He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.
η γαρ σαρξ μου αληθως εστιν βρωσις και το αιμα μου αληθως εστιν ποσις
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
What do these words mean? By them He wishes either to say that His flesh is true food, saving the soul, or to confirm what He has said. Thus they should not consider His words a riddle or a parable, but know that they must certainly eat His body.
For what is eaten is the flesh not of a mere man, but of God, and it can deify because it is united with the Godhead. It is truly food, since it satisfies not for a short time, nor does it perish like passing food, but assists unto eternal life. Likewise, the drinking of the Lord’s blood is truly drink, because it quenches thirst not for a time, but preserves the drinker from thirst and need forever. Thus the Lord also said to the Samaritan woman: he who drinks the water that I shall give will not thirst (Jn 4:14). For whoever receives the grace of the Holy Spirit through Communion of the Divine Mysteries will not feel spiritual hunger or thirst, as unbelievers do.
Again He sets the mystical blessing, the bread, against the giving of manna, and the partaking of the cup against the streams from the rocky clefts. What He had already said in other words, He says here again, presenting the same teaching in various ways.
He persuades them that they should not marvel at the manna. Rather, they should receive Him as the bread from heaven and the giver of eternal life.
"For your fathers," He says, "ate the manna in the wilderness and died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die" (Jn 6:49-50).
The food of manna, He says, satisfied the body's need for a very short time and turned away the harm of hunger. Then it again became powerless, since it did not impart eternal life to those who ate.
Consequently, it was not "true food" and bread from heaven. But the holy Body of Christ, nourishing unto immortality and eternal life, is indeed "true food."
They also drank water from the rock. And what, He says, came from this? What profit was there for those who drank? They died.
Therefore that too was not true drink. The precious "Blood" of Christ is truly "true drink." It entirely uproots corruption from the foundation and drives away the death that has settled in human flesh.
For this is not the blood of some ordinary mortal, but of Life itself by nature. Therefore we are called the body and members of Christ, because through the blessing, the Eucharist, we receive the Son Himself into ourselves.
“It is truly food,” that is, the most important food, since it nourishes the most important part of man, the soul. The same is true of the blood. Or Jesus Christ said this to assure them that He was not speaking in a riddle or a parable.
From these words it becomes clear that Divine Communion is as necessary for Christians as holy Baptism. The same twofold command that He spoke concerning Baptism He also spoke concerning Divine Communion.
Of holy Baptism He said: "Verily, verily, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5).
Likewise, of Divine Communion He said: "Verily, verily, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in yourselves."
Therefore, just as without Baptism it is impossible for anyone to live the spiritual life and be saved, so it is impossible for anyone to live without Divine Communion.
Yet these two Mysteries differ in this: Baptism occurs once, while Divine Communion is performed continually and daily. From this it follows that there are two necessities in Divine Communion.
First, it must be performed. Second, it must be performed continually.
The scribes and Pharisees continued to dispute. But the Lord, wishing to end this dispute, said to them, confirming the truth of His words twice, "Verily, verily": "Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him ... and I will raise him up at the last day."
The words "abides in Me, and I in him" leave no doubt that the Body and Blood of Christ, given by Him for the salvation of men, are the necessary means of communion for all believers with Christ, and of their union in Christ.
It is not enough merely to believe in Jesus as the God-man. One must be united with Him and abide in Him, so that He also may abide in us.
In Him, as the God-man, the complete union of His human will with the will of God was expressed. We too must strive for a like union of our will with God's will.
With the whole strength of our will, with all our thoughts and desires, we must abide in Christ. We must desire what He desired and act in all things as He taught.
Then He, guiding our will and our actions, will abide in us. Only then, under these conditions, will He raise us at the last day to eternal blessed life. All will be raised, but not all to blessed life.
For such union Jesus established the Mystery of receiving His Body and Blood. "As ... I live by the Father, so he who eats Me will live by Me," and he will not live as your fathers did, who ate manna and died. No, he will live forever.
Those who eat the flesh and blood of the Son of God, and believe in Him, will be raised on the last day of the world. Without doubt, all people generally will rise. But the righteous will rise unto eternal life, while sinners will rise unto judgment and eternal torments. This is the second death (Rev 21:8).
“For My flesh,” and so forth, gives the ground both for the negative assurance (Jn 6:53) and for the positive assurance (Jn 6:54). It explains the necessity of eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood. This is necessary because this, and this alone, is true food and true drink, that is, it communicates true life to man, eternal life. Whoever eats any other food and drinks any other drink remains subject to death. The body and blood of the Lord grant immortality. By these words He wishes “to assure them of what He has said, so that they should not consider His words a riddle and a parable, but should know that one must certainly eat His body” (Chrysostom).
"My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink." The Lord saw that the Jews were greatly offended by His words. To calm them, according to their thoughts, He should have said: as you receive bread into yourselves when you eat it, so you must receive Me into your heart.
But He further increases the Jews' troubling doubt. He says, "My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink," truly, excluding every inexactness or figurative sense.
It is vain to think that, before the Eucharist was instituted, the Apostles themselves could not precisely understand the Savior's words about it, and therefore that there was no need to speak of the food of the Eucharist.
In every prophecy, not everything is understood before it is fulfilled. Yet one cannot say that because of this property prophecy is unnecessary.
So too the Lord's prophecy about the Eucharist became fully intelligible to every believer after its fulfillment. Yet even before fulfillment, as the promise of a lofty benefit, it was consoling.
It raised faith in Jesus the Messiah, Who promised to send a food greater than the manna of Moses' time.
"He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him." This explains the words, "My Flesh is truly food."
As material food and material drink become the possession of the bodily organism, so the one who eats the Body of Christ and drinks His Blood will appropriate Christ the Lord to himself.
This is not the same as moral appropriation of oneself to Christ. It is a real appropriation of the Lord, dependent on the Lord's will.
Saint Hilary writes: "If the Word became flesh, and in food we receive the Lord, the Word truly become flesh, how does He not abide naturally in us? He was born as man, assumed our whole nature, and in the Mystery communicates to us flesh united with the eternal nature."
Those who eat My Flesh will enjoy the same blessed life by which "I live through the Father Who sent Me," says the Lord.
Since the life of the Sent One is spoken of here, one must understand not the pre-eternal life of the Son, but the life of the Messiah. Saint Cyril of Alexandria understood it in this way.
It is impossible to delight in the Word of God unto eternal life except through His flesh. For until He took flesh upon Himself, all flesh was subject to death. But now the life-giving flesh has been given, that is, the body of Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist. It nourishes all that is akin to it unto life through the power united with it, and it is mingled with the bodies that participate in this by likeness.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 14 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS