and silver, and therefore they wanted to inaugurate Him here as king, not so much for Christ's benefit as for their own advantage, which they expected from Him. Such a Messiah the carnal Jews still expect even now, one who like Solomon would give them an abundance of the fruits and riches of the earth.

Verse 17: And Entering a Boat, They Went Across the Sea to Capernaum

17. AND ENTERING A BOAT, THEY WENT (Greek erchonto, that is, they were going, that is, as the Syriac has it, they were heading, proceeding; for they were still at sea, and there they suffered a storm, which Christ calmed, as follows) ACROSS THE SEA (of Galilee) TO (that is, toward) Capernaum — which was situated in the land of Gennesaret, as Matthew says, chapter xiv, verse 34. Christ had commanded them to go to Bethsaida, as Mark testifies, chapter vi, verse 54; but when shortly after, in Christ's absence, they were tossed about by a storm at sea and the wind, beyond Bethsaida toward Capernaum, and there Christ walking on the sea and calming it met them: so having already passed Bethsaida, they changed their plan and continued on to Capernaum, where the house and seat of Christ's preaching was; from there they later set out again for Bethsaida, where Christ healed the blind man, as Mark has it, chapter viii, verse 22.

Verse 19: When They Had Rowed About Twenty-Five or Thirty Stadia

19. WHEN THEY HAD ROWED ABOUT TWENTY-FIVE OR THIRTY STADIA — that is, nearly four Italian miles, for a stadium is an eighth part of a mile.

Verse 21: They Were Willing to Receive Him Into the Boat

21. Then they were willing (they desired and invited the One now recognized, whom a little before, thinking Him to be a ghost, they had dreaded and recoiled from) TO RECEIVE HIM INTO THE BOAT (and in fact they did receive Him, as Mark says, vi, 51), AND IMMEDIATELY (by the power and virtue of Christ who was present) THE BOAT WAS AT THE LAND WHERE THEY WERE GOING. — Nonnus says: "By divine impulse, the boat of its own accord was putting in at the distant port, like a winged mind," namely at the land of Gennesaret, as Matthew has it, xiv, 34, or Genesareth, as Mark has it, vi, 53, which was formerly called Chinnereth or Chinneroth from the city so named, which was near Capernaum, from which the entire neighboring Sea of Galilee was called the Lake of Chinnereth or Genesareth. Moreover, in this land of Genesareth the city of Capernaum was situated, to which John expressly testifies that Jesus sailed and landed with His disciples, chapter vi, verses 17 and 24 and 25. For there He held that lengthy disputation about the heavenly bread and the Eucharist, which John records at length in chapter vi; for in the same place, verse 60, he expressly says: "These things He said in the synagogue, teaching in Capernaum." If, however, anyone prefers to say that Jesus landed by sailing precisely in the land, that is, in the city of Chinnereth, and from there went on foot to the neighboring city of Capernaum, I will not object.

Note the words "and immediately": for from this it follows that Christ caused this boat to fly, as it were, in an instant into the port of the city of Capernaum; and therefore He traversed in almost a moment eight or nine thousand paces, which make as many Italian miles; for that was the distance of Bethsaida from Capernaum. For the disciples sailing from the place where Christ had fed the 5,000 (which was midway between Bethsaida and Tiberias) for 25 or 30 stadia, as I said at verse 19, that is, for about four Italian miles, were near or a little beyond Bethsaida, when Christ walking on the sea, meeting them and entering the boat, caused the boat to fly from that place and arrive in almost an instant at the port of Capernaum. Therefore He caused the boat to traverse eight or nine miles in almost an instant. Learn from this to perform all your actions with Christ, indeed under Christ's leadership; for with Him you will accomplish great things, without Him nothing. So Peter laboring the whole night without Christ caught no fish; but when He was present and commanded him to let down his nets, he caught an enormous quantity of fish, John xxi, 3 and following, and again Luke v, 5.

Therefore, as Gregory Nazianzen says in his Poem:

Happy is he who has purchased Christ at the cost of all his fortunes.

Verse 22: On the Following Day, the Crowd Which Stood on the Other Side of the Sea

22. ON THE FOLLOWING DAY, THE CROWD WHICH STOOD ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SEA SAW THAT THERE HAD BEEN NO OTHER SMALL BOAT THERE EXCEPT ONE, AND THAT JESUS HAD NOT ENTERED THE BOAT WITH HIS DISCIPLES, BUT THAT HIS DISCIPLES HAD GONE AWAY ALONE. — "On the other side of the sea": understand this with respect to the disciples, who had already sailed to the other shore of the sea, that is to say: On the day after the day on which Christ had fed 5,000 with five loaves, the crowd that had been fed by Him, remaining across the sea, that is, in the place of the previous day's feeding and banquet, knowing that there had been only one small boat there, which Christ's disciples alone had boarded, leaving Jesus on land, understand: they searched for Jesus there; for they did not know that He had walked upon the sea by night, boarded the boat, and landed at Capernaum. For they knew He could not have made this journey by land without being seen and detained by the crowd.

Verse 23: Other Boats Came From Tiberias, Near the Place Where They Had Eaten Bread

23. HOWEVER, OTHER BOATS CAME FROM TIBERIAS, NEAR THE PLACE WHERE THEY HAD EATEN BREAD, AFTER THE LORD HAD GIVEN THANKS. — The Syriac has: when Jesus had blessed, and by His blessing had multiplied the loaves. From this it is clear that the place where Christ multiplied the loaves was near Tiberias, and therefore had to be sailed past by those who sailed from Tiberias to Bethsaida and Capernaum, as is evident from verse 24. The meaning is, that is to say: When the miracle of Christ's multiplication of the loaves had been spread abroad, many people, both from elsewhere and from neighboring Tiberias, came by boats to the place where Christ had multiplied the loaves, so that they might see and hear Jesus performing such great works.

Verse 25: Rabbi, When Did You Come Here?

25. AND WHEN THEY FOUND HIM ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SEA, THEY SAID TO HIM: RABBI, WHEN DID YOU COME HERE? — "On the other side of the sea," namely in the synagogue of the city of Capernaum, as is evident from verse 59. "When" and how "did You come here?" For we know that yesterday only the disciples boarded the boat in the desert of Bethsaida, and that You remained there on land. For they did not know that Christ had walked on the sea in the middle of the night.

Verse 26: You Seek Me, Not Because You Saw Signs, But Because You Ate of the Loaves

26. JESUS ANSWERED THEM AND SAID: AMEN, AMEN, I SAY TO YOU: YOU SEEK ME, NOT BECAUSE YOU SAW SIGNS, BUT BECAUSE YOU ATE OF THE LOAVES AND WERE FILLED. — Christ out of modesty does not answer their question directly, lest He be compelled to say that He had come there by walking on the sea, and thus appear to boast. He answered therefore what was more important for the questioners to know, namely, that they should seek from Him the food of the soul rather than of the body. He says therefore: You seek Me, not because you saw the signs, the miracles through which I labor to teach and persuade faith, repentance, and other evangelical virtues, by which one arrives at eternal life, that is to say: You seek Me, not so that you might receive from Me the food of the soul, by which you might attain eternal life, "but because you ate of the loaves" which I miraculously multiplied, and therefore made most delicious, so that I might share similar ones with you again. For many are friends of the pot and the table, rather than of Christ and eternal salvation; for the carnal mind nothing but carnal things, because they do not grasp spiritual things.

Verse 27: Labor Not for the Food Which Perishes, But for That Which Endures to Eternal Life

27. LABOR NOT FOR THE FOOD WHICH PERISHES, BUT FOR THAT WHICH ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE, WHICH THE SON OF MAN WILL GIVE YOU. FOR HIM THE FATHER, GOD, HAS SEALED. — "Labor," Greek ergazesthe, that is, strive by your work, effort, and toil, and diligently take care that you acquire food, not of the body which perishes, but of the soul which does not perish. Hence the Arabic translates: labor not for the sake of perishable food (that you might gain it by laboring; "for all the labor of man is for his mouth," says the Wise Man, that is, so that he may procure food for his mouth by laboring), but for the sake of food that endures to eternal life. Therefore labor with your whole heart, says Euthymius, with all continuous care. He does not merely command laboring for the food of the soul, but He admonished them to care for bodily food only incidentally, but for the soul with total devotion. Similarly Theophylactus: "You ought not to be entirely given over to the belly, but especially to exercise spiritual care, and not to expend all your solicitude on bodily food."

Christ rises to a higher theme and leads the crowds from the bodily bread with which He had just fed them in the desert, to a spiritual bread far more worthy and more necessary, as if to say: I gave you barley bread without labor, that is, without your work and effort; but you must labor and toil with all your strength to obtain the spiritual bread that nourishes you and leads you to eternal life. In a similar way, in chapter IV, from the well water He led the Samaritan woman to spiritual water, so that He might teach His faithful, especially priests and Religious, to do the same, so that in their conversations with the people they should strive to lead and raise them from bodily things to spiritual ones. Hence from this saying of Christ, Cyril rightly concludes: "Therefore no care for the flesh should be our concern, but we must be watchful for what is necessary and eternal; for one who pursues the pleasures of the body does not differ from the beasts, but one who clings to the virtues and passes his life by the spiritual law — and one who is entirely devoted to those things which have been divinely granted to us and prepare the way to heaven — such a one seems to me to have known himself, and not to have been ignorant that he is a rational animal produced in the image of the Creator." And further on: "Let us therefore labor (as the Savior says) not for that food which, falling into the stomach and delighting us with a brief pleasure, is finally discharged through the bowels and perishes, but for the spiritual food which strengthens hearts and leads to eternal life, which He promises that He will bestow."

You will ask, what is this enduring food for eternal life, which Christ commands to be obtained by laboring? The heretics called Massalians, or Euchites, that is, "prayers," held it to be prayer, as if Christ were saying: Do not labor with your hands, because the work of hands perishes, but always pray to God in your mind, because prayer is the food of the spirit, which endures forever. For these heretics said that one should not labor with the hands, but should always pray, as St. Chrysostom reports here, St. Augustine in his book On Heresies, and others. But this is a heresy which Paul refutes, II Thessalonians III, 10: "If any man," he says, "will not work, neither let him eat." And I Corinthians IV, 12, speaking of himself: "We labor," he says, "working with our own hands."

I say, therefore, that this enduring food is faith, charity, grace, and good works, as the Jews explain in the following verse; likewise the Sacraments and all those things which lead us to eternal life, and especially the Eucharist, of which He speaks at verse 54. So Jansenius, Maldonatus, Bellarmine, and others. For gradually and step by step Christ ascends from lesser and common things to greater and singular things, namely to the Eucharist. Hence St. Augustine: "To believe in Him," he says, "is to eat the food that endures to eternal life. Why do you prepare tooth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten."

Second, more fittingly, properly, and precisely, this spiritual food is the Eucharist, as Christ expressly explains in verse 54; for He first speaks in general terms, by way of thesis, calling this food heavenly and enduring to eternal life; then at verse 35 He descends from the thesis to the hypothesis, determining this food and asserting that He Himself is this food: "I," He says, "am the bread of life;" and finally, at verses 54 and following, He clearly opens the whole matter, and says that His flesh and blood in the Eucharist are this bread and food: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man," He says, "and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you." And verse 56: "My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink." For a year and a half later, shortly before His death, He was about to institute the sacrament of the Eucharist, and in it to give us His flesh and blood as spiritual food and drink of the soul; but in the intervening statements here He frequently exhorts to faith, because faith is supremely necessary in the Eucharist.

The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Labor at the works of faith, believe in Me and give credence to My words; thus you will seek and actually acquire the food of the Eucharist, which will not only nourish your soul, but also lead it to eternal life; for Christ distinguishes the work of faith from the food of the Eucharist, which must be prepared by the work of faith, just as a means is distinguished from the end to which it leads. Hence when the Jews presently ask for the work by which, as a mode and means, they might acquire this food, Christ responds at verse 29: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." So Theophylactus: "By enduring food," he says, "He means the mystical reception of the flesh of the Lord." And Rupert: "Which endures to eternal life, that is, which eaten in this mortal life, avails for this, profits for this, that it gives life to the world eternal life." So also Toledo, Francis Lucas, and others.

FOR HIM THE FATHER, GOD, HAS SEALED. Greek ho Theos; as if to say: The heavenly Father, who is that great and supreme God, has sealed Him; Greek esfragise, that is, He has set His seal upon Him. Now this sealing or marking of Christ is threefold, of which the first produces the second, and the second the third: the first pertains to Christ's divinity, the second and third to His humanity.

First, therefore, Cyril, Book III, chapter xxix, explains it thus: "He used 'sealed,'" he says, "for 'anointed' (for he who was anointed was sealed), or He indicated by the name of sealing that He was naturally formed according to the form of the Father (so to speak); so that He might seem to say: It is not difficult for Me to bestow upon you enduring food, by which you will be led to the unheard-of delights of eternal life." For the Son is the character of the hypostasis of God the Father; and the character by which He was sealed by the Father is nothing other than the very form and substance of the Deity. So Cyril, and indeed Paul also, Hebrews 1:3: "Who," he says, "being the brightness of His glory, and the figure (Greek character) of His substance." Hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 42, gives the Son these titles: "That fountain of life and immortality, that expression of the archetype (that is, the likeness, seal, and as it were the express image of God, as Nicetas says in the same place), that unmoved seal (that is, which is not altered, nor changed into another form, as Nicetas explains), that image like in all things, that boundary and reason of the Father," Greek horos kai logos, which two terms Nicetas takes as equivalent; as if to say: The Son is the Word of God the Father, namely the definition, the demonstration: for just as a definition demonstrates what is defined, so the Son demonstrates and as it were defines the Father. So Nicetas.

Second, St. Hilary, Book VIII On the Trinity, more properly and fittingly says: The Father, he says, sealed the Son, not in His divinity by communicating to Him His own Deity, but in His humanity, when He united it to the Word and communicated to it the divinity of the Word. For a seal, he says, is usually impressed upon a different material, which is said to be sealed; so the humanity was sealed with the divinity of the Son. So also St. Augustine, and from him Toledo: Because, he says, the Son, who is the image and character of the Father, is united to humanity, therefore the humanity is said to have the seal and character of the Father.

Third, St. Chrysostom and many others say: The Father, he says, sealed the Son, that is, by a voice coming down from heaven at His baptism, "This is My beloved Son," He showed, demonstrated, and manifested Him, and by His miracles, as by seals, confirmed that He was His Son and the promised Messiah, who is able to bestow fitting food upon all who hunger for eternal life. And it amounts to the same thing if you interpret "sealed" as meaning He gave Him authority, because we are accustomed to confer credibility and authority upon documents by impressing a seal.

This third sense is easier and plainer, but the second is more solid and sublime. Indeed this third follows from the second, and completes and perfects it. For the Father by His voice and miracles, as by His own seals, testified to men that He had sealed the humanity of Jesus with the divinity of the Word, and had impressed upon it the form of His divinity, that is, He testified that this man, namely Jesus, is truly God and the Son of God, so as to give Him authority to teach, to establish laws, and to found a new Church, and to win Him credibility among men. Hence the Gloss: "He sealed," it says, "that is, He distinguished Him from all others by His own sign."

Verse 28: What Shall We Do, That We May Work the Works of God?

28. THEY SAID THEREFORE TO HIM: WHAT SHALL WE DO, THAT WE MAY WORK THE WORKS OF GOD? — Cyril thinks the Jews asked this out of arrogance, as if angry at Christ for reproaching them as being careless of their souls, as if to say: You reproach us, as though we pursue Your bodily loaves and neglect the food of the soul. Tell us then, what new works of God do You bring, by which we may please God and nourish our souls, beyond those which Moses gave us and set down in the Pentateuch?

