John 6:60Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He does this to persuade them, at least somewhat, to turn away from the sensible, to leave the types and shadow, and to hasten toward the truth. But since they were unable to understand anything supernatural, they were not improved. They even turned away and said: these words are strange, that is, harsh and hard to receive.

For who, being fleshly, can receive spiritual food: bread descending from heaven, flesh being eaten? When you hear that disciples fell away from Him, do not understand this of the true disciples. Understand it of those who followed Him in the rank of disciples and only outwardly appeared to learn from Him.

For among the disciples there were some who, compared with the people, were called His disciples because they spent more time with Him than the people did. But compared with His true disciples, they were worth nothing. They believed in Him only for a time, and, so to speak, with a cold fervor.

See what folly this is. They ought to have asked and learned what they did not know. Instead, they withdraw and understand nothing in a spiritual sense, but everything outwardly. Hearing of flesh, they thought that He was forcing them to become eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

But we, who understand this spiritually, are not eaters of flesh. Rather, we are even sanctified by such food.

Raised in ignorance and lacking a sound mind, they fear the knowledge that they ought to acquire, even through very great labors. They ought to attain it with the utmost zeal.

Thus the spiritual man will delight in the words of our Savior and will rightly prefer to cry out: "How sweet are Thy words to my palate, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Ps 119:103).

But the soulish Jew irrationally regards the spiritual mystery as foolishness. When the Savior's words call him to ascend to the understanding proper to man, he always falls back into his customary madness (1 Cor 2:14; 1 Cor 1:18-23). He calls evil good and good evil, according to the word of the Prophet (Is 5:20).

In this too he proves to be a patriot and imitator of his ancestors' ignorance. They received manna from God and shared in the blessing from above. Yet they were drawn to their customary baseness, demanded the foul herbs of Egypt, onions and garlic, and desired pots of meat.

These, likewise, are called to receive the life-giving grace of the Spirit and the True Bread. They are taught to eat Him who came from God and the Father. Yet they turn aside to their customary error, "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Tim 3:4).

As their fathers blamed the nourishment of manna, daring to say, "Our soul is dried up" because of this manna (Num 11:6), so these again reject the True Bread. They are not ashamed to say, "This word is hard."

Therefore we must be wise hearers of the divine mysteries. We must be skilled money-changers, able to know the genuine coin and the counterfeit. We must not untimely set insoluble questions against what has been received by faith. Nor must we squander faith upon what calls for inquiry, when such faith may at times be harmful.

Rather, we must render to everything that is communicated its due and walk as though by a straight path, refusing to turn aside in either direction. He who walks in the rectitude of faith in Christ must travel by the royal road.

But many who were present at this discourse did not understand it and were indignant. Hearing such things, they thought only of flesh, as they themselves were fleshly. The Apostle says, and says truly: "To be carnally minded is death" (cf. Rom 8:6).

The Lord gives us His Flesh to eat. Yet to understand this carnally is death, because He speaks of His Flesh, and in it eternal life abides. Therefore we must not understand it carnally, as is said in the words that follow.

Many, not of His enemies but of His disciples, heard this and said: What strange words! Who can listen to this? If His disciples considered these words strange, what must be said of His enemies?

Nevertheless, this had to be spoken in such a way that not all would understand it. The mystery of God had to draw attention, not provoke rejection.

But they quickly fell away. As soon as the Lord Jesus uttered His words in this manner, those disciples did not believe that He was saying something great. Nor did they believe that He was covering a certain grace by means of these words.

They received what was said in their own way and according to human custom. It was as though Jesus could, or intended to, cut up the flesh in which the Word was clothed and distribute it among those who believed in Him. "What strange words," they said. "Who can listen to this?"

The Master Himself is the first to teach us all that the Bread of which we partake is the Flesh of Emmanuel. Before going to His voluntary Passion, Christ broke the Bread of Salvation and said to His apostles, as it is written: "Come now, taste it, and by tasting obtain eternal life. For this food is My Flesh, since I, whom you see, am the Bread of Heaven, granting incorruption."

All of us who have found the fullness of faith in Christ have come to know this. When we approach the Bread of the Mystery with zeal and taste from the Cup of Salvation, we preserve pure and unfeigned knowledge. Partaking with faith in Him of Christ's Body and His Blood, we hope for a manner of life equal to the angels.

For truly, the most holy Body of Jesus Christ, who endured the Passion, is the Bread of Heaven, granting incorruption. Cf. Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-25.

By this every scandal is removed, if only you had faith for it. "The Spirit gives life; the flesh," He did not say "My flesh," "profits nothing." Do not be fleshly; rise to what is spiritual. "My words are spirit and life."

They did not expect such promises or such demands from the Messiah. They did not expect to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, and thereby receive life through His death. They expected miracles, miracles, and miracles. Cf. Jn 6:26 and the note.

Thus the Lord's discourse seemed to them heavy, harsh, and hard to receive. Cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact. "Who can listen to this?" means calmly, without being scandalized.

Yet each time Jesus Christ revealed the mystery of His Incarnation, the Jewish people fell into perplexity and murmured. He had come to earth not to establish an earthly Jewish kingdom, but to save the whole human race from sin and from the power of the devil. For this, the Messiah had to suffer.

The disciples secretly exchanged words of mistrust among themselves (Jn 10:20). The Savior saw what was taking place in their souls. To instruct them, He says that with their own eyes they will see His ascension into heaven.

The disciples were scandalized that His flesh would be food. Equally, if not more, incomprehensible was that His body would ascend into heaven. But if they were convinced by the experience of their senses of the reality of the flesh's ascension, they should also believe that His power extends to making His flesh wondrous food for the faithful.

There is a similar instruction in Jn 3:12. "The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing." By flesh and spirit some, such as Klee, understand a sensible and a spiritual way of thinking, showing in the first an incapacity for understanding spiritual things.

But the Savior is not speaking about what can find the truth. He is speaking about what can give life or bring no benefit. He wishes to clarify His words about the flesh and remove the cause of scandal.

Christ's Flesh gives life because in it there is the life-giving and all-powerful Spirit. But the flesh of which the Jews are thinking, can it be useful for anything? See 2 Cor 5:16; 1 Pet 3:18.

"The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." His words referred to His body and blood. Therefore "words" should be replaced by "body and blood." His body and blood, of which He spoke, are spirit and life. The body bears the Spirit in itself; the blood bears life in itself.

Cyril of Alexandria and Leontius understood Christ's words in this way. "But there are some of you who do not believe." "For this reason I said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him by My Father."

The Lord Himself said: "Do you think that I came to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division" (Lk 12:51). The Lord brought fire down upon the earth, kindling hearts and dividing them according to the heavenly pure fire, or the earthly impure fire, with which they burned.

Loving and believing men received the Lord's words in their hearts. The unbelieving remained in their unbelief because of their pride. They recoiled from the Lord and refused the salvation offered them by His merciful hand.

They call the Lord's word hard, σκληρός ὁ λόγος, durus sermo. Most of all they are disturbed by the need to subject their reason and will to the higher reason and will of the Lord.

They wish to live by their own reason and to entrust nothing to faith, which unites man with God, manifested to us in the Holy Trinity. But the Jews alone were not unfaithful. The wound of unbelief may have touched even some of the seventy disciples chosen by the Lord (Lk 10:1).

It even penetrated among those who, in the number of the twelve, were the disciples closest to the Lord, as the Knower of hearts indicated in verses 70-71.