For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
All Commentaries on John 6:55 Go To John 6
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
He that cometh &c. Eateth, i.e, says Ruperti, worthily, with due preparation and purification, with a previous act of contrition and sacramental confession, if a man have any mortal sin upon his conscience. For if, after examination, a man be not conscious of any mortal sin, even though he may really be in some mortal sin unknown to himself, the communion of the Eucharist will blot out that sin, and restore the communicant to the grace and love of God. This is the teaching of Suarez, and Theologians, passim. Moreover, the sixth General Council ( Acts 8) understands this verse of the Eucharist, and asserts that in it the Flesh of Christ is called life-giving, because It is the proper Flesh of the Word, and hypostatically united to the Word.
Hath eternal life: because by the Eucharist he receives grace to preserve him, and bring him unto life eternal. As Dion Carthusianus says, "He hath eternal life, because he hath Me: and he hath the life of grace which is continued by this Sacrament, until he arrive at the life of everlasting glory." S. Cyril gives the reason—"Because the Flesh of Christ is the Flesh of God, which is united to the Word of God, who Isaiah , by His nature, Life, and thus is made life-giving. The Eucharist therefore quickens the soul, because It preserves, feeds, augments grace. Also It blots out venial sins, and even mortal sins, if a man has forgotten them. And It will raise up the body from death. Wherefore it follows, And I will raise him up. Moreover, S. Bernard thus explains these words of Christ tropologically (Tract. de Diligend Deo). He that eateth, &c, "That Isaiah , he who recalls to mind My death, and after My example mortifies his members which are upon the earth, hath eternal life."
And I will raise him up at the last day, in which the passion of Christ and the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, will gain their ultimate and perfect fruit and reward in the saints. I, who am really contained and eaten in the Eucharist, will raise up him that eateth Me, that as I give its own glory to the soul, so I may bestow upon the body its glory. For the glorified soul requires a glorious body that the whole man may be beatified. Hearken to S. Cyril, "I, He said, that Isaiah , My Body which shall be eaten, will raise him up. For Christ is no other than His Flesh. I do not say so because It is not different by nature, but because since the Incarnation He can by no means be divided into two Sons. I, therefore, He says, who am made Prayer of Manasseh , will raise up those who eat Me by means of My Flesh at the last day. Assuredly it is altogether impossible that death and destruction should not be overcome by Him who by nature is Life."
I will raise up, to immortal glory. "Lest they should suppose," says S. Augustine, "that by that food and drink life eternal was promised in such a manner, that those who receive it should not die in the body, He condescended to meet such a thought by immediately adding, and I will raise him up at the last day, that meanwhile he should live according to the spirit, in the rest which the spirits of the saints enjoy: and as concerns the body, not even his flesh should be defrauded of life eternal, but should possess it at the resurrection of the dead at the last day."
Wherefore the Council of Nice calls the Eucharist "the symbol of the resurrection." And S. Ignatius (Epist. ad Ephes.) calls It the "medicine of immortality." S. Cyril in this verse calls It "food nourishing for immortality and eternal life." Hence S. Chrysostom (lib6 , de Sacerdot.) asserts that the souls of those who receive this Sacrament at the end of life are by reason of having received It carried direct by the angels into heaven; and that their bodies, the angels like attendants surrounding them, are guarded for eternal life. Nyssen indeed adds (Orat. Catechet. c37), "that our bodies cannot win immortality, unless they have been united to this immortal Body of Christ." S. Cyprian has a similar remark (Serm. de Cna Dom.), also Tertullian (de Resurrer. Carn.) Yea, S. Irenus (lib4 , c34), from the truth that we communicate of the Flesh and Blood of an immortal Christ proves the resurrection, that is to say, that we shall rise to life immortal. Understand all these sayings, not that by the Eucharist there is confined in the body any physical quality, as a cause of its resurrection, nor any supernatural gift, which in the way of grace and glory is not due to the holy soul, but because the resurrection due to grace is given also to the saints by another title, which peculiarly and specially belongs to the Eucharist, that is to say, on account of that special union with the glorified Body which takes place in the Eucharist because of the institution and promise of Christ. So Suarez. Let me add that the Eucharist preserves, nourishes, and augments grace, which is the seed of glory. The Eucharist therefore is the instrumental cause of the resurrection (a moral, that Isaiah , not a physical cause), because of which Christ will cause us to rise again. Wherefore He saith not, "the Eucharist shall raise him again," but, "I will raise him again."