St. Chrysostom, however, thinks the Jews said this out of gluttony, because they were still craving the loaves with which Christ had fed them: they ask, therefore, what the works of God are by which Christ wants them to nourish their souls, not because they intend to do them, but so that they might win Christ's goodwill toward themselves, and thus invite Him to continue providing bread.

Better, St. Augustine, Tract. 27, and others judge that the Jews said this with a sincere intention of performing these works. For many among them, stirred by Christ's teaching and spurred by this miracle of the loaves, were desirous of their salvation: they ask Christ, therefore, what works they should perform by which they might obtain from God that enduring food which nourishes their souls and leads to eternal life. Hence Jesus responds sincerely to those who ask sincerely, and teaches what the works of God are — something He would not have done if they had asked deceitfully and with pretense.

By "works of God," therefore, they mean not merely those things which are pleasing to God, nor those which are the food of the soul nourishing it for eternal life, as Leontius would have it; for from the law of Moses they knew what works were pleasing to God and commanded by Him; but by "works of God" they understand those which God properly, through Jesus whom He sealed in verse 27, appointed and established, so that through them we might obtain this spiritual food preached by Jesus, which nourishes us and leads us to eternal life. For when they had heard that this food was of eternal life and that God had sealed Christ to give this food, they rightly call "works of God" those things which were necessary to do in order to obtain this food. What those works are, therefore, they ask Jesus, not doubting that He who had been so powerful and generous in nourishing their bodies with bread, would be equally, indeed even more, powerful and generous in teaching and providing the food of the soul. So Toledo.

Verse 29: This Is the Work of God, That You Believe in Him Whom He Has Sent

29. JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID TO THEM: THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD, THAT YOU BELIEVE IN HIM WHOM HE HAS SENT — that is, in Me, who have proved by so many arguments and miracles that I am the Messiah sent from God: for out of modesty He speaks of Himself in the third person, as if to say: The work by which you will obtain from God the food that nourishes the soul unto eternal life, is that you believe in Me. For I confer this food on those who believe in Me, because I Myself am this food, as He Himself says in verse 35.

THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE, and by believing obey Me, and observe My law and doctrine, and fulfill them in deed. Under faith, therefore, as under a root, Christ and Paul include all the works of charity, penance, temperance, and the other virtues which faith excites and generates, as I showed at length in canons 2 and 3 on St. Paul. Whence Theophylactus says: "Faith is truly a holy and perfect work, and sanctifies those who have it. For diligent faith becomes a guide to every good work, and good works preserve faith. For works without faith are dead, and faith without works."

Verse 30: What Sign Then Do You Perform, That We May See and Believe You?

30. THEY THEREFORE SAID TO HIM: WHAT SIGN THEN DO YOU PERFORM, THAT WE MAY SEE AND BELIEVE YOU? — "They said," those who were bolder in the crowd, who knew and esteemed Jesus less. They had already seen the sign of the multiplication of loaves, with which Christ had fed five thousand men the day before; but they considered that of little account, and demand a greater and more marvelous one, as if to say: You, O Jesus, demand a great thing from us, indeed the greatest, namely that we believe in You as the Messiah and the Son of God: for this, the miracle of the multiplication of loaves performed by You yesterday does not suffice; for Moses did something similar, indeed greater; therefore show a heavenly and divine and fitting sign, by which God may testify that You are His Son and our Messiah. Hence, explaining further, they add:

Verse 31: Our Fathers Ate Manna in the Desert

31. OUR FATHERS ATE MANNA IN THE DESERT, AS IT IS WRITTEN (Psalm 77:24): HE GAVE THEM BREAD FROM HEAVEN TO EAT. As if to say: Moses fed our fathers in the desert (that is, six hundred thousand and more men) with heavenly and most sweet food, namely manna, and this daily for forty years, which is far greater than your multiplication of loaves yesterday; and yet Moses did not on that account wish to be regarded and believed to be the Messiah and the Son of God. Since you, then, O Jesus, wish to be so regarded, it is necessary that you perform greater miracles than Moses. So St. Augustine and St. Cyril, who also adds: "They demand such a sign from Christ too, and thinking little of the fact that they were miraculously fed for one day, they ask for food over a long period as if they had nothing to do. For they seem to promise that they will assent to His teaching," as if to say: Feed us throughout our whole life, as you fed us yesterday, as Moses fed our fathers for forty years: and then we will believe you when you assert that you are the Messiah, the Son of God. So the Jews, being sensual and carnal; whereas they ought rather to have reasoned according to reason and the spirit: Jesus here multiplied loaves, heals all manner of the sick, casts out demons, raises the dead, and performs many more signs which Moses did not perform, and this with this end and purpose, that by them, as by God's seals, He might prove Himself to be the Messiah sent from God: therefore He truly is the Messiah. For even a single miracle is a certain testimony of that thing and truth for the proving of which it is adduced. But Moses, in giving manna and performing other signs, did not do them for the purpose of proving himself to be the Messiah, but only a leader of the people and a lawgiver sent from God: whence the people believed him and regarded him as such. You therefore, says Jesus, likewise believe Me, and regard Me as such as I demonstrate Myself to be through miracles, namely the Messiah.

BREAD FROM HEAVEN, that is, heavenly bread, formed in the sky, that is, in the air, by angels, and raining down from there into the camp of the Hebrews, or rather snowing or hailing down; for the manna descended from the air like grains of hail. In Hebrew, Psalm 77:24, it is degan scamain, that is, wheat of the heavens, that is, heavenly. See what was said at Exodus 16:14, where I treated manna at length.

Verse 32: Moses Did Not Give You the Bread From Heaven, But My Father Gives You the True Bread

32. JESUS THEREFORE SAID TO THEM, AMEN, AMEN I SAY TO YOU: MOSES DID NOT GIVE YOU THE BREAD FROM HEAVEN, BUT MY FATHER GIVES YOU THE TRUE BREAD FROM HEAVEN. Christ here rebuffs the cavil of the Jews and shows them that He is greater than Moses and gives greater bread than Moses gave by giving manna. He therefore contrasts and sets above the manna His own bread, that is, Himself, or His body in the Eucharist, as He Himself explains in verses 35, 51, 54 and following, over the Mosaic manna in three ways. The first is: that Moses, who was a mere man, gave manna, and that only to Israel, that is, only to the Jews in the desert; but God the Father gives His bread to the whole world.

The second is that the manna was not truly bread from heaven, but only from the air, descending like dew or hail; yet it is called bread of heaven improperly, just as the "birds of heaven" are so called because they fly in the sky, that is, in the air: but His bread properly descends from the highest heavens, indeed from the bosom of God the Father, and therefore it alone is truly heavenly and divine, of which therefore the manna was merely a type and shadow. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius.

The third, following from the above, is that the manna nourished the body only for a time; but the bread of Christ nourishes and gives life to both body and soul for eternity. So St. Chrysostom, Leontius, Cyril. For although Christ and the Eucharist do not remove temporal death from Christians who devoutly receive communion, yet it brings it about that they rise from death and thereafter do not die for all eternity. For the resurrection is an effect of the Eucharist, as will be clear from verse 50.

Cyril adds a fourth point, in Book III, chapter 23: that Moses did not form or give the manna, but God through the angels, at the prayers of Moses; whereas Christ Himself forms and actually gives this bread of the Eucharist: for He, by His own omnipotence, which He received from the Father together with the divine essence, transforms bread and wine into His body and blood by transubstantiation, transelementing and transforming them.

THE TRUE BREAD FROM HEAVEN, that is, first, truly heavenly and divine, not only as to place, namely that it descends from heaven, but also as to nature and substance. For this bread is Christ Himself, who, as God, has a heavenly and divine essence, namely the same deity as the Father. Second, "true," say Cyril, Chrysostom, and Augustine, in relation to the manna; for this was merely a figure of the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, therefore, is the truth; in the manna, the shadow of the truth. Third, "true," because life-giving, namely that which gives life both to the soul and to the body, as Christ says in the following verse. So Cyril and Augustine. Fourth, "true," that is, perfect, excellent, in which there is all fullness, both of being and of nourishing, because every created essence, as the manna was, if compared with the uncreated essence, namely with God, as Christ is in the Eucharist, does not have true being, but only a shadowy one. Therefore in God alone and in Christ is truth, that is, solidity and fullness of being, and the capacity of nourishing most perfectly like bread. This is what God said to Moses: "I am who am. Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: He who is, sent me," Exodus 3:14. See what was said there.

Verse 33: For the Bread of God Is That Which Comes Down From Heaven and Gives Life to the World

33. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven AND GIVES LIFE TO THE WORLD. Christ proves that not the manna, but His own bread, that is, Himself, is the true bread, that is, truly heavenly and divine, by two arguments: first, because He alone truly descends from heaven; second, because He alone gives true life to the world, namely blessed and eternal life, which alone is true life. Note: this bread is called "of God" because it is formed by God alone, and because it belongs to God alone: for God lives by Himself and by His divinity; and because this bread is truly the Son of God and God Himself.

COMES DOWN, not in the past tense, but in the present. For the Greek katabainon is in the present tense. The word "comes down" therefore signifies the continuation of Christ's descent onto the altar of the Eucharist until the end of the world. For as often as a priest consecrates the Eucharist, so often does Christ, who after death ascended to heaven, descend from it to the consecrated species of bread, and presents and manifests Himself sitting in them.

GIVES. The Arabic version says, "gives as a gift." Truly the gift is immense: it is Christ, who is life itself, giving life to all the faithful who worthily receive communion throughout the whole world, and giving them the heavenly and divine life of grace, and afterwards of glory for all eternity.

Verse 34: Lord, Always Give Us This Bread

34. THEY THEREFORE SAID TO HIM: LORD, ALWAYS GIVE US THIS BREAD that requires no labor, so that without toil, in sweet leisure, we may happily eat this bread which may prolong our life, like the tree of life in paradise, that we may live to the years of Nestor. For the carnal Jews did not yet understand the spiritual bread of Christ, and thought of nothing but earthly things. "They still suspected something sensible," says Chrysostom, "they still expected to fill their bellies." As if to say, says Augustine: Give us bread "that restores and does not fail." For, as Cyril says: "Although the Savior had with many words removed them from their carnal understanding, yet they made no progress, nor did they in any way withdraw from carnal things: for hearing of bread by which life is given to the world, they understood it as earthly. They are like that Samaritan woman who, when she had heard a long discourse about the intelligible water of Christ, slipped back to the memory of sensible waters, saying: Lord, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

Verse 35: I Am the Bread of Life; He Who Comes to Me Shall Not Hunger

35. BUT JESUS SAID TO THEM: I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. HE WHO COMES TO ME SHALL NOT HUNGER; AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER THIRST. The Syriac and Arabic versions say, "for eternity." Here Christ, to the Jews who were requesting bread that nourishes unto eternal life, reveals and offers it, and declares it to be Himself. For He, through His grace and His Spirit, which He breathes into the faithful, nourishes them so that they may live forever; but properly He nourishes them through the bread of the Eucharist, about which this entire discourse of Christ is concerned. Hear Cyril: "By these words He subtly shows the life and grace of His most holy body, by which the property of the Only-begotten, that is, life, both enters and remains in us." For Christ in the Eucharist is rightly called bread: first, because by consecrating bread He transforms it into His body, which, the substance of bread being annihilated, alone remains under the species of bread; second, because like bread it removes hunger, nourishes, sustains life, satisfies, and cheers. Hear Cyril: "For the manna was not the true manna, and the true heavenly bread; but the Only-begotten Son Himself is the true bread, who, since He is of the substance of the Father, is naturally the life that gives life to all things. For just as this earthly bread does, sustaining and preserving the weakness of our flesh, so He too, through the Holy Spirit, gives life to our spirit, and frees the body itself from corruption."

THE BREAD OF LIFE, that is, living, vital, life-giving, indeed life itself. He alludes to the tree of life, Genesis 2:9. For just as this tree, that is, the tree of life, would have given Adam life in paradise through its fruit or apple: first, a long life, of several thousand years, until God would have translated him alive from paradise into heaven; second, a healthy and robust life; third, a constant life, so that he would never have felt illness or old age; fourth, a joyful and cheerful life, for it would have driven away all sadness and melancholy: so much more does the Eucharist bestow all these things, which confers not only a long life, but eternal life on those who receive communion; whence the tree of life was a figure of the Eucharist, as St. Irenaeus teaches, Book V, chapter 2. Moreover, the Eucharist nourishes and enlivens not only the soul but also the body, as theologians teach; indeed St. John the abbot, as Palladius testifies in the Lausiac History, chapter 61, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Mary of Oignies, St. Ebrulphus the abbot in Surius, volume 6, and many others lived for a long time on the Eucharist alone, without other food.

Moreover, the Emperor Louis the Pious, in the final illness from which he died, spent a full 40 days fasting, taking the Eucharist alone daily, as the writer who was present with him testifies, whom Thomas Bozius cites, volume 2, On the Signs of the Church, Book 15, chapter 2.

HE WHO COMES TO ME SHALL NOT HUNGER; AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER THIRST. Because I will give him bread that satisfies all hunger, and drink that satisfies all thirst. Christ said He is the bread of life; here He indicates the way to obtain this bread: namely, that one should come to Him, that is, believe in Him, as Christ immediately explains: so St. Augustine; for we come to Christ not by steps of the body (for thus the unbelieving Jews and those who crucified Him came to Him), but of the mind, namely of faith, obedience, and charity, and "shall not hunger" ever: for this must be supplied from "shall never thirst." The meaning is, as if to say: The manna, when eaten, allayed hunger, but only for a time; but I who am the bread of life, if I am eaten even once in the Eucharist, confer on the one who eats full satisfaction, so that he requires no other food, indeed so that he feels no hunger thereafter, because I confer on him the life of grace and of glory, blessed and immortal, which fills and satisfies every desire of man, as will be clear from verse 40 and following.

AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER THIRST. Because I will give him in the Eucharist the drink of My blood, by which, fully restored and satisfied, he shall never thirst. Hear Cyril: "What then does Christ promise? Certainly nothing corruptible, but the blessing which we obtain through the communion of the body and blood of Christ: whence we shall be fully restored to that incorruption, so that we have no need of bodily food and drink. For the body of Christ gives life, and by participation in it restores to incorruption."

For even though the faithful laity do not receive or drink the Eucharist under the species of wine, as priests do, but eat it under the species of bread only; yet under that species they not only eat the body of Christ, but also drink the blood of Christ, because the blood cannot be separated from the body of Christ, since it is immortal and glorified. For in spiritual things, to hunger and to thirst are the same, and food and drink are the same. "He who comes to Me," says Augustine, "is the same as what He says, And he who believes in Me; and what He said, Shall not hunger, must be understood as, shall never thirst; for by both of these eternal satisfaction is signified, where there is no want." In sum: "Shall never thirst," that is, what Psalm 36:9 says: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Your house, and You shall give them to drink of the torrent of Your pleasure." Similarly He said to the Samaritan woman: "He who drinks of the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever," chapter 4, verse 13. See what was said there.

Verse 36: But I Said to You That You Have Seen Me and Yet Do Not Believe

36. BUT I SAID TO YOU THAT YOU HAVE SEEN ME AND YET DO NOT BELIEVE. "I said," at another time, even though this is nowhere recorded by John. So Chrysostom, Euthymius, and others. Again, "I said," that is, I have shown and proved to you sufficiently and more than sufficiently, "that," that is, that "you have seen," that is, you have known, that is, from so many signs and miracles which I have performed, you could and should have known "Me"; and yet from stubbornness of mind you "do not believe" in Me. For in chapter 5, verse 36 and following, He extensively rebukes the Jews because, having seen so many signs, they do not believe in Him. So Euthymius: "You have seen, he says, Me, or you have known who I am, both from the testimony of John, and from the signs which I performed, and from the testimony of the Scriptures which I opened to you, but willfully doing evil, you do not believe."

