John 6:56Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In the same way, I think, the one who receives the Flesh of our Savior Christ and drinks His precious Blood becomes one with Him, as He Himself says. Through this reception he is mingled and united with Him, so that he is found in Christ, and Christ likewise in him.

Christ taught us almost the same thing in the Gospel according to Matthew, saying: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened” (Mt 13:33).

What is to be understood here by the woman, by the three measures called sata, and by the saton in general, must be said in its proper place. For the present we shall speak only about the leaven.

As a little leaven, according to Paul, leavens the whole lump (1 Cor 5:6; Gal 5:9), so also the very small blessing mingles our whole body into itself and fills it with its power.

Thus Christ abides in us, and we likewise in Him. For with complete justice one may say that the leaven is in the whole lump, and the lump likewise is found in the whole leaven.

Here you have a brief explanation of the saying. But if we love eternal life, and if we desire to have within ourselves the Giver of immortality, let us not refuse the blessing like some negligent Christians.

Otherwise the devil, skilled in deceit, may set snares and traps for us through a harmful and false fear before the mystery.

But you say that it is written: “He who eats of the bread and drinks of the cup unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself” (1 Cor 11:27-29). And when I examine myself, I see that I am unworthy.

Yet when, one must ask the man who says this, will you be worthy? When will you present yourself to Christ?

If you must always tremble at your falls, and yet cannot cease from falling, then you will remain wholly without part in the saving sanctity. For “who can understand his falls?” (Ps 18:13), according to the holy Psalmist.

Therefore think piously rather about living in accordance with the evangelical law. In this way you will partake of the blessing, believing that it drives away not only death, but also our infirmities.

For Christ, abiding in us, subdues the law of the flesh that rages in our members (Rom 7:24-25). He kindles reverence for God in a life-giving manner, and He puts the passions to death.

He does not impute our falls to us, but rather helps us as the sick. As the Good Shepherd, who laid down His soul for the sheep (Jn 10:11), He “binds up the broken and restores what has fallen” (Ezek 34:16).

O extreme condescension! The Creator grants His creature to delight in Himself. Life offers Himself to mortals as food and drink.

“Come, eat my bread,” He calls to us, “and drink the wine which I have mixed for you. I have prepared Myself as food for you. I have mixed Myself for those who thirst for Me.

“I willed to become flesh and to share in your flesh and blood. Eat Me, since I am Life, and you shall live, for this is My good pleasure.

“Eat my bread, for I am the life-giving ear of grain, and I am the Bread of life. Drink the wine which I have mixed for you, for I am the Drink of immortality.

“I am the true Vine. Taste the delight which I give, the wine which I have mixed for you” (Prov 9:5).

Through this we shall be one, since the Father is in Him and He is in us. How, then, is unity of will attained, when a natural property through the mystery is the mystery of perfect union?

For if we did not learn from Him what we say about the natural truth of Christ in us, our words would be false and foolish.

For He Himself says: "My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him" (Jn 6:55-56).

There is no room for doubt about the truth of the Flesh and Blood. For now, both by the confession of the Lord Himself and by our faith, there is truly Flesh and truly Blood.

And this, which is eaten and drunk, brings it about that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not truth?

Surely only the one who denies that Christ is true God will say there is no truth in this. Therefore He abides in us through the Flesh, and we abide in Him, when what we are abides in God.

This had already been foretold in the Old Testament. Therefore, because of the hard-heartedness and unworthiness of the Jews who heard Jesus Christ, the Father's grace-filled action, calling to salvation, had not yet touched their hearts.

Without this action, man, blinded by sin, cannot see the light of truth. But lest anyone misunderstand Isaiah's prophecy (54:13) about being taught directly by God, Jesus Christ says that it must not be understood as though any man could ever see and converse directly with God.

Nor can anyone know the essence of God by immediate vision and contemplation. God acts invisibly upon men by His grace. Immediate vision of the divine essence belongs only to His Son.

Therefore only through the Son can men receive the full light of divine knowledge needed for salvation, and through it eternal life (17:3). Therefore: "Verily, verily, I say to you, he who believes in Me has eternal life."

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.

Nor, again, do we eat the flesh of a mere man, for such flesh can bring no benefit. But since God, by an ineffable mingling, united flesh with Himself, the flesh also gives life.

It does so not because it has been changed into the nature of God. No. It is like red-hot iron, which remains iron and also manifests the power of fire.

So too the Lord's Flesh, while remaining flesh, gives life as the Flesh of God the Word" (Theophylact).

The consequence of such union is divine life, which proceeds from the Father through the Son into those who believe in Him.

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.

This great mystery is revealed more clearly to the disciples at the Last Supper. When He gave them bread, He said, "Take, eat; this is My Body." Then, taking the cup, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Mt 26:26-28 and parallels).

Finally, this mystery is fully explained for the disciples, and through them for all Christians, by the Passion, death, and Resurrection of the Lord.

"You shall understand afterward," the Lord said to Simon Peter, who would not let Him wash his feet (Jn 13:7). In the present teaching also, the Lord first demands unconditional faith from those who hear Him.

What does it matter that you do not understand now? First believe: "You shall understand afterward." We recall Abraham's beautiful and moving expression in Gen 22:14, in the account of Isaac's sacrifice.

"Jehovah-jireh," "the Lord will provide," Abraham says to his son when he asks him, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham also named that place Jehovah-jireh, which afterward was called Moriah, the Provision of Jehovah.

This is Mount Moriah, that is, Mount Zion, on which the Temple of Jerusalem stood. It was the Old Testament image of the living temple of the Lord's Body.

"The Lord will provide" is an expression of faith. "You shall understand afterward," says the Lord. You shall understand when, at the acceptable time, the Lord enlightens your understanding by the Holy Spirit.

Those "whom the Father chose" (Jn 6:37, 44) also believed. They understood only later, when great sorrow, great joy, and great love for the Lord had prepared their souls to receive the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

When the Spirit of Truth came, He guided them "into all truth" (Jn 16:13).

With the bread of life, received under the form of His flesh and blood, the Lord joins the believer's eternal life and his resurrection at the last day. This eternal life is "abiding in God": "He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him."

Thus the fruits of the believer's communion in the Flesh and Blood of Christ consist in his full, grace-filled communion with God incarnate. This union is the cause of eternal life and eternal joy.

"Your heart will rejoice" (Jn 16:22). "And this joy will be complete" (Jn 17:13).