For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world.
All Commentaries on John 6:33 Go To John 6
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For the Bread of God, &c. Christ proves that not the manna, but His own Bread, i.e, He Himself, is true Bread, i.e, truly heavenly and Divine, by two arguments1. Because He alone really came down from heaven2. Because He alone gives true life to the world, i.e, the blessed and eternal life, which only is true life. Observe: this Bread is called the Bread of God, because formed by God alone, and the property of God alone. Because God lives by Himself and His own Divinity: and because this Bread is truly the Son of God, and God Himself
Cometh down: not in the past, but the present tense. The Greek is καταβαίνων, the present participle. The expression therefore signifies the perpetual descent of Christ upon the Eucharistic altar even to the end of the world. For whensoever the priest consecrates the Eucharist, Christ, who after His death ascended into heaven, comes down from thence to the consecrated species of bread, and in them declares His presence (Se presentem sistit et exhibet).
Gives: verily Christ is the infinite gift, who is Life Itself, who quickens all the faithful who communicate rightly throughout the whole world, and who gives them the heavenly and Divine life of grace here, and hereafter the life of glory to all eternity.