Verse 37: All That the Father Gives Me Will Come to Me

37. ALL THAT THE FATHER GIVES ME WILL COME TO ME: AND HIM WHO COMES TO ME I WILL NOT CAST OUT. This is a prolepsis, as if to say: You will object to Me: If You knew that we would not believe Your preaching, why then do You preach to us? I answer: Because among you there are some who will believe in Me, namely those whom the Father has chosen and given to Me to be My disciples and children: by which He tacitly implies that most of the Jews, on account of their unbelief, have not been given to Him, nor chosen by God for the faith, but that God has chosen many others in their place, especially from the Gentiles, whence He says: "All that the Father gives Me," in the neuter gender, not "everyone" [masculine], in order to signify more strongly the universality of all nations. "All," therefore, that is, the whole of every nation, every kind, every age and sex, and every people to whom the Father inspires the disposition of faith, so that they freely and willingly believe in Me, will come to Me through faith and will become Christian and My disciple: therefore I will not repel him from Me, nor cast him out of the house, that is, out of My Church, as I will repel you, O unbelieving and rebellious Jews, from Me and My Church and drive you into hell; but I will freely and lovingly embrace him, and lead him with Me to the Church Triumphant in heaven.

Note: Christ here, in order to rebuff, terrify, and strike down the unbelieving and obstinate Jews, rises to the mystery of God's will and predestination. For He wishes to teach that faith is a gift of God, of which they are deprived. The Father therefore gives the faithful to Christ from eternity, by predestining and in time calling them to faith, in such a way and manner that those who are called freely obey and believe the God who calls them, and thus come to Christ. For this is the cause of actual faith, that is, why anyone here and now actually believes in Christ, namely the grace of God exciting a person to believe, and the person consenting to and believing in God's grace by his own free will. Therefore the Father gives us to Christ when, through His prevenient and cooperating grace, He causes us actually to be converted and freely to believe in Christ; for, as He Himself says here, everyone who is given to Christ by the Father actually comes to Christ. So St. Augustine, Cyril, Leontius, Chrysostom, and others.

Notice that Christ here is properly speaking of predestination to faith and grace, not to glory, just as Paul does. He alludes to Psalm 2:8: "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession." Hence He says in the future tense: "Will come to Me," to indicate that the Gentiles would come to Him through the preaching of the Apostles. Hear Cyril: "He signifies that the Gentiles are about to come, and threatens the loss of grace which the Jews were about to incur."

Moreover, God the Father gives the faithful to Christ because Christ merited this by His obedience and passion. For the merits of Christ are the cause not only of the temporal calling but also of the eternal predestination of the faithful; for God, on account of the foreseen merits of Christ, predestined and chose the faithful, as Paul teaches, Ephesians 1:4, saying: "He chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy." And shortly after: "Who predestined us unto the adoption of children, through Jesus Christ in Himself."

I WILL NOT CAST OUT. "I will not repel him from Me, from My Church, from My heaven, but will refresh him with great care," says Theophylactus. He alludes to a host who admits travelers who are well-disposed and friendly to him into his lodging. So Euthymius: "I will not reject him, he says, here from My friendship, nor there from the kingdom of heaven." And Cyril: "He will not be rejected, he says, nor cast out as unworthy, nor will he be deprived of My kindness, but he will be stored in the granary and will be directed to heavenly mansions, and will enter where the mind of man has never conceived."

Note: St. Chrysostom and Cyril, Book III, chapter 39, say that those are given by the Father to the Son who have made themselves worthy of God's calling and grace through the good use of free will; which afterwards Pelagius crudely followed and denied the necessity of grace, saying that free will suffices by itself for doing good. But this is an error which St. Augustine refutes. "To believe," he says, "is of God's grace; to be able to believe is of nature." Therefore he here and elsewhere teaches that all indeed can believe, do good, and be saved, because free will in all is capable of God's grace, and often receives from God sufficient grace for salvation; yet only those actually believe, do good, and are saved to whom God gives efficacious or congruent grace; which He foresees will persuade free will to cooperate with it, about which more at verse 44.

Verse 38: I Have Come Down From Heaven, Not to Do My Own Will

38. Because I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Christ gives the reason why He will not cast out the one whom the Father has given Him: because He came into flesh and into the world for this purpose alone, to do the will of the Father, which is that those whom the Father wishes to give to Christ and save, Christ should accept and save. Hence, explaining, He adds: "But this is the will," etc. Hear St. Cyril, in the Council of Ephesus, treating this profoundly: "When He adds that He fulfills not His own but His Father's will, He indirectly strikes at the madness of the Jews, inasmuch as they were always striving to establish their own will and making light of the divine laws, and had no regard whatsoever for the commands of their Lord: when, I say, He openly commends His own ready zeal for obedience in this place, He quite clearly accuses their rebellion."

Verse 39: Of All That He Has Given Me, I Should Lose Nothing, But Should Raise It Up on the Last Day

39. BUT THIS IS THE WILL OF THE FATHER WHO SENT ME: THAT OF ALL THAT HE HAS GIVEN ME, I SHOULD LOSE NOTHING, BUT SHOULD RAISE IT UP ON THE LAST DAY. "All," that is, absolutely everyone, of whatever nation, rank, state, age, or sex, as I said at verse 37. "I should not lose," that is, I should not allow to perish. For He explains what He said: "I will not cast out": hence, expounding and completing it, He adds: "But I should raise it up on the last day," namely on the last day of the world, or on the day of judgment, so that He may admit him into heaven and there bless him with blessed immortality and glory, both of body and of soul, for eternity. For then the motion of the heavens will cease, and consequently time, which is the measure of their motion; therefore there will then be the end and cessation of all days, months, and years.

Verse 40: Everyone Who Sees the Son and Believes in Him May Have Eternal Life

40. BUT THIS IS THE WILL OF MY FATHER, WHO SENT ME: THAT EVERYONE WHO SEES THE SON AND BELIEVES IN HIM MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP ON THE LAST DAY. "Who sees," in Greek theoron, that is, considering and contemplating the Son, and seeing Him with the eyes not of the body but of the mind, that is, believing in Him and obeying Him. Lactantius notes, Book 7, chapter 9, from Trismegistus, that this word theoron properly pertains to divine things.

AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP. The Greek anasteso can be translated both in the future indicative, "I will raise up," and in the aorist subjunctive, "that I may raise up," as the translator rendered it in verse 39. Christ insists on the resurrection because "the hope of Christians is the resurrection of the dead," says Tertullian, in his book On the Resurrection. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 46: "He mentions life everywhere; for we are drawn by the desire for it, and nothing is sweeter than not to die. For indeed in the Old Testament, a long life and many days were promised: but now not simply length of life, but life without end is promised; and at the same time He wishes to show that the punishment introduced by sin He now revokes by dissolving that sentence of death and introducing everlasting life, contrary to the institution of former times."

Verse 41: The Jews Therefore Murmured About Him

41. THE JEWS THEREFORE MURMURED ABOUT HIM, BECAUSE HE HAD SAID: I AM THE LIVING BREAD WHICH CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, AND THEY SAID: 42. IS NOT THIS JESUS, THE SON OF JOSEPH, WHOSE FATHER AND MOTHER WE KNOW? HOW THEN DOES HE SAY, "I HAVE COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN"? Murmuring about good things, says Cyril, is like a paternal inheritance descending from the parents under Moses to the Jews under Christ. Theophylactus gives the cause of the murmuring: "Up to this point," he says, "they thought He was speaking of sensible bread, and they bore with Him gently; but now, because He revealed to them that He was speaking of spiritual bread, they despised Him and murmured"; because they could not understand how Christ was the living bread, and how He had come down from heaven, and how they were to eat Him; for they were gaping for their own gluttony.

Verse 43: Do Not Murmur Among Yourselves

43. JESUS THEREFORE ANSWERED AND SAID TO THEM: DO NOT MURMUR AMONG YOURSELVES. In Greek, per allelon, that is, with one another, among yourselves mutually, or even against one another: for He implies that some were for Him, others against Him; and on this account they had been arguing among themselves, some accusing Christ, others defending Him, and thus murmuring among themselves. So Jansenius.

DO NOT MURMUR. Because I give you no occasion for murmuring; for I speak the pure and simple truth, which although it is not grasped by you on account of its sublimity, yet you are at fault, both because you make a clamor against Me and rebel, and do not seek from Me an explanation of My words; and because you do not ask God for the light to understand My sayings. Hence He adds:

Verse 44: No One Can Come to Me Unless the Father Who Sent Me Draws Him

44. NO ONE CAN COME TO ME UNLESS THE FATHER WHO SENT ME DRAWS HIM: AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP ON THE LAST DAY. Note first: Christ could have, as Chrysostom rightly observes, responded and said: It is not surprising that you, O Jews, do not understand or believe these things which I say, namely that I am the living bread which came down from heaven, because you are carnal, hard, and insolent; but He prefers to respond more gently and more divinely, namely, that no one believes in Him unless this has been given to him by the Father, so that those who believed would not contend against those who did not believe, and the unbelievers would recognize that they lack the divine light necessary for believing directly and clearly, and would ask for it with humble prayer from God and Christ, rather than murmuring; or at least they would recognize that they themselves were failing that light offered by God, and that they were rebels against it.

The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Do not you, O you who believe in Me, murmur against the unbelievers, because they do not believe My teaching confirmed by so many miracles; for faith is a supernatural gift of God, and no one can believe in Me unless the Father draws him to believe: but they are not yet drawn by the Father; therefore do not be indignant with them, but pray the Father to draw them, as He drew you: for thus they will believe in Me just as you do. You also, O unbelievers, do not murmur against Me and My words and My believers; for the Father drew them to believe in Me; therefore rather pray the Father to draw you also: for thus you will believe in Me just as they do, and will unite unanimously with them in My faith, teaching, and Church. Say therefore with the Bride: "Draw me after You"; for thus drawn "we will run after the fragrance of Your ointments," Song of Songs 1:3. See what was said there.

Note second, that the force of "draws" does not signify compulsion or necessity, nor is it opposed to the freedom of the will, as if it took it away from man, as the Lutherans and Calvinists wish: for thus sticks and stones are dragged; but among human beings, each is drawn by his own pleasure, that is, by freedom, not necessity. You show a child sugar, and you draw him to you; you show a sheep a green branch, and you draw it to you; for each is drawn by the enticement of food: similarly, the human will is drawn, as a magnet draws iron: thus St. Agnes was drawn to Christ by the hidden power of love. We are drawn "by admonition," says Cyril, "by teaching, by revelation ineffably made." Hear St. Augustine here, Treatise 26: "Do not think that you are drawn unwillingly: the mind is drawn also by love." And shortly after: "How do I believe willingly, if I am drawn? I say: It is too little to say by the will; you are drawn even by delight. What is it to be drawn by delight? Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. There is a certain delight of the heart, for which that heavenly bread is sweet. Moreover, if a poet was allowed to say: Each is drawn by his own pleasure; not necessity but pleasure; not obligation but delight: how much more strongly should we say that a man is drawn to Christ who delights in truth, delights in blessedness, delights in justice, delights in everlasting life, all of which Christ is." And after some lines: "Give me a lover, and he feels what I say; give me one who desires, one who hungers, one who is a pilgrim in this wilderness and who thirsts, and who sighs for the fountain of his eternal homeland; give me such a one, and he knows what I am saying: but if I speak to one who is cold, he does not know what I am saying."

The same Augustine, in his sermon On the Words of the Apostle, says: "He did not say, he says, led, but drew. This violence is done to the heart, not to the flesh. Why then do you wonder? Believe, and you come; love, and you are drawn. Do not consider this a harsh and troublesome violence; it is sweet, it is gentle: sweetness itself draws you. Is not a sheep drawn when grass is shown to it when hungry? And I think it is not driven by the body, but bound by desire. So you too come to Christ; do not contemplate long journeys. Where you believe, there you come. For to Him who is everywhere, one comes by loving, not by sailing."

The drawing of God therefore signifies the power and efficacy of grace, but gentle and mild, which does not compel free will, but entices, soothes, and by coaxing bends it to believe. It also signifies the weakness and sinful desires of man which resist the faith and holiness of Christianity, so that man needs to be not so much led as drawn to the Christian faith and virtue by the strong impulse of God's grace. This is what Christ says, Matthew 11: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it." For the drunkard must do violence to his gluttony, the lustful man to his lust, the miser to his greed, the ambitious man to his ambition. Therefore the drawing of grace lifts up the will that is pressed down into the flesh, raises it to heavenly things, entices it when it resists, strengthens it when it is weak, cheers it when it is sad, and emboldens the timid toward the good. Hence the Latin Fathers everywhere, following St. Augustine, used this saying of Christ against the Pelagians to prove the necessity of grace. I except the Greeks, such as St. Chrysostom, Cyril, and their followers, who preceded Pelagius and therefore speak sparingly about grace, and exalt man's free will against the Manichaeans. Whence Theophylactus here, from St. Chrysostom: Just as, he says, the magnet draws only iron, so God draws only those who are fit; namely those who, by making good use of free will, have made themselves worthy of the grace of God make themselves worthy. Therefore St. Chrysostom must be read cautiously here, when he says that those who are drawn by God merit this very thing by some prior good will of free choice. If you take this of the first drawing of grace, and of free will naked and destitute of all grace, it is Pelagian; but it is Catholic if you understand it of the further drawing to greater faith and virtue, and of free will already prevented and excited by some prior grace.

Note third: Some are drawn by God initially, that is, insofar as is on God's part and as much as suffices for them to be able to be converted: who nevertheless do not come to Christ, nor convert themselves, because they do not wish to follow God who draws them; and without this drawing it is simply impossible to come to Christ, just as it is impossible for a man to fly without wings. And concerning this drawing, says Maldonatus, if you ask why this person is drawn to Christ and that one is not? I answer: because this one wished to follow Christ who draws, but that one did not wish to; indeed some who already believed in Christ, offended by this eating of His flesh, recoiled from Him, as John testifies, verse 67, saying: "After this many of His disciples went back, and no longer walked with Him"; and expressly concerning Judas the traitor, verse 71: "Did I not choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" But others are drawn by God completely, that is, they are drawn through to Christ, namely those who follow God who draws them, and of such Christ also speaks here, as is clear from verse 37: "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me: Everyone who has heard from the Father and has learned, comes to Me." For here being drawn by the Father is the same as hearing, being taught, and learning from the Father. "What is being drawn by the Father, but learning from the Father?" says Augustine. Thus those are completely drawn to whom God gives grace, not only prevenient, and that efficacious and congruent (for the former, who are drawn only initially, have merely sufficient grace), but also cooperating. It is called congruent because it suits the character, disposition, and habits of those who are drawn. Hence God foresees that they will in fact freely consent and cooperate with it, and thus will be converted, will believe, and will act rightly. And of these St. Augustine says: "If you are not drawn, pray that you may be drawn." And: "Why this one is drawn and that one is not, do not judge, if you do not wish to err."

Moreover, this efficacious and congruent grace is necessary for conversion, faith, and salvation, not absolutely, but by hypothesis, namely given the foreknowledge of God, by which He foresees that this grace will persuade free will to convert itself to God, but that the other grace, which is only sufficient, will not persuade it. Hence God likewise foresees that we will freely consent to efficacious and congruent grace, but will not consent to sufficient and incongruent grace, and this from the pure freedom of the will. This is what Christ says: "No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him."

