Jn. 6:47. Truly, truly, I say to you: he who believes in Me has eternal life.
Truly, all of us who have accepted faith in Christ are now taught by God. Since He said that the one who has heard from the Father comes to Me, lest anyone think that He speaks of a sensible Father, He adds: "I do not say that anyone sees the Father except the Son, who truly is from Him and born of His Essence. For we are all from God, but properly the Son is the one alone Who also knows the Father."
Jn. 6:48. I am the bread of life.
Jn. 6:49. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and died;
He compares the food He gives them with manna. "I," He says, "am the bread of life, but those who ate manna died." He did not simply add the words "in the wilderness," but with the purpose of showing that the manna did not last long for the fathers — only in the wilderness — and it did not enter the promised land with them.
Jn. 6:50. But the bread which comes down from heaven is such that he who eats of it shall not die.
This bread, however, is not such, but abides forever, so that they, if they wish, will receive blessings far greater than their fathers. How is that which is granted by Christ not greater? For although everyone will taste death, yet he is alive by the hope of the resurrection.
Jn. 6:51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
He speaks here clearly about the mystical communion of His body. "The bread," He says, "which I shall give is My Flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." Showing His authority, that He was crucified not as a servant and one lesser than the Father, but by His own will, He says that "I shall give" My Flesh for the life of the world. Although it is said that He was given by the Father (John 3:16), He also gave Himself: the first, so that we might know His unity of mind with the Father, and the second, so that we might know the sovereign freedom of the Son.
Note that the bread partaken by us in the Sacrament is not an image of the Lord's body, but is the very Flesh of the Lord. For He did not say that the bread which I shall give is an image of My Flesh, but — "is My Flesh." For this bread, by ineffable words, through the mystical blessing and the descent of the Holy Spirit, is transformed into the Flesh of the Lord. Let no one be afraid to believe that the bread becomes Flesh. For when the Lord walked in the flesh and received nourishment from bread, that bread, when eaten, was converted into His body and was made like unto His holy Flesh, and, according to the custom of human nature, served for growth and strengthening. And now this bread is converted into the Flesh of the Lord. But how, they will say to us, does it appear not as flesh but as bread? This is so that we might not have aversion to the food. For if flesh were shown to us, we would be unpleasantly disposed toward Communion; but now, when the Lord condescends to our weakness, the mystical Food appears to us in the form that is ordinary for us.
He gave His Flesh to death for the life of the world, for by His death He destroyed death. Understand, if you will, the life of the world as also the resurrection. For the death of the Lord brought about the universal resurrection for the entire human race. Perhaps by the life of the world He also means the life in holiness and blessedness. For although not all received illumination and life in the Spirit, the Lord gave Himself for the world, and as far as it concerns Him, the world is saved and all nature is sanctified, inasmuch as it received the power to conquer sin, and sin fled through one Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, just as through one Adam humanity fell into sin.
Jn. 6:52. Then the Jews began to argue among themselves, saying: How can He give us His Flesh to eat?
The Jews, having heard about the eating of the Lord's Flesh, do not believe; therefore they also utter the word of unbelief, "how?" For when thoughts of unbelief enter the soul, then the word "how?" also enters along with them.
Jn. 6:53. And Jesus said to them: Truly, truly, I say to you: unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in yourselves.
Jn. 6:54. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Therefore He also, wishing to show that this is not impossible, but even very necessary, and that one cannot otherwise have life, says: "unless you eat the Flesh," and so forth. So too Nicodemus spoke from unbelief: "How can a man enter into his mother's womb?" (John 3:4) Therefore when we hear that without partaking of the Flesh of the Son we cannot have life, we must have undoubting faith when receiving the Divine Mysteries, and not ask "how?" For "the natural man," that is, one who follows human, natural, or psychical reasoning, "does not receive" what is supernatural and spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14). So too he does not comprehend the spiritual food, the Flesh of the Lord. Meanwhile, those who do not partake of it will have no share in eternal life, as not having received Jesus, Who is the true Life. For what is eaten is the Flesh not of a mere man, but of God, and able to deify as being united with the Godhead.
Jn. 6:55. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink.
It is truly food, inasmuch as it satisfies not for a short time, nor does it spoil like perishable food, but contributes to eternal life. In like manner, the drinking of the Lord's Blood is truly drink, because it quenches thirst not for a time, but preserves the one who drinks from thirst and want forever, as the Lord also said to the Samaritan woman: "whoever drinks the water that I shall give will never thirst" (Jn. 4:14). For whoever through partaking of the Divine Mysteries receives the grace of the Holy Spirit will not, like unbelievers, experience either hunger of the mind or thirst.
Jn. 6:56. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him.
Here we learn the mystery of Communion. He who eats and drinks the Flesh and Blood of the Lord abides in the Lord Himself, and the Lord in him. A strange and incomprehensible union takes place, so that God abides in us and we in God. You do not hear a fearsome teaching. We do not partake of God Himself, for He is intangible and incorporeal, and cannot be grasped either by eyes or by teeth; nor again do we partake of the Flesh of a mere man, for it can bring no benefit. But since God by an ineffable commingling united Flesh with Himself, the Flesh also gives life — not because it has changed into the Divine Nature, no, but after the likeness of iron heated in fire, which remains iron yet manifests the power of fire. So too the Flesh of the Lord, while remaining Flesh, gives life as the Flesh of God the Word.
Jn. 6:57. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will also live because of Me.
As I, He says, live by the Father (that is, because I was born from the Father, Who is Life), so also the one who eats Me shall live by Me, having been united with and as it were transformed into Me, Who am able to give life. But when you hear that "I live," do not think that He lives by participation in life. Otherwise an animal would be called God. But no! For neither is an animal called God, nor is a created thing called Life.
Jn. 6:58. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate manna and died:
He frequently repeats the words "your fathers ate manna in the wilderness" in order to convince His listeners that if it was possible for people to be nourished without harvest or sowing for forty years and their life was sustained, how much more will the Lord now strengthen our rational life with a better bread, His own Flesh, formed from the earth – the Virgin, without sowing – of a man.
Jn. 6:58. He who eats this bread shall live forever.