Church Fathers Commentary John 6:52-54

"The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day." — John 6:52-54 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Jews, not understanding what the bread of peace was, argued among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat? But those who eat the bread do not argue among themselves, for God makes them dwell together in unity.

The Venerable Bede: The Jews thought that our Lord would divide His flesh into pieces and give it to them to eat; and so, misunderstanding Him, they argued.

St. John Chrysostom: As they thought it was impossible that He could do as He said—that is, give them His flesh to eat—He showed them that it was not only possible but necessary. He then said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is as if He said: You do not know the sense in which that bread is eaten, or the way of eating it; but, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

The Venerable Bede: And so that this would not seem to be addressed to them alone, He declares universally, Whoever eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal life.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And so that they would not think He was speaking of this present life and use that as a reason to argue, He adds, has eternal life. Therefore, the one who does not eat that flesh or drink that blood does not have this eternal life. Men may have temporal life without Him, but they cannot have eternal life.

This is not true of material food. Indeed, if we do not eat it, we will not live; yet even if we do eat it, we do not live forever, for disease, old age, or some accident eventually kills us. But this food and drink—that is, the Body and Blood of Christ—is such that whoever does not take it does not have life, and whoever does take it has life: eternal life.

Theophylact of Ohrid: For it is not the flesh of a mere man, but of God; and it makes man divine by inebriating him, so to speak, with divinity.

St. Augustine of Hippo: There are some who promise people deliverance from eternal punishment if they are cleansed in Baptism and partake of Christ’s Body, regardless of how they live. However, the Apostle contradicts them when he says, The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Let us examine what this means. The one who is in the unity of His body—that is, a member of the Christian community—is truly said to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ when he receives the sacrament of this body at the altar. And heretics and schismatics, who are cut off from the unity of the body, may receive the same sacrament, but it does not profit them. In fact, it is harmful, as it tends to make their judgment heavier or their forgiveness more distant.

Nor should those feel secure in their abandoned and damnable ways who, by the wickedness of their lives, desert righteousness (that is, Christ), through fornication or other sins of that kind. Such people cannot be said to eat the body of Christ, since they are not to be counted among the members of Christ. For, not to mention other things, one cannot be a member of Christ and at the same time a member of a harlot.

By this food and drink, then, He would have us understand the community of His body and His members, which is the Church, comprised of the predestined, called, justified, and glorified saints and believers. The sacrament of this reality—that is, of the unity of the body and blood of Christ—is administered from the Lord's Table, in some places daily and in others on specific days. From the Lord's Table it is received by some for their salvation and by others for their condemnation. But the reality itself, of which this is the sacrament, is for the salvation of everyone who partakes of it, and for the condemnation of no one.

To prevent us from supposing that those who were promised eternal life by virtue of this food and drink would not die in the body, He adds, And I will raise him up at the last day. This refers to that eternal life—a spiritual rest which the spirits of the saints enter into. But the body will not be deprived of eternal life either; rather, it will be endowed with it at the resurrection of the dead on the last day.