Moreover, this congruent grace persevering until the end of life is the great gift of perseverance, which is the cause of our eternal salvation, and therefore does not fall under merit; but it is a special and supreme benefit of God, which God confers on His predestined and elect, and by which He separates and distinguishes them from the non-elect and reprobate, as St. Augustine teaches at length, On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter 16, and from him St. Thomas and the Scholastics, and the Council of Trent, session 6, chapter 13. Therefore this congruent grace must be constantly and most humbly sought from God through the merits of Christ; for on it turns the hinge of our salvation, because God has promised to give us whatever we ask in the name of Christ, John 15:16.

Finally, the great malice and hardness of the human heart often impedes the drawing of God, just as the indomitable diamond impedes the drawing of iron by the magnet; a diamond which is conquered and broken not by iron nor by fire, but by goat's blood alone. Hear Pliny, Book 37, chapter 4: "The diamond is so hostile to the magnet that, placed next to it, it does not allow iron to be drawn away, or if a magnet has seized the iron, it snatches and takes it away." Augustine relates the same thing, in Book 21 of The City of God, chapter 4.

AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP ON THE LAST DAY. Christ shows the fruit of this drawing of God the Father, as if to say: But I will bestow this reward on him who, drawn by God, has come to Me and believed in Me and obeyed Me: that I will raise him up to eternal life and glory, provided that he has persevered in My faith and obedience until death.

Verse 45: It Is Written in the Prophets: And They Shall All Be Taught of God

45. IT IS WRITTEN IN THE PROPHETS: AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD. The Arabic version says, "by God." He cites Isaiah 54:13: "All your children taught by the Lord." Jeremiah has something similar, 31:33-34; and Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26; and Joel 2:28. See what was said there. Because what Christ had said seemed outrageous to the Jews: "No one can come to Me unless My Father draws him"; therefore Christ confirms this same thing from Isaiah and the Prophets, who assert that all the children, or disciples, of Christ and the Church will be theodidactoi, that is, taught by God: but to be taught by God is to be drawn by God; for "teachable" (docibiles) here means the same as "taught" (doctos). For the Hebrew is limmude. Thus frequently elsewhere, verbal adjectives ending in -bilis our Latin translator takes as passive participles, so that "incredibilis" means the same as "incredulus" (unbelieving), "plaga desperabilis" is a desperate wound, "verbum persuasibile" is a word that has been or is persuading.

Verse 46: He Who Is From God Has Seen the Father

46. NOT THAT ANYONE HAS SEEN THE FATHER, EXCEPT HE WHO IS FROM GOD — HE HAS SEEN THE FATHER. — "Lest the dull and unrefined Jews should suspect," says Euthymius, "that someone hears from the Father in a sensual manner, seeing Him in a human way," He says: "Not that," etc., understand: But that one hears God speaking invisibly in the mind, revealing, illuminating, and persuading faith in Christ, as if to say: God is an invisible teacher who is not seen by His disciples; God is a teacher not of the eyes nor of the ears, but of the hearts and minds. EXCEPT HE WHO IS FROM GOD — namely I, who as God am the Son of God, born from Him, and therefore intimate with Him, I continuously see and behold Him through His essence; but as man, formed by Him without the work of a man, I always enjoy His beatific vision. So Cyril says: "As consubstantial with the Father, He says, He will surely see Him from whom He is." And Euthymius: "As being of the same nature, substance, and knowledge, and who is in the bosom of the Father."

Verse 47: He Who Believes Has Eternal Life

47. AMEN, AMEN, I SAY TO YOU: HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME HAS ETERNAL LIFE. — "He has," by right and merit, or in certain hope, but not yet in reality. Christ returns to verse 29 and inculcates faith in Himself again and again, because this is the beginning of every good, the root of salvation, and the necessary means for obtaining from Christ the bread of life, namely the Eucharist.

ETERNAL LIFE. — "Thus willing," says Chrysostom, "He impels them to faith by the firm hope of reward: for what is better or sweeter to those who fear death and corruption than eternal life?"

Verse 48: I Am the Bread of Life

48. I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE — nourishing those who eat Me unto eternal life, as if to say: I grant eternal life to those by whom I am eaten with true and living faith. He repeats and confirms the same thing often, and lest He should seem to have spoken rashly, because to the Jews this seemed entirely paradoxical and impossible.

Verse 49: Your Fathers Ate Manna and Died

49. YOUR FATHERS ATE MANNA IN THE DESERT, AND THEY DIED.

50. THIS IS THE BREAD THAT COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN, SO THAT IF ANYONE EATS OF IT, HE MAY NOT DIE. — "In the desert" — this phrase, says St. Chrysostom, "signifies that the manna did not last long, nor did it come into the promised land; for as soon as they reached it, the manna ceased." But this bread of Christ is perpetually enduring, says Theophylact. Hear Joshua 5:12: "The manna ceased after they ate of the fruits of the land, and the children of Israel no longer used that food, but ate of the fruits of the land of Canaan." For God, just as He does not fail in necessities, so He does not abound in superfluities.

AND THEY DIED. — As if to say: The manna nourished the fathers in the manner of other foods, and did not ward off death from them, nor could it ward it off; but My bread wards it off.

Verse 50: The Bread That Comes Down From Heaven

SO THAT IF ANYONE EATS OF IT (with true faith, living and formed by charity), HE MAY NOT DIE FOREVER. — As if to say: The manna did not have the vital power of preserving from bodily death, much less the souls of your fathers; but this bread of Mine has the power of delivering from death, not only of the body, but also of the soul, and that forever; for although it does not take away the temporal death of the body, it will nevertheless cause the faithful man to rise from it and thereafter not die forever: concerning which more at verse 50 and the following.

Verse 51: I Am the Living Bread

51. I AM THE LIVING BREAD (that is, food — it is a Hebraism) LIVING (in Myself, and vivifying those who eat Me, who am living, and communicating My life to them; since the manna was in itself inanimate and dead, and therefore could not bestow life on those who ate it), WHO CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN — by reason of the divine supposit, says Suarez. "Since they were seeking food from heaven," says Chrysostom, "He therefore frequently testifies that He came down from heaven."

Verse 52: He Who Eats This Bread Will Live Forever

52. IF ANYONE EATS OF THIS BREAD, HE WILL LIVE FOREVER. — For this bread gives the soul the life of grace, enduring all the way to the life of glory for all eternity; and it will cause the body to rise from death, so that it may live gloriously likewise forever.

Calvin and the heretics contend that this bread is not the body of Christ in the Eucharist, but is a mystical bread; for we mystically eat the body of Christ through faith when we believe in Him. The same opinion was held among Catholics by Jansenius here, Cajetan, Gabriel, Ruardus Tapper, Nicholas of Cusa, and Hesselius, whom Bellarmine cites in Book I On the Eucharist, chapter 5; against whom Didacus Castillus wrote an entire book, and Nicholas Sanders another, and Toletus, Maldonatus, Bellarmine and others everywhere refute them.

I say therefore that Christ from this point onward speaks literally of the Eucharist. This is so certain that Maldonatus says to deny it is rash and nearly erroneous.

It is proved first, because Christ most clearly asserts this here, commanding us throughout to eat His flesh and drink His blood, so much so that He could not have expressed the doctrine of the Eucharist more clearly; for He repeats nothing else here, you hear nothing else, than: "My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood." Indeed, it seems incredible that Christ would have wished to obscure with so many words and metaphors of eating His flesh and blood a matter clear in itself and so often repeated by Him — namely, that one must believe in Him — especially since He foresaw that for this reason many, even disciples, would depart from Him.

Secondly, because He distinguishes both species of the Eucharist; for He makes His flesh a food for us to eat, and His blood a drink for us to drink. "Unless," He says, verse 54, "you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you." Therefore He speaks of the Eucharist, in which we truly and properly eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood. For in the spiritual eating of Christ, which takes place through faith, the drink cannot be distinguished from the food, nor the blood from the flesh: for we do not need to believe specifically and separately in the flesh and then in the blood of Christ, but it suffices to believe in general and entirely in the whole humanity of Christ.

Thirdly, because nowhere in Scripture are the efficacy and fruits of the Eucharist, likewise the universal precept of receiving it, clearly expressed and inculcated, except here. For since this precept is grave and obliges all the faithful, it needed to be clearly expressed.

Fourthly, if St. John does not treat of the Eucharist here, then he never treated of it anywhere. Who would believe this of the Benjamin of Christ — that he who reclined on His breast at the Last Supper, where Christ instituted the Eucharist, would have omitted this most august monument and mystery of Christ's love, and wrapped it in silence?

Fifthly, because in a similar manner, in chapter 3, he narrates the institution of baptism and Christ's disputation about it with Nicodemus; just as here he narrates the mystery of the Eucharist and Christ's disputation about it with the Jews. For these are the two Sacraments necessary for the faithful, and as it were the two foundations and pillars of the Christian Church.

Finally, this is the common opinion of the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, likewise of the Interpreters and Scholastic Doctors, namely St. Cyril, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, St. Thomas, Rupert, Lyra, Maldonatus, Toletus here, and others in various places, whom Toletus, Ribera, Maldonatus, Sanders, and Didacus Castillus cite at length in their writings on this chapter, as well as Bellarmine, Book I On the Eucharist, chapter 5.

In the same way, the Council of Ephesus understands this passage as referring to the Eucharist, in its letter to Nestorius; Nicaea II, session 6; Chalon II, chapter 46; and Sens, chapter 10; and Trent, session 13, chapter 2, and session 21, chapter 1. Nor does St. Augustine dissent, whom many think holds the contrary view, as is clear to anyone who reads him carefully: for from this passage he himself, indeed many of the ancients, contended that the Eucharist should be given even to infants, and this was practiced for six hundred years in various places, until the Church defined the contrary, namely that the Eucharist is not necessary for infants, nor is it expedient to give it to them because of the danger of irreverence.

Note here that St. Augustine, besides the literal and genuine explanation of this passage, which concerns the Eucharist, adds another symbolic and mystical one, and by this bread and food understands the fellowship of the members and body of Christ, which is the Church, so that to eat the flesh of Christ is the same as being incorporated into the Church and being gathered and associated with it, and consequently being grafted into Christ and drawing and sharing in His spirit. Augustine does this because of the Donatists of his time in Africa, with whom he had a continual dispute. For they had torn apart the fellowship and unity of the Church by schism. There is added, firstly, that the Eucharist is not only a symbol of this fellowship of the faithful in the Church, but also its cause. For just as from many grains of wheat ground together one bread is made, and from many grape berries pressed together wine flows; so from many faithful communicants one fellowship and Church is formed. Secondly, that this fellowship of the faithful is the end and fruit of the Eucharist, which without it profits nothing for salvation. Thirdly, that St. Augustine, having often lightly touched upon and passed over, as it were in passing, the literal sense as being easy and obvious, dwells upon the spiritual and mystical sense as being more obscure, more subtle, and more sublime; Origen, St. Gregory, St. Jerome, and other Fathers do the same. Thus St. Bernard, the usual follower of St. Augustine, explains him in Sermon 3 on Psalm 90: "What is it," he says, "to eat His flesh and drink His blood, but to share in His sufferings and to imitate that manner of life which He led in the flesh? Whence also this points to that inviolate Sacrament of the altar, where we receive the Lord's body; so that, just as that form of bread seems to enter into us, so we may know that through the manner of life which He had on earth, He Himself enters into us, to dwell by faith in our hearts."

You will say first: St. Augustine, in Book III of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 16, asserts that in these words of Christ there is a trope, or figure, by which it is commanded that we share in the sufferings of Christ. I answer: St. Augustine calls it a figure because Christ's flesh is not here commanded to be torn apart in a carnal manner, cooked, and thus eaten, as is done with the flesh of oxen and sheep, as the Capharnaites understood, and were therefore offended; but figuratively, that is, sacramentally. For he holds that here it is commanded that in the Eucharist, through the species of bread and wine separated from each other and as if dead, we represent the passion and death of Christ, which was accomplished through the separation of the soul and blood from the body of Christ, and that we then imitate it through mortification and express it in holy conduct.

You will say secondly: Christ, at verses 27, 29, and 63, speaks of eating Himself spiritually through faith, therefore here too He continues to speak of the same thing, not of sacramental and bodily eating, otherwise He would not be speaking consistently and coherently. I answer first, by denying the consequence; for Christ wished to raise up the unlearned Jews gradually, and first to propose easier things to them, then more difficult and more hidden things. Hence from the multiplication of the loaves, with which He had fed the crowd, He rises to manna, from there to the spiritual food of faith, verses 27, 29, 35, 36, 40, 47, and from this verse onward, to the real eating of Himself in the Eucharist, which is the end, kernel, and aim of that miracle, of the multiplication of the loaves, and of His entire discourse and disputation in this chapter. In a similar way, in chapter 4, He raised and led the Samaritan woman from bodily water and drinking to spiritual. And Christ Himself sufficiently hints at, indeed explains, this elevation, when at verses 29 and 35 He said that bread was already possessed by those who believe, but here He says that His bread (of the Eucharist) was not yet possessed, and that He was not yet giving it, but would give it in the future: "The bread," He says, "which I will give, is My flesh for the life of the world."

Now the reason for this variation is that Christ, at verse 27 and following, wished to forearm and prepare His hearers for the most august mystery: for in it faith and spiritual eating are supremely required, without which the real and bodily eating profits nothing, as St. Augustine says.

I answer secondly, by denying the antecedent, for Christ did not say that we eat Him through faith, but He required faith as a means of obtaining from Him the bread and heavenly food, which is none other than His flesh and blood in the Eucharist, as I noted at verse 27 and following.

They object thirdly: Christ says, verse 64: "It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing," but I shall explain that at verse 64.

From what has been said, it is clear that in the Eucharist the very flesh of Christ is truly and properly eaten and His blood drunk, and not merely bread that is only a type and figure of Christ's flesh, as the Calvinists maintain. For the figure of the Eucharist was rather the manna of the Jews, being heavenly and most delicious, than the common and dry bread of Christians. And if in the Eucharist there is only bare bread, not the body of Christ, then Christ wrongly preferred the Eucharist to manna itself, since manna was more delicious and sublime than bread. And so the Capharnaites and the disciples of Christ understood Him; namely, that He willed His flesh to be truly and properly eaten, even though they did not know the manner of eating sacramentally, under the species of bread and wine, nor could they have grasped it even if Christ had explained it at that time; and yet, though they were gravely offended, Christ did not correct them, when He could and should have prevented their offense and apostasy with a single word, by saying that He was speaking mystically; namely, that eating His flesh is nothing other than believing that He became incarnate and suffered for the salvation of mankind. Since therefore He did not do this, it is certain that He was speaking of the real and sacramental eating of His flesh in the Eucharist. "Observe," says Theophylact, "that the bread which is eaten by us in the mysteries is not merely some representation of the Lord's body, but the very flesh of the Lord. For He did not say: The bread which I will give is a figure of My flesh, but: it is My flesh. For that bread is transformed by the mystical words through the mystical blessing and the coming of the Holy Spirit, into the flesh of the Lord. And how is it, he says, that it does not appear to us as flesh, but as bread? So that we may not be horrified at its use. For if indeed it had appeared as flesh, we would have been unpleasantly disposed toward communion. But now, with the Lord condescending to our weakness, such mystical food appears to us as we are otherwise accustomed to."

AND THE BREAD THAT I WILL GIVE IS MY FLESH FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. — The Greek has: But the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world: Thus reads the Syriac, St. Cyril, Theophylact, and Theodoret; the Arabic: And the bread which I will give is My body, which I give for the life of the world. So also the Syriac. The meaning is, as if to say: The bread, that is the food of the Eucharist, which I will give at the Last Supper, is My flesh, which I will give, that is, offer to God on the cross, as a ransom and price for redeeming the world from death; so that I may raise up the world, dead through sin, to the life of grace and glory. Or rather, as if to say: The bread of the Eucharist, which I will give as food for the life of the world, will be this flesh of Mine, which I will also hand over to the cross and death for the life of the world; but in such a way that on the cross indeed I give it for restoring lost life to the world; but in the Eucharist I give it as food, so that the world, raised to the life of grace through My death, may be nourished in it, grow, and be perfected; as if to say: I will give My true flesh on the cross, like wheat in a mill, to be ground and crushed, so that from it may be made the bread of the Eucharist, fruitful and life-giving, nourishing the faithful in the life of grace and leading them to the life of glory. Looking to this, St. Ignatius, already condemned to the lions, when he heard them roaring, said: "I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be found pure bread of Christ."

From "I will give," which is in the future tense, all the ancients and generally the moderns understand this passage as referring to the Eucharist, and some add that Christ gives, that is, offers to God His flesh for the life of the world, not only on the cross, but also in the Eucharist. For Christ not only offered Himself to God on the cross as a bloody victim for the life of the world, but also offers Himself daily for the same purpose in the Eucharist as an unbloody victim. For the Eucharist, or Mass, is a perpetual sacrifice, but an unbloody one. "He did not say," remarks Euthymius, "'the bread which I give,' but 'which I will give': for He was about to give it at the Last Supper, when He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, and said: Take and eat, this is My body. And then: I will give unto death. For this foreshadows His crucifixion and His voluntary passion." Hear also Theophylact: "Although He is said to have been handed over by the Father, nevertheless He is also said to have handed over Himself; and the former is so that we may learn His harmony with the Father; but the latter, so that we may not be ignorant of the free will of the Son."

Verse 53: How Can This Man Give Us His Flesh to Eat

53. THE JEWS THEREFORE STROVE AMONG THEMSELVES, SAYING: HOW CAN THIS MAN GIVE US HIS FLESH TO EAT? — "They strove," in Greek emachonto, that is, they fought, contended in words, disputed, quarreled among themselves, some accusing Christ, others defending Him.

HOW. — When the question arises: How something is done, at the same time incredulity arises, says Chrysostom. "For since they ought," says Cyril, "who had perceived the divine power and authority of the Savior by the miracle of signs, to willingly accept His discourse, and if some things seemed difficult, to seek the solution of them, they do the exact opposite: And how can this man?" etc.

St. Chrysostom: "If you inquire into this," he says, "why did you not also say the same thing regarding the miracle of the loaves: How did He multiply them so greatly? For from that it was proper to believe that these things too were easy for Him to do." Therefore the word "how" is a Jewish word and a question of unbelievers. Let heretics hear this, who say: How can Christ, so great, be wholly present in so small a host? Let them rather say themselves: How is an angel wholly present in a point? How is God everywhere? How is the soul wholly in the whole body, and wholly in each of its parts? And if they cannot say or grasp these things, how will they grasp the mystery of the Eucharist? Let them believe God who is almighty affirming the same thing, even if they do not understand the manner. God can do more than man can understand, says St. Augustine. "It is necessary therefore for us," says Theophylact, "when we have heard, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son, you will not have life, to retain an undoubting faith in the reception of the divine mysteries, and not to ask how." Similarly Cyril: "But let us, I pray, derive great profit from the sins of others, and applying firm faith to the mysteries, let us never, in such sublime matters, either think or utter that word How; for this is a Jewish word and the cause of the utmost punishment." Wherefore he wisely concludes: "When God works, let us not ask how, but let us concede the way and knowledge of His work to Him alone."

Verse 54: Unless You Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man

54. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you: UNLESS YOU EAT THE FLESH OF THE SON OF MAN AND DRINK HIS BLOOD, YOU SHALL NOT HAVE LIFE IN YOU. — Hear St. Chrysostom and from him Euthymius: "They indeed judged this to be impossible, but He showed it to be entirely possible, and not only that, but also necessary." "And He did not explain the manner in which this could be done," says Cyril, "but He exhorts them to seek it by faith: but they, before they believed, were importunately inquiring."

Similarly St. Augustine: "You do not know how indeed it is given, and what manner of eating this bread there is; nevertheless unless you eat," etc.

UNLESS YOU EAT. — This is Christ's precept about receiving the Eucharist: wherefore from the very formula of the words it is clear that it pertains to adults only; although some ancients extended it also to little children and infants, to whom accordingly they also gave the Eucharist in practice, as is evident from St. Augustine, Epistle 23 to Boniface, and from St. Cyprian, tract. On the Lapsed; indeed at Constantinople and elsewhere, it was the custom to give the remains of the Eucharist to innocent and pure children, whom they called from school to the temple for this purpose, as is clear from what I shall presently say about the Jewish boy: but afterward the Church defined that little children, as not yet using reason, are incapable of this precept, and scarcely able to fulfill it reverently. Hence the Council of Trent, Session 21, Canon 4: "If anyone shall say," it declares, "that communion of the Eucharist is necessary for little children before they have reached the years of discretion, let him be anathema." It is otherwise with the decree of Baptism: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," John 3:5. For there from the formula of the words it is clear that Baptism is not only commanded, but also established as a means necessary for salvation, and therefore little children cannot be saved without Baptism, although they are not bound by its precept, indeed cannot be bound. Others extended this precept about eating the Eucharist to little children, not in the literal but in the mystical sense, namely that little children must eat the flesh of Christ, that is, they must become partakers of the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church, that is, they must be baptized, so that they may be incorporated into the Church and Christ through the faith, hope, and charity infused into them in Baptism. So holds and explains St. Cyprian, Book III to Quirinus, chapter 53; Innocent I, Pope, Epistle 93 to the Fathers of the Council of Milevis, which appears in its order among the epistles of St. Augustine, Epistle 106, and Book I against Epistle 2 of the Pelagians, chapter 12. But this is remote and symbolic, not literal and genuine.

You will say: Little children must be united to the Church and to Christ; but this union is the effect and fruit of the Eucharist (as the Council of Florence teaches): therefore they must receive it, in order to obtain this union. I answer that little children are united and incorporated to Christ and the Church through Baptism; but the perfection of this union takes place in the Eucharist, and is its proper and particular effect; but this perfection is not required of little children, nor is it necessary for salvation. So Suarez.

AND DRINK HIS BLOOD. — Hence the Hussites, Luther, Calvin, and others contend that the chalice of the Eucharist must also be given to the laity, so that they may communicate under both species. But the contrary is held by the practice and definition of the Church, which is the best interpreter of Sacred Scripture.

I answer therefore first, as regards the reality contained in the Sacrament itself, that the laity also drink the blood of Christ when they receive His body under the species of bread, because under it by the power of consecration is placed the body of Christ, and by concomitance under the same is placed the blood of Christ, because the body of Christ is not bloodless, nor can the blood be separated from the glorious body of Christ. Just as therefore one who receives the Eucharist under the species of wine, by the power of the words of consecration directly and primarily receives the blood of Christ; yet by concomitance he also receives the flesh of Christ, because the blood of Christ cannot exist without the flesh: so conversely, one who receives the flesh of Christ under the species of bread directly receives the flesh of Christ, yet by concomitance he also receives the blood. For in spiritual and sacramental things, as in divine things, food and drink are the same, and consequently eating and drinking are the same: wherefore one who receives only one species receives as much fruit and grace as one who receives both species. Indeed in bodily things, the same milk is at once food and drink, the same bread dipped in wine at once feeds and gives drink, is at once eaten and drunk, at once satisfies hunger and thirst. As regards the species of the Sacrament, one is properly said to eat the flesh of Christ, when one eats it under the species of bread; but to drink His blood, when one drinks it under the species of wine.

You will say: Therefore the laity must do both, because Christ commands it here. I answer: the word "and drink" here and often elsewhere is taken by a Hebraism for "or drink"; for it suffices to receive one species, because under either one Christ is contained whole and entire. Thus it is said in Exodus 21, verse 18: "He who strikes his father and (that is, or) his mother, shall be put to death;" for whoever strikes either one is guilty of death. For here the word "and," although it separates the parts of the subject, namely the father and the mother, nevertheless conjoins and couples them in the predicate, namely in the penalty of death. "Silver and (that is, or) gold I have none," Acts 3:6. Similar passages are Exodus 22:10; Ezekiel 44:22 and elsewhere. So here too it can be taken, from the fact that Christ, at verses 51 and 58, says of bread alone: "He who eats this bread shall live forever." And so Paul explains Christ saying: "Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord," 1 Corinthians 11:27, and the Council of Trent, Session 21, Canon 1; Bellarmine, Suarez, Toletus, Maldonatus, and others.

Add that by a Hebraism the word "unless" must be repeated, in this way: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and unless you drink His blood," that is, if you neither eat nor drink, etc., or if you do not eat, or do not drink. This is clear from the Greek, which for "unless" has ean me, that is, if you do not eat, and if you do not drink, that is, if you do neither; if, namely, you neither eat nor drink. The reason a priori is that Christ here answers the Jews quarreling among themselves and saying about the flesh of Christ alone: "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" to whom He responds: "Amen, amen (that is, most truly and most certainly) I say to you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man," etc. But He adds, "and drink His blood," to confirm the "unless you eat the flesh": for flesh is not true and living that does not have blood; and to show His liberality, charity, and the greatness of His gift, by which in the Eucharist He prepares for the faithful a full refreshment, which consists in food and drink. This therefore pertains more to the gift than to the precept.

Finally there is a Canon of Sacred Scripture handed down by St. Augustine, Book III of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 17: Many precepts in Scripture are given to the universal Church, but are to be fulfilled by some, not by all individuals. Such is the command: "Increase and multiply," Genesis 1. For He commands that some marry and propagate the human race, but not that each and every one do so. So here: "Unless you eat," etc., that is, unless there be some (namely priests) who receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist under both species, you shall not have life in you; because if there are no such persons, consequently there will be none who consecrate the Sacrament, none who minister it, and thus the entire fruit of the most salutary Sacrament will perish, says Bellarmine, Book IV On the Eucharist, chapter 25.

For it belongs to priests to consecrate and receive both species, so that they may confect not only the perfect Sacrament, but also the sacrifice; for this requires both species, both so that the perfect refreshment may be signified (for the sacrifice is, as it were, the food of God), which consists in food and drink; and so that the passion and death of Christ may be perfectly represented, in which the blood was separated from the body of Christ: just as by the power of the words of consecration the flesh is separately consecrated and placed under the species of bread, and the blood under the species of wine. In former times indeed the laity occasionally (not always) communicated under both species in the primitive Church, as is evident from Paul, 1 Corinthians 11:28, and from Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy, chapter 3, part 3, and from St. Cyprian, Sermon On the Lapsed. But as the number of the faithful increased, the Church, on account of the danger of irreverence and various abuses, which it had often experienced, rightly abolished this custom.

YOU SHALL NOT HAVE LIFE IN YOU. — That spiritual life, by which the faithful soul lives in the grace and charity of God, can be had without the Eucharist, is clear in the case of the newly baptized; yet here it is said that life cannot be had without it; because that life cannot be retained, fostered, and nourished for long without this food, especially since the precept of communicating, whether by the law of nature and divine law, or by human law (for the Church has decreed that everyone communicate at least once a year, namely at Easter), urges and obliges one to receive it. Hence Rupert says: One is not considered not to have eaten, unless one who did not wish to eat, who did not care, who neglected to: thus we commonly say that a man cannot live without food, or have life, namely for long. Hence St. Basil, Book I On Baptism: "He who," he says, "has been regenerated through Baptism, must henceforth be nourished by participation in the divine mysteries." Dionysius the Carthusian gives a similar statement: "Just as," he says, "the body is not sustained without bodily food, nor does it remain in natural life; so the soul without this life-giving food does not persist in the spiritual life of grace." Similarly Lyranus: "Just as in bodily life food is necessary for preserving life, so in spiritual life this Sacrament is necessary, because it is the preservative of spiritual life; for just as Baptism is a kind of spiritual generation, so the Eucharist is a kind of spiritual nourishment."

From what has been said, the fruits and effects of the Eucharist are evident, to be gathered by analogy from the fruits of bread and food; for what bread and food do for the body, the Eucharist does for the soul, and sometimes even for the body; so that it may nourish, invigorate, and vivify the body as well, indeed sometimes heal diseases and ward off the dangers of death. Wherefore some in former times, when about to board a ship, used to carry the Eucharist with them, so that they might receive it in danger, indeed ward off danger. Thus Gregory, the father of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, exhausted by a most burning and prolonged fever and near death, was freed from it and restored to life and health by the Eucharist received on Easter day, as Nazianzen relates in the oration which he delivered at his father's funeral. In the same place he relates that his mother recovered from a grave and dangerous illness, being spiritually nourished by the consecrated bread from his own sacrifice. The same author, in the oration at the funeral of his sister St. Gorgonia, testifies that she was healed by the Eucharist from a dissolution of all her limbs and the most grievous torments with which she was afflicted. St. Ambrose, in the oration on the death of his brother Satyrus, testifies that he escaped from a certain peril of death in a shipwreck by the Eucharist hung around his neck, and swam to safety. That Maximian, Bishop of Syracuse, escaped a similar peril of the sea through the Eucharist, St. Gregory narrates, Book III of the Dialogues, chapter 36. Under Justinian, Emperor at Constantinople, the son of a certain Jew, having received the remains of the Eucharist with the other Christian children according to the custom of that age, and having therefore been thrown by his Jewish father into a burning glass furnace (for he was a glass-blower), was preserved alive and unharmed in it by the power of the Eucharist, in the year of our Lord 552, as Baronius narrates from Evagrius, Book IV, chapter 24; Gregory of Tours, Book I of Miracles, chapter 10; and Nicephorus, Book 17, chapter 25, in Volume 7, at the year of Christ 552. Finally hear St. Cyril here, Book IV, chapter 17, enumerating the fruits and effects of the Eucharist: "It drives away not only death, but also all diseases. For when Christ abides in us, He calms the raging law of our members, strengthens piety, extinguishes the disturbances of the soul; nor does He consider the sins in which we are found; but He heals the sick, restores the broken, and like the good shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep, He raises us from every fall."

Verse 55: He Who Eats My Flesh Has Eternal Life

55. HE WHO EATS MY FLESH AND (that is, or) DRINKS MY BLOOD HAS ETERNAL LIFE: AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP ON THE LAST DAY. — "Eats," understand, worthily, says Rupert, with due preparation and purification, first making an act of contrition and sacramental confession, if one is conscious of any mortal sin. For if after examination one is conscious of none, and yet is truly in mortal sin hidden from oneself, the communion of the Eucharist will abolish that sin and restore the communicant to the grace and charity of God, as Suarez and Theologians generally teach. Furthermore, the Sixth Ecumenical Council, Act 8, understands this passage as referring to the Eucharist, and asserts that in it the flesh of Christ is called life-giving, because it is proper to the Word and hypostatically united to Him.

HAS ETERNAL LIFE. — Because through the Eucharist he receives grace, which preserves him and leads him to eternal life. So Dionysius the Carthusian: "He has eternal life," he says, "because he has Me Myself; and he has the life of grace, which by the power of this Sacrament is continued until it reaches the life of everlasting glory." St. Cyril gives the reason, because the flesh of Christ is the flesh of God, which, joined to the "Word of God," who is by nature life, has been made life-giving. The Eucharist therefore vivifies the soul, because it preserves, nourishes, and increases grace: likewise it abolishes venial sins, and mortal sins also, if one has forgotten them: and it will raise the body from death. Hence follows: "And I will raise him up." Furthermore St. Bernard, in the treatise On Loving God, explains these words of Christ tropologically thus: "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life. That is," he says, "he who recalls My death and after My example mortifies his members which are upon the earth, has eternal life."

AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP ON THE LAST DAY, — on which the passion of Christ, as well as the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, will attain their last and most perfect fruit and reward in the Saints. "I," who am really contained and eaten in the Eucharist, "will raise up" the one who eats Me, so that, just as I confer upon the soul its glory, so I may confer a like glory upon the body; for a glorified soul requires a glorified body, so that the whole man may be blessed. Hear St. Cyril: "I, He said, that is My body, which is eaten, will raise him up. For He Himself is not other than His flesh. I do not say this because He is not other in nature, but because after the incarnation, He does not at all allow Himself to be divided into two Sons. I, therefore, He says, who became man, will raise up on the last day those who eat through My flesh: for it is altogether impossible that destruction and death not be overcome by Him who is by nature life."

I WILL RAISE UP — to immortality and glory. Lest they should think, says St. Augustine, that in this food and drink eternal life is promised in such a way that those who receive it would no longer die even in the body; He deigned to address this thought, immediately adding: And I will raise him up on the last day; so that he may have meanwhile, according to the spirit, eternal life, in the rest which receives the spirits of the Saints; but as regards the body, neither shall his flesh be deprived of eternal life, but in the resurrection of the dead on the last day.

Wherefore the Council of Nicaea calls the Eucharist "the symbol of the resurrection;" and St. Ignatius, Epistle 14 to the Ephesians, calls it "the medicine of immortality;" St. Cyril here, Book IV, chapter 16, calls it "the food that nourishes to immortality and eternal life," which he explains more fully in chapter 15, and in Book X, chapter 13. Hence St. Chrysostom, in Book VI On the Priesthood, asserts that the souls of those who receive this Sacrament at the end of life are led by angels, on account of having received this Sacrament, straight to heaven; and that their bodies are guarded by angels attending them like bodyguards, unto eternal life. Nyssenus indeed, in the Catechetical Oration, chapter 37, adds that "our body cannot attain immortality unless it has been joined to this immortal body of Christ." St. Cyprian has similar things, in the Sermon On the Lord's Supper, and Tertullian, in the book On the Resurrection of the Flesh. Indeed St. Irenaeus, Book IV, chapter 34, from the fact that we share in the immortal flesh and blood of Christ, proves the resurrection, namely that we shall rise again to immortal life. Understand all these things in this way, not that through the Eucharist any physical quality causing the resurrection is conferred on the body, or any supernatural gift that would not be owed by reason of the grace or glory of the holy soul; but that the resurrection owed to grace is also given to the Saints by another title, which is proper and special to the Eucharist, namely on account of the special conjunction with the glorious body of Christ made through the Eucharist, and this by the institution and promise of Christ. So Suarez, Third Part, Question 79, article 8, disputation 64, section 2. Add that the Eucharist preserves, nourishes, and increases grace, which is the seed of glory. The Eucharist therefore is an instrumental cause of the resurrection, but moral, not physical: for on account of it Christ will raise us up. Hence He does not say: "The Eucharist will raise him up; but I will raise him up."

Verse 56: My Flesh Is Truly Food

56. FOR MY FLESH IS TRULY FOOD; AND MY BLOOD IS TRULY DRINK. — "Truly," that is, "not parabolically, not enigmatically," says Euthymius following Chrysostom, not figuratively, but truly and properly, as the words sound. Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 61 to the People, teaches that in the Eucharist we are united and mingled with the flesh of Christ not only through love and the consent of the will, but also really and substantially. "For this reason," he says, "He mingled Himself with us, and tempered His body into us, so that we might become one thing, as a body fitted to its head; for this is the way of ardent lovers. Thus Job, intimating this, said of his servants, to whom he was exceedingly desirable, showing their desire they said: Who will give us to be filled with his flesh?" Job 31. And after a few words: "Not only offering Himself to those who desire to see Him, but also to be touched and eaten, and to fix their teeth in His flesh, and to be embraced, and to fulfill every desire. Let us therefore depart from that table like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil, and revolving in our minds our Head and the charity which He has shown us."

Verse 57: He Who Eats My Flesh Abides in Me

57. HE WHO EATS MY FLESH AND DRINKS MY BLOOD ABIDES IN ME, AND I IN HIM. — Note first: St. John delights in the word "abides," and sometimes by it he signifies delay and duration of time, as when in chapter 1, verse 33, he says: "Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and abiding." And chapter 3, last verse: "The wrath of God abides upon him." But sometimes by "abides" he further signifies indwelling and intimate union, as here and in Epistle I, chapter 3, verse 9: "His seed (that is, of the grace of God) abides in him;" and chapter 4, verse 16: "He who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him."

Note secondly, that this abiding and union of the soul with Christ in the Eucharist does not come about only through the Eucharist itself, through which John says that we abide in God, and God in us; but also, and this more properly, it comes about through the Eucharist itself, through which Christ, hidden in it, really and bodily enters into our body, and thus Christ is really united and mingled with us, and we with the flesh of Christ, and consequently with His person, divinity, and omnipotence; just as food is really united and mingled with the stomach and our flesh. So St. Chrysostom: "He says," remarks he, "'abides in Me,' to show that he is mingled with Himself." Euthymius: "He abides in Me, he is united to Me through the reception and communication of My flesh and My blood, and becomes one body with Me." Theophylact: "In this passage we learn the sacrament of communion," he says, "for he who eats and drinks the flesh and blood of the Lord, the Lord abides in him, and he in the Lord. For a new tempering comes about, beyond reason, so that God is in us and we in God." St. Cyril here, Book IV, chapter 34, offers the apt similitude of wax: "Just as," he says, "if one should pour wax into melted wax, he must mix the one with the other throughout; so if anyone receives the flesh and blood of the Lord, he is so joined with Him that Christ is found in him and he in Christ." And shortly after: "Just as a little leaven (as Paul says) leavens the whole lump, so a little blessing draws the whole man into itself and fills him with its grace; and in this way Christ abides in us and we in Christ. For truly the whole leaven passes through the whole lump. And this indeed is the meaning of this passage." The same author, Book X, chapter 8, asserts that "not only by the disposition which is understood through charity is Christ in us, but also by a natural participation. For just as if one should mix wax melted by fire with other wax similarly melted, so that one thing seems to be made from both; so by the communion of the body and blood of Christ, He Himself is in us, and we in Him."

The same teaches St. Hilary, Book VIII On the Trinity, and St. Irenaeus, Book IV, chapter 34. Hence St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in Catechesis 4 Mystagogical, affirms that in holy communion we become Christ-bearers, indeed of one body and one blood with Christ. Furthermore, Christ remains really in us as long as the Sacramental species of bread and wine remain in us, but when these have been digested and consumed by the stomach, Christ as man indeed ceases to be in us substantially, yet from His prior union and contact with us it comes about that the spiritual life of the soul is nourished, strengthened, and preserved forever through grace; and into the body too, as it were, a certain seed of immortality is implanted; a seed, I say, moral, not physical, as I have said, such as is the merit of good works: for just as a good work leaves behind it merit, like a seed of glory, which is like a certain right to eternal life; so the Eucharist leaves behind in us a similar new right, proper to itself, to the same life, like a seed of glory of the holy Eucharistic communion: for Christ assigns this right to communicants, from the contact and eating of His life-giving body; for it is fitting and proper that Christ should impart His own glorious life to those in whom He imparts Himself. "For it was certainly necessary," says Cyril, "that not only should the soul ascend to the blessed life through the Holy Spirit, but also that this crude and earthly body should be brought back to immortality by the kindred taste, touch, and food of nourishment." Therefore the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist is a moral instrument of the resurrection. Do you also want its physical cause? Hear it. The divinity of Christ in the Eucharist is the physical cause of the resurrection. To understand this from the foundations, note that Christ, as God, through the grace given and infused into man at the reception of the Eucharist, even when the Eucharistic species have been consumed by the heat of the stomach, really dwells in man, not only as in His temple through charity, but also as food in its stomach through nourishment. For just as food already digested and changed into chyle nourishes and invigorates the stomach, and through it all the joints and members, to which the stomach transmits and distributes it; so likewise the divinity of Christ, received with His flesh in the Eucharist, as food of the soul and body, since it cannot be digested or consumed by man, remains perpetually in the soul's stomach, as it were, and nourishes and invigorates it and through it all the soul's powers and faculties. And this is what Christ says here: "He who eats My flesh abides in Me, and I in him."

For the divinity of Christ, like food, remains in the soul, always nourishing it, and conversely the soul remains in the divinity of Christ, as in immortal and life-giving food, indeed as in life itself, which continually feeds and nourishes us by the influx of habitual grace, and at set times by a new infusion of actual grace, namely by new holy illuminations, new inspirations, new pious affections and impulses sent into the soul, so that we may become what He Himself is, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, that is, that we may become spiritual, holy, and divine, and this more and more each day, and that we may always have the divinity of Christ itself, like the tree of life, in the stomach of both body and soul, so that it may in its own time, namely on the day of judgment and the general resurrection, communicate to us its own immortal, blessed, and divine life. Thus medicine sometimes, long after it has been taken, consumed, and digested, works and heals through the power which it leaves behind, indeed at first it makes those who take it feel worse, because it stirs up the bad humors and fights with them, until it purges and expels them, and when they have been expelled, it restores the body to its former purity and health.

This therefore is the order of things in the communion of the Eucharist. First, through the reception of the Eucharist, the flesh and blood of Christ, and the whole Christ, that is His humanity and divinity, enters as food into our stomach, and remains in it. Secondly, when the Eucharistic species have been digested by the power of the stomach and converted into our flesh (for by God's power the matter of the bread and wine, which had been annihilated in the consecration, returns), the flesh and humanity of Christ ceases to be in us, but the divinity of Christ, as an immortal food, remains in us, and from that point, thirdly, communicates, fosters, and increases its supernatural life to the soul, nourishing it continually, in the manner I have already described. Fourthly, the same will raise our body from death in the resurrection, and unite it to the soul, and thus will confer upon the whole person the life of eternal glory, because we always have the Eucharist, at least as regards the divinity of Christ which it contains, as a food and medicine of immortality, in body and soul, and through it Christ remains in us, as He Himself here asserts, namely insofar as He is God. Now God will be the physical cause of our resurrection, just as the flesh of Christ will be its moral cause; and although our flesh must first die, as the flesh of Christ died, yet this food of the Eucharist, that is Christ, insofar as He is God, always remaining in a person, will raise that person from death to eternal life. This is what Christ says: "And I will raise him up on the last day. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever;" for Christ descended from heaven as God, not as man. "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him," namely as a food continually nourishing and raising him to eternal life. For these words cannot be explained otherwise. Therefore, just as food, after it has been digested, leaves its nourishing power in the chyle that remains, so the Eucharistic species, after they have been digested, in a certain way leave their power of nourishing unto eternal life in the divinity of Christ, which remains with grace: for His humanity, by His own ordinance, is bound to the species of bread and wine, so that as long as they remain, it too remains; but when they are consumed, it vanishes, as St. Thomas and the other Theologians teach. In a similar way, after a good work, there remains in us not only habitual grace, but also the divinity itself, and the entire Most Holy Trinity which makes us sharers of the divine nature, and His children, as I have shown at length at Hosea 1:10, on those words: "It shall be said to them, children of the living God;" and I shall show again below, chapter 14, verse 23, on those words: "We will come to him, and make Our abode with him." The same will become clearer from verse 58, which follows next here, and from verse 64: "It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing." Where Cyril understands by spirit the divinity of Christ: so also St. Augustine.

Here note in passing the threefold difference between the Eucharist and common food. The first is that common food does not remain in us, but is converted into chyle, that is, a milky-like substance in the stomach, and then in the liver into blood, and finally in the individual members into the flesh and substance of the person. But in the Eucharist the flesh of Christ is not converted into the substance of the one eating, but remains in itself incorrupt and unchanged, being immortal and glorious. This is what Christ said to a certain Saint: "You will not change Me into yourself, but you will be changed into Me."

The second point is that common food is in itself inanimate, but is animated and receives life from the one eating. But the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist is animated and living and life-giving, and gives life to the one eating.

Third, bread and food leave behind no part of themselves, because the whole is converted into chyle, and communicates and transfers its nourishing power to it. But the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist, when the species of bread have been consumed, vanishing, leaves behind its hypostasis, namely the Person of the Word and His divinity, on account of which Christ is said here to remain in the one eating, and to raise him up, and the one eating in Christ. So Cyril and the Fathers cited above, and St. Ambrose, Book VI, On the Sacraments, chapter 1, whom hear: "How then does the bread descend from heaven, and the living bread? Because our Lord Jesus Christ is a sharer of both divinity and body; and you who receive His flesh participate in His divine substance in that nourishment." So also St. Hilary, Book VIII, On the Trinity: "He Himself, he says, is in us through the flesh, while with Himself what we are is in God."

Verse 58: As the Living Father Sent Me

58. AS THE LIVING FATHER SENT ME, AND I LIVE BECAUSE OF THE FATHER; SO HE WHO EATS ME, HE ALSO SHALL LIVE BECAUSE OF ME. — "He sent Me," into flesh and into the world, through the incarnation for the salvation of mankind, "the living Father," who is the divine life itself, substantial and uncreated, and therefore as "Father," begetting Me, communicated to Me the same life in number, so that I might communicate a similar life to the humanity which He sent Me to assume, so that I might communicate a similar spiritual, holy, blessed, and eternal life to the faithful who eat Me.

AND I LIVE BECAUSE OF THE FATHER — that is, through the Father, from the Father. For the Father, by begetting Me, communicates to Me His divinity, which by essence is life. For God begot God, the living One the living One. Therefore the Son, says Cyril, Book IV, chapter 18: "Just as light is from light, so also life is from life. And just as the Father illuminates those who need light through the Son, and acts wisely through Him, so those who need life He vivifies through the Son, as through His own life, which emanates from Him." And after some words: "I live, He says, because of the Father: for since my Begetter is life by nature, and because I am naturally His Son, I have this property of His nature, that is life, naturally with Me."

Here Christ gives the reason why He in the Eucharist is the living and life-giving bread, who will raise us from death on the day of judgment, and He opens up and identifies the very origin and source of life and resurrection. For God the Father is the fontal life itself, according to that saying: "For with You is the fountain of life," Psalm 35, verse 10, who communicates this life to His Son together with His essence: whence it follows that the Son Himself is the fontal life. Therefore, just as the Father, always remaining in the Son, always imparts this fontal life to the Son, so also the Son, sent by the Father into flesh, and remaining in it, continually instills this divine life into the flesh and humanity assumed by Him, and to us who receive it in the Eucharist, continually remaining in us, He inspires a similar life. Therefore he will live "because of Me," so that just as the Father communicates His life to the Son, so Christ communicates His to the Christian who worthily receives Him. Hence Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter 1, teaches that the priest "passes into the fellowship of the divinity;" and chapter 2, that communion is "deifying;" and chapter 3, that those who communicate worthily are joined to Christ "through the likeness of a sincere and divine life." Moreover, the Eucharist does this for the pure and penitent. Hence St. Augustine, Sermon 1, On the Seasons: "Let him change his life, he says, who wishes to receive life. For if he does not change his life, he will receive life unto judgment; and he is more corrupted by it than healed; more killed than given life." For the impure and impenitent receive from the Eucharist not life, but death of both body and soul, both present and eternal. Hence St. Cyprian, Sermon 5, On the Lapsed, speaking of a woman who communicated unworthily: "Taking not food, he says, but a sword to herself, and as it were certain lethal poisons, trembling and quaking she fell: and she who had deceived man, felt God as avenger." So he, where he narrates several similar events. William Durandus, in the Rationale of the Divine Offices, Book VI, chapter 10, reports that the pestilence which raged at Rome from the time of Pope Pelagius up to Gregory the Great, and consumed many thousands of people, had been divinely sent as punishment for those who after their Lenten fasts and Easter communion returned to their former crimes. For those who abused the Eucharist, which is genuine life, deserved to be punished with death.

The sense therefore is, as if to say: Just as the Father, living of Himself, and being the essential life itself, sent Me into this world, making Me man, and because of the fact that I was sent by Him who begets Me, and having become man I have life from the living Father — life, I say, both human life from a human soul, as St. Augustine explains, and more fittingly divine life from the fellowship of the divinity, to which My humanity is hypostatically united, and always remains united to it — so likewise whoever eats Me the living One, will receive from Me, who always remains in him as regards divinity, continual life of grace and glory, and as regards the body, after death will be raised by that life on the day appointed by Me to the blessed and eternal life. For Christ signifies that the life which is originally in the Father is communicated to us through the Son and the Eucharist, as through an intermediate instrument. So Leontius, Jansenius, Francis Lucas, and others, but above all St. Cyril, whom hear, Book IV, chapter 18: "Just as I became man by the will of the Father, who emanated from the natural life, and having become man I live and have filled My body with life; not otherwise he who eats My flesh will live because of Me. For I assumed mortal flesh; but because I am naturally life itself, I dwell in it, and have reformed it entirely unto My life; for I was not conquered by the destruction of the flesh, but as God I Myself overcame all destruction and death." And after a few words: "Although the Father sent Me, that is, I became man; yet I live because of the Father, that is, I preserve My begetter's nature exactly: so whoever receives Me by eating My flesh, will truly live, wholly reformed unto Me, who am able to give life, because I am from the living Father." He adds the simile of red-hot iron: for just as fire communicates its heat to red-hot iron, so Christ the living One imparts His life to us in the Eucharist. Marveling at this, St. Augustine, Book VII, Confessions, chapter 10, exclaims: "O eternal truth, and true charity, and dear eternity: I trembled with love and horror, as though I heard Your voice from on high: I am the food of the mature: grow, and you shall eat Me: nor will you change Me into yourself, as food of your flesh, but you will be changed into Me."

Note here the gradation by which life descends from God to us, as if by steps. For the first step is that by which the Father communicates His divine life to the Son; the second, by which the Son imparts the same life to the humanity assumed by Him through the communication of idioms; the third, by which He inspires in it a participated life, namely of grace and glory; the fourth, by which He instills in us through the Eucharist not an equal, but a similar life.

Finally, Christ signifies here what I said at the preceding verse, that His divinity, which after the reception of the Eucharist continually remains in us even after the species are consumed, constantly pours into us the life of grace, and after death will raise us from it to immortal life. For this is what He says: "I live because of the Father, and he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me," as if to say: Because I receive from the Father the divinity, which is pure life, therefore he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me; for My divinity remaining in him will continually inspire in his soul the breath of vital grace; and his body after death will be raised by it to the blessed life. Just as the seminal power hidden in the heart of a grain of wheat, seemingly dead through winter, in spring, unfolding its power through the heat of the sun, raises the grain of wheat as if from death, by making it germinate, so that for one it produces thirty and sixty.

Verse 59: This Is the Bread Which Came Down From Heaven

59. THIS IS THE BREAD THAT CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN. NOT AS YOUR FATHERS ATE THE MANNA, AND DIED. HE WHO EATS THIS BREAD WILL LIVE FOREVER. — He insinuates here the same thing I already said at the end of the preceding verse. For Christ descended from heaven not as man, but as God: therefore whoever eats Him in the Eucharist will live forever, because he eats God and the divinity, which being always present to and assisting the one eating, continually breathes its life into him. Hear St. Ambrose, Sermon 18 on Psalm 118: "How, he says, will he die whose food is life?" And then narrating its marvelous effects: "Come to Him, he says, and be satisfied, for He is bread; come to Him, and drink, for He is a fountain; come to Him, and be enlightened, for He is light; come to Him, and be freed, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; come to Him, and be absolved, for He is the remission of sins." And St. Bernard, Sermon on the Lord's Supper: "That Sacrament, he says, works two things in you, namely that it diminishes the sense of sin in lesser matters, and in graver sins entirely removes consent." And after a few words: "If any of you, he says, does not so often now, nor so bitterly feel the movements of anger, envy, lust, and other such things, let him give thanks to the Body and Blood of the Lord, because the power of the Sacrament is working in him." And St. Chrysostom, on Psalm 22:5, on those words: "You have prepared a table before me against those who trouble me," says: "Let those who have tribulations of the flesh come to the table of the mighty One, and their tribulations will become consolations." Finally, St. Cyril here, Book III, chapter 37: "The body of Christ, he says, gives life, and by its participation restores to incorruption. For it is not the body of just anyone, but of Life itself; retaining the power of the incarnate Word, and full of the power of Him by whom all things live and exist."

Verse 60: These Things He Said in the Synagogue

60. THESE THINGS HE SAID IN THE SYNAGOGUE, TEACHING, IN CAPERNAUM. — As if to say: Christ said and taught these things not secretly, nor in a corner, but in the public synagogue before the Scribes, priests, and all the people gathered together. For the synagogue was like a church, or a public school of the people.

In Capernaum. — "Where He had performed many miracles, and therefore was most deserving of being heard," says Chrysostom. For since the things Christ had said about eating His flesh, and about raising us from death to everlasting life, seemed paradoxical and incredible to the Jews, He wished to proclaim them in that place where by so many miracles He had established credibility and authority for Himself and His teaching.

Verse 61: This Is a Hard Saying

61. MANY THEREFORE OF HIS DISCIPLES, WHEN THEY HEARD THIS, SAID: THIS IS A HARD SAYING, AND WHO CAN HEAR IT? — "Hard," in Greek skleros, that is, a saying that is austere, hard, rigid, stern, harsh; the Arabic, difficult; Euthymius, "it can hardly be accepted;" Theophylactus, "rough, and which cannot be received."

AND WHO CAN HEAR IT? — Who, I say not do it, but even endure admitting it to his ears? As if to say: These things which Jesus said about eating His flesh, and especially His command about eating it at verse 54: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you" — seem difficult to believe and horrible in practice. For what butcher would slaughter and carve Christ? Who could endure devouring human flesh, who could endure drinking human blood? For these things seem hideous and barbarous; these are the feasts of Thyestes, these are the banquets of the cannibals, as the pagans later objected to the Christians, not understanding the mystery of the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist, and therefore imitating these Capharnaites, as Tertullian, Eusebius, Arnobius, Athenagoras, and others testify in their Apologies.

This saying was hard not in itself, but to the dull and stubborn Jews, who thought that the flesh of Christ had to be torn, ripped apart by teeth, and ground up like beef; but they were wrong. For Christ had not said this, nor intended to say it, but He wanted us to eat His flesh sacramentally, that is, hidden in the Sacrament under the species of bread and wine, which has no horror but is the easiest and sweetest thing, as we who sacrifice and communicate daily experience. Therefore the Jews should have humbly asked Christ to explain this manner to them: and if they had done so, they would have heard, been able to understand, and would not have called it hard. So St. Cyril: "They thought, he says, that they were being called to the savage ways of wild beasts, and urged to eat raw human flesh and drink blood, which are horrible even to hear. They also thought about this: how will the flesh of this man bestow eternal life on us, or how will it be able to lead us to immortality?"

Verse 62: Does This Scandalize You

62. But Jesus, knowing in Himself (in Greek en heauto, that is, in Himself; the Syriac, in His soul; the Arabic, in Himself, that is, by Himself, by His omniscience, without anyone reporting or revealing it: "for this was an argument of His divinity, that He revealed secrets," says Chrysostom) THAT HIS DISCIPLES WERE MURMURING ABOUT THIS, SAID TO THEM: DOES THIS SCANDALIZE YOU? — The Syriac, offend you. As if to say: I do so many wonderful and great things, because I was sent for this by the Father, as I have proved through so many miracles; therefore you ought not to be scandalized and offended by My words and deeds, but rather to beg for light and grace from God who sent Me, so that you may be able to understand them.

Verse 63: If You Shall See the Son of Man Ascending

63. IF THEN YOU SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN ASCENDING WHERE HE WAS BEFORE? — "He speaks of His future assumption into heaven," says Euthymius. For some of them, namely the Apostles and the faithful, saw this; others who did not believe, even though they did not see it, could hear about it from those who had seen it, and learn it with certainty.

WHERE HE WAS BEFORE — as regards His divinity, says Euthymius; for He ascended to heaven as regards His humanity. Supply: "what will you say?" says Euthymius, will you still be scandalized? I believe not; certainly I know that by right and deservedly you will not. For from My ascending into heaven by My own power, you will be able to know that I descended from heaven, and am returning to where I was before, and consequently that I am not only truthful and a true Prophet, but also that I am God and the Son of God, to whom all things are possible, indeed easy, and consequently that I can give My flesh as food, and through it raise the dead. From the miracle of His ascension into heaven, Christ rightly proves His divinity and omnipotence, and consequently the mystery of the Eucharist. For to the divinity nothing is impossible, nothing new, nothing paradoxical; indeed it befits the divinity to do new and paradoxical things which surpass human nature and reason. So St. Cyril: "He drives them, he says, to faith by another wondrous thing," and a fitting one at that. For Christ's ascension into heaven signified that He had descended from heaven (for He was returning to where He had come from), and consequently that He was the living bread that came down from heaven, which is what He wished to persuade the Capharnaites of here.

Maldonatus interprets it differently, as if to say: When you have heard that I ascended into heaven, what will you say? Surely you will be even more scandalized, you will believe Me less, you will say I am a magician, who with the help of demons, like Simon Magus, pretended to fly into heaven.

Verse 64: It Is the Spirit That Gives Life

64. IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT GIVES LIFE: THE FLESH (Arabic, body) PROFITS NOTHING. THE WORDS THAT I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU ARE SPIRIT AND LIFE. — The Syriac, they are spirit and they are life. The Calvinists throw these words of Christ against us, to prove that in the Eucharist the flesh of Christ is not really and bodily present, but only spiritually and typically through representation and faith, because, they say, "the flesh profits nothing." But if this is true, then the Word became flesh in vain, then the flesh of Christ suffered, was crucified, and died in vain — which God forbid. And who does not see that the flesh of Christ profits more than the mere bread of Calvin, even if seasoned with honey and sugar from Calvin's gullet? For in his bread there is no spirit, except that of error and the fury of Satan.

Therefore first St. Cyril, St. Augustine, Leontius, and Rupert learnedly explain these words thus, as if Christ said: My flesh alone does not profit for preserving the one who eats unto eternal life, because My mere flesh does not confer life and resurrection, but the spirit, that is, My divinity united to the flesh, gives life both to the soul and to the body in the resurrection; and thus My flesh profits exceedingly, insofar as it is united to the spirit of the Word and draws from it the power to give life. In a similar phrase and sense we say: The eye does not see, the ear does not hear, the body does not feel, but the spirit, that is, it is the soul that sees through the eye, hears through the ear, feels through the body. And consequently: "The words," that is, the realities and mysteries of My flesh to be eaten in the Eucharist, "which I have spoken to you, are spirit and life," that is, they are a living and life-giving spirit, namely My divinity itself, which is pure spirit; for this will give you life in the Eucharist, not My bare flesh. So St. Augustine: "The flesh alone, he says, does not profit, but let the spirit be added to the flesh, and it profits exceedingly. For if the flesh did not profit, the Word would not have become flesh." The same, Book X, On the City of God, chapter 24: "The flesh, he says, does not cleanse by itself, but through the Word by whom it was assumed." And St. Cyril: "The flesh, he says, if understood alone, cannot give life at all, since it itself needs to be given life; but because it is united to the life-giving Word, it has been made entirely life-giving. For the Word of God joined to it did not drag it down to its corruptible nature, but the flesh itself was elevated to the power of a better nature. Therefore, although the nature of flesh, as flesh, cannot give life, yet it does this because it has received the entire operation of the Word."

For here Christ responds to the Capharnaites who were murmuring about how the eaten flesh of Christ could give eternal life. But since the Capharnaites were murmuring more about this eating of the flesh of Christ, and its manner, which they imagined to be carnal and bestial — namely that the flesh of Christ, like beef, had to be slaughtered, torn, ground and ripped apart by teeth, as is clear from verses 52 and 60: "How, they say, can this man give us His flesh to eat?" and verse 61: "This is a hard saying, and who can hear it?" — for it seems to demand something inhuman and barbarous, that we should butcher and devour the human flesh of Christ like wolves. Hence,

Secondly, more aptly and easily: "the flesh," that is, the carnal understanding, by which you think My flesh must be visibly cut, chewed, and eaten like lamb's flesh, "profits nothing" for conferring eternal life; but the spirit and spiritual understanding, by which we believe that the flesh of Christ, united to the divinity, must be eaten in a spiritual, that is, sacramental manner, veiled and hidden under the species of bread and wine in the Eucharist — this gives life to the soul and the body. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius. Nor does St. Augustine mean anything different, in Psalm 98, if read attentively; for he says: "You are not going to eat this body which you see, and drink that blood which those who crucify Me will shed. I have commended to you a certain Sacrament; understood spiritually, it will give you life. And even though it is necessary for it to be celebrated visibly, yet it must be understood invisibly." These words the Calvinists take thus, as if to say: In the Eucharist we eat the flesh of Christ, not really, but figuratively and mystically through faith. But they err. For the sense of Augustine is, as if to say: In the Eucharist we do not eat the flesh of Christ by visibly tearing, cutting, and chewing it, as the Capharnaites understood, but under the sacrament, that is, sacramentally and invisibly, hidden and concealed under the species of bread and wine. For otherwise St. Augustine would contradict himself, Sermon 1 on Psalm 33, and Book XXII, On the City of God, chapter 8, and elsewhere, where he clearly establishes the truth of the body of Christ in the Eucharist.

Hence Christ adds: "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life:" "spirit," that is, they are spiritual, and are to be understood spiritually, that is, sacramentally, in the manner I have already explained; not carnally, as you Capharnaites understand them like butchers; and so "they are life," that is, life-giving, and will confer life on the one who hears and eats Me. This is a Hebraism: for the abstract is used for the concrete. So frequently elsewhere flesh and spirit are taken for carnal and spiritual understanding and sense, as in 2 Corinthians 3:6: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life;" Matthew 16:17: "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you," and elsewhere. Moreover, it is familiar for Sacred Scripture to play on the meanings of words. Hence it is not surprising that flesh is taken here differently than it is taken at verse 56 and following: "My flesh is truly food;" for there true flesh is understood, but here mystical. So Christ played on the word water in chapter 4, rising from the corporeal to the spiritual. So the Apostle played on the word sin in 2 Corinthians 5, last verse, saying: "Him who knew no sin, He made sin (that is, a victim for sin) for us."

Thirdly, the fullest sense will result if you join both senses already given and fuse them into one with Bede, as if to say: The life-giving power which My flesh eaten in the Eucharist has, does not flow so much from the flesh as from the spirit of the Word, who is living and life-giving; and consequently this eating of My flesh does not take place in the carnal manner of butchers, but in a spiritual manner suited to the spirit, namely secretly and sacramentally. For the Capharnaites, from a crude understanding of Christ's words, alleged and objected to the contrary of both, as is clear from what has been said. And thus this spiritual, that is, sacramental way of eating the flesh of Christ, by consuming the species of bread and wine, under which the body and blood of Christ, and the divinity itself, really lie hidden, causes no horror to the one eating, and also inflicts no injury or harm on the eaten flesh of Christ. For Christ is hidden here, and is invisible and indivisible like an angel. So Euthymius: "They are spiritual, he says, and life-giving. For one must not simply look at them (for that is to understand carnally), but imagine something else and behold them with interior eyes as mysteries."

Verse 65: There Are Some of You Who Do Not Believe

65. BUT THERE ARE SOME OF YOU WHO DO NOT BELIEVE. — As if to say: The reason why some of you do not grasp and oppose My words about the Eucharist is not that My saying is hard, as you say, but because you are unbelieving, and do not wish to believe despite so many of My miracles and signs; for here humble faith is needed, and it must be asked for and awaited by humble prayer from God the Father. But you lack the humility both of prayer and of faith, and therefore you neither pray to God nor believe Me. So St. Augustine, Bede, and Rupert.

For Jesus knew from the beginning (of His preaching and association with His disciples, says St. Chrysostom) who were the unbelievers (future ones, that is, those who would not believe, or who would not persevere in faith — as if to say: Christ, because He is God, foreknew the future from eternity, and communicated this foreknowledge to His humanity from the beginning of its conception), AND WHO WOULD BETRAY HIM. — By this word John indicates that Judas the traitor was one of the unbelievers; namely that he, offended by Christ's discourse about eating His flesh, conceived an aversion to Christ, nurtured it, and finally burst forth into betraying Him. For the connection of words here requires this: otherwise the mention of the traitor here would be irrelevant, unless Judas had taken from this discourse of Christ the origin of his unbelief, and thence of his betrayal. So St. Augustine, Bede, Francis Lucas, Emmanuel Sa, and others.

Christ adds this, lest He be thought to have admitted Judas to the apostolate unaware and ignorant of his future betrayal; rather He foreknew it, and deliberately permitted it, so that through it His passion, and the redemption of mankind decreed by God through it, might be fulfilled.

Verse 66: No One Can Come to Me Unless It Has Been Given by My Father

66. AND HE SAID: THEREFORE I SAID TO YOU, THAT NO ONE CAN COME TO ME UNLESS IT HAS BEEN GIVEN HIM BY MY FATHER. — "Unless the Father draws him," as He said at verse 44. See what was said there. Modestly Christ does not attribute the unbelief of the Jews to the fault of the unbelievers, but excuses them, that it was not given to them by the Father, and at the same time consoles Himself, as if to say: I do not torment Myself, I am not saddened that many do not believe in Me, but I console Myself that the Father will make those whom He has chosen believe in Me, and will make them come to Me, with whom I am content; I do not seek the rest: for those whom the Father wills, I also will; those whom He does not will, I also do not will. Yet those who refused to come, that is, to believe in Christ, were sinning, both because they had sufficient grace, by which they could believe if they willed, even though they did not have efficacious grace, by which they would actually believe in fact; and because they did not humbly ask God for efficacious grace, by which they would actually believe; and because by their pride and other sins they had made themselves unworthy of that grace, and indeed the obstinate were repelling and rejecting God's grace and faith, as St. Cyprian learnedly explains, Book I, Epistle 3, to Cornelius.

Verse 67: Many of His Disciples Went Back

67. From this (time, says Euthymius and others; otherwise the Syriac, because of this saying; the Arabic, because of this) MANY OF HIS DISCIPLES WENT BACK (left Jesus), AND WALKED NO MORE WITH HIM. — These disciples were not the Apostles: for Christ excepts them in the following verse; nor the 72 disciples of Christ. For these had not yet been designated and chosen by Christ; but rather the more constant hearers and followers of Christ, "who, as Theophylactus says, followed Him in the rank of disciples, and stayed with Him for a longer time than the crowds, and so compared to the rest of the crowd were called His disciples." These then, hitherto attracted by Christ's sweet teaching, fed by the bread miraculously multiplied by Him, and henceforth hoping for similar feeding from Him, when they heard Christ substituting His flesh in place of bread and wanting it to be eaten by them, they thought He was either insane, or was contriving some horrible and beastly scheme, and perhaps plotting some conspiracy against the Romans, and sealing it with the drinking of His own flesh and blood, just as Catiline had done at Rome shortly before, whose conspiracy Cicero detected and crushed: for this reason, to look after their own interests, they abandoned Christ.

That one of these was St. Mark, who was later recalled by St. Peter and wrote the Gospel and became an Evangelist, St. Epiphanius expressly states, Heresy 51; but others disagree, who assert that St. Mark neither saw nor heard Christ, but was converted after His death by St. Peter. So St. Jerome, in Illustrious Writers, under Mark; Theodoret, in the Preface, History of the Holy Fathers, and commentators generally on that passage of St. Peter, Epistle 1, chapter 5, verse 13: "Mark my son greets you."

Verse 68: Will You Also Go Away

68. JESUS THEREFORE SAID TO THE TWELVE (the Syriac, to His twelve; the Arabic, to the congregation of twelve, that is, to the company of the 12 Apostles): DO YOU ALSO WISH TO GO AWAY? — Therefore, when others were scandalized and offended and went away from Christ, with Him "the twelve remained, says St. Augustine, for not even Judas departed," partly out of shame, lest he alone among the Apostles should go away and be called an apostate, partly so that he might continue to be fed at Christ's expense, as he had been fed hitherto, and so that carrying the money bag as the steward of Christ's household, he might steal money for himself and enrich himself: for he was a thief.

Christ asks this of the twelve Apostles for five reasons. The first is to leave them to their liberty, as if to say: I give you the choice — if you wish to go, go; if you wish to stay with Me, stay: for I do not wish to hold you by force or shame. Hear Chrysostom: "Jesus neither flattered nor expelled them, but asked, not because He despised them, but lest they seem to be held by force." For if they had stayed unwillingly, it would have been as if they had left.

The second, to show His magnanimity, and that He did not need the Apostles' help, since He could do all things by Himself, and therefore if He dismissed them, He could substitute others better than they if He wished.

The third, so that the Apostles would understand that by staying they were not doing Jesus a favor or showing Him kindness, but rather themselves, "since they receive a benefit rather than bestow one," says Theophylactus.

The fourth, so that by this liberty He might bind them more closely to Himself and invite them to stay. For it often happens by the impulse of nature that when asked we refuse, when not asked we are willing; that when invited we flee, when not invited we approach, namely: We always strive toward what is forbidden, and desire what is denied.

The fifth, so that by this question He might test their affection, explore their constancy, and draw from them a confession of right faith in Him. So Cyril, as is clear from the following verse that they actually did express it.

Verse 69: You Have the Words of Eternal Life

69. SIMON PETER THEREFORE ANSWERED HIM: LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE (effective words, namely if one believes and obeys them). — Peter, as the one who was greater in rank, says St. Cyril, stronger in faith, more loving of Jesus, more fervent in spirit, answered on behalf of the rest of the Apostles, thinking this was the mind and sentiment of all; for what he himself felt about Jesus, he judged his colleagues to feel the same about Him.

TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? — As if to say, says St. Augustine: "You repel us from You — give us another You: to whom shall we go, if we leave You?" Hence St. Chrysostom: "This is a word of great friendship, he says; for Christ was more honorable than father and mother."

YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. — First, as if to say: Your words, O Jesus, are sweet, pleasing, life-giving, because they repeatedly promise eternal life. Who then but a fool would leave them and go elsewhere? So Cyril: "Not hard, he says, as those (Capharnaites) say, but You have the words of eternal life, which can lead believers to incorruptible life:" therefore what You have said about eating Your flesh, so that through it we may obtain eternal life, even if I do not yet fully understand it, nevertheless I am not scandalized or offended by it, but firmly believe it is true, not doubting that in its time I will understand it more fully, and silently begging and beseeching You to bring that about.

Secondly, as if to say: By Your words, O Jesus, You promise us eternal life, if we eat Your flesh: these words attract and unite us to You rather than drive us away. For who would not desire eternal life and the means of obtaining it? Hence the Arabic translates: to whom shall we go, when the words of eternal life are Yours?

Thirdly, as if to say: In Your hand is eternal life, so that You may give it to whomever and in whatever way You wish (therefore we follow You alone), because from You alone we hope for eternal life: for neither could the philosophers believe in it, nor the Jews hope for it, nor Moses promise it. "From this we learn, says Cyril, that Christ alone is to be followed as Teacher, who can lead to eternal life."

Fourthly, "You have the words of eternal life," because You are eternal life, therefore in Your flesh and blood You give nothing other than what You are, says the Interlinear Gloss from St. Augustine, as if to say: You are the Word of the Father, and therefore You have eternal life in You, because You are eternal life itself. What wonder then if You confer eternal life on those who eat You? For You confer the very thing that You are.

Verse 70: You Are the Christ, the Son of God

70. AND WE HAVE BELIEVED (the Syriac, we believe) AND HAVE KNOWN (the Arabic, we are certain) THAT YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD. — In Greek each word has the article: ho Christos, that is, that Christ, the one promised by God and expected for so many ages; ho huios, that is, that Son, namely the natural and proper Son by substance, not an adoptive son by grace. "Consider carefully, says Cyril, that everywhere, especially with the preposition of the article, they say, You are the Christ Himself, the Son of the living God Himself, separating the true and natural Son from other sons of God who are called and adopted through grace, to whom we, joined through likeness, are called sons."

We have known — from the testimony of John the Baptist, our prophet and teacher, from so many and so great miracles which You have performed, from Your heavenly teaching, from the holiness of Your life and from Your character, which we who constantly converse with You experience to be heavenly, angelic, and divine.

THE SON OF GOD. — The Greek adds: tou zontos, that is, of the living. So also the Syriac and Arabic, as if to say: We believe You to be the Son of God; therefore we likewise believe all Your words to be divine and most true, even if we do not understand them, and therefore to be life-giving; and that they confer salvation and eternal life, because You are the Son of the living God, who is life by essence, which He communicates to You, and therefore nothing but what is vital and life-giving can proceed from You, nor do we expect anything else from You.

Verse 71: One of You Is a Devil

71. JESUS ANSWERED THEM: HAVE I NOT CHOSEN YOU TWELVE? AND (yet) ONE OF YOU IS A DEVIL. — As if to say: You, O Peter, answer in the name of all the Apostles, as if all believe in Me and are My faithful friends; but know that you are mistaken, for one of them is a devil, unbelieving and faithless toward Me, who will betray Me. So Theophylactus.

I chose twelve — that is, as fit and suitable for the apostolate according to their present state. Hence it seems that Judas the traitor, too, when first chosen by Christ, was good and upright; for prudence and charity forbid choosing a wicked person. So St. Cyril, Leontius, Ammonius, Toletus, Maldonatus and others, and St. Jerome, Book III Against the Pelagians, and Tertullian, Book I On the Prescription Against Heretics, ch. III. Although some think that Judas, since he was wicked and Christ knew it, was nevertheless chosen by Him as an Apostle with the deliberate purpose that there might be one of His own who would betray Him, and thus furnish the occasion and means for His passion and death, and thereby for the redemption of mankind. They attribute this opinion to Bede and St. Augustine, but neither says this very thing; indeed, both rather imply that Judas was chosen by Christ when he was good, even though it was foreknown that he would become wicked through his own fault. Hear St. Augustine: "The number twelve of those who were to announce the Trinity to the four corners of the world was consecrated; nor because one perished from among them was the honor of that number taken away, for another was substituted in the place of the one who perished." And a little further on: "This man was chosen, through whose unwilling and unknowing agency something greatly good would come about; for just as the wicked make bad use of God's good works, so conversely God makes good use of the evil works of men. The Lord made good use of wicked Judas: He allowed Himself to be betrayed so that He might redeem us." Hear also Bede: "He chose the eleven for one purpose, the one for another: those, that they might persevere in apostolic dignity; this one, that through the office of his betrayal He might work the salvation of the human race."

A DEVIL. — The Syriac has: Satan. Nonnus [says] that Christ did not wish to name Judas, so as to spare his reputation. "He neither revealed him," says Chrysostom, "nor wished him to remain hidden: the former, lest he contend more shamelessly; the latter, lest thinking himself hidden he act more freely." At the same time, to strike fear into the Apostles, lest they too apostatize like Judas, or proudly trust in themselves and their own constancy. Hear Cyril: "He strengthens them with sharper words and makes them more diligent, with the danger placed before their eyes; for He seems to say: Great vigilance and great zeal for salvation are needed by you, O disciples; for the path of perdition is exceedingly slippery." And after some intervening remarks: "He makes all more vigilant; because He does not say clearly who will betray Him, but affirming in general terms that the burden of so great an impiety hangs over one, He makes all anxious, and by horror rouses them to greater vigilance." Finally Augustine: "He did not identify him," he says, "but neither was He silent, so that all might fear even though only one would perish."

One may ask why Judas is called a devil. I answer: First, because he was a diabolos, that is, a slanderer; for he slandered the works and miracles of Christ before the Scribes and chief priests.

Second, he was a devil — in Hebrew and Syriac, satan, that is, an adversary — because he opposed Christ.

Third, he was a devil because he was unbelieving toward Christ, a thief and a liar; for the devil is a liar and the father of it, namely of lying, John VIII. Hence Christ says: "He is a devil," in the present tense, not "will be," in the future.

Fourth, he was a devil, that is, a minister of the devil, an instrument and tool of the devil. For by the devil's impulse he betrayed Christ, his God and Lord, as if possessed by a demon. Hence John XIII, 2 says that Satan entered into him. So St. Chrysostom, Euthymius and others. Thus commonly a wicked and most evil person is called a devil.

Fifth, he was a devil, that is, a betrayer of Christ. For thus diabolos is taken to mean a betrayer in Sirach XXVI, 6, by catachresis; for our translator renders it "the accusation of a city" or "betrayal," as the Zurich version and Lyranus translate it. Thus the devil is a betrayer angel, because by his malice he squandered, ruined, and betrayed his angelic state. For from the choirs of angels and from heaven, Lucifer the betrayer by his treachery dragged down with himself into hell a third part of the stars, Revelation XII, 4. Therefore he betrayed heaven and the heavenly hosts to Gehenna and Tartarus.

Christ alludes to the fall of Lucifer, who, chosen by God as prince of the angels, by his pride made himself a devil and prince of demons. For in a similar way Judas, chosen by Christ for the angelic office of the Apostles, having fallen by his own fault, made himself a companion and imitator of the devil, so that we may learn to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and even though we stand in the most holy place, to fear a fall. For the higher the place, the greater the fall and the deeper the ruin.

Therefore some wrongly take the name "devil" here in a good sense, as do certain among the Italians — a shrewd, clever, crafty, subtle person they call a devil.

Verse 72: He Was About to Betray Him

72. NOW HE WAS SPEAKING OF JUDAS SIMON ISCARIOT: FOR HE WAS ABOUT TO BETRAY (the Syriac has: to deliver up) HIM, BEING ONE OF THE TWELVE. — Christ forewarns the Apostles so that, when they would later see the betrayal of Judas, they would know that He had foreseen and foretold it, and therefore that it happened not against His will but by His deliberate plan allowing it, in order to bring about His death, through which the human race would be redeemed.

Here John ends the events of the second year of Christ's preaching up to the third, that is, the events from the second Passover to the third; for he pursues the events of the third year in the following chapter. Therefore he omits many events of the second year of Christ, because they had been narrated at length by the other three Evangelists. He thus ends the second year of Christ with the multiplication of loaves performed by Him at the Passover, on which occasion Christ had a long disputation with the Jews about the spiritual bread and about eating His flesh in the Eucharist. See the Chronotaxis.