i6. But lest they should suppose that eternal life was promised in this meat and drink in such manner that they who should take it should not even now die in the body, He condescended to meet this thought; for when He had said, " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life," He forthwith subjoined, " and I will raise him up on the last day." That meanwhile, according to the Spirit, he may have eternal life in that rest into which the spirits of the saints are received; but as to the body, he shall not be defrauded of its eternal life, but, on the contrary, he shall have it in the resurrection of the dead at the last day.
17. "For my flesh," saith He, "is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." For whilst by meat and drink men seek to attain to this, neither to hunger nor thirst, there is nothing that truly affords this, except this meat and drink, wliich doth render tnem by whom it is taken immortal and incorruptible; that is, the very fellowship of the saints,where will lie peace and unity, full and perfect. Therefore, indeed, it is, even as men of God understood this before us, tTiat our T-ord Jesus Christ iias pointed our minds to His body and blood in those things, which from being many are reduced to some one thing. For a unity is formed by many grains forming together; and another unity is effected by the clustering together of many berries.
18. Li a word. He now explains how that which He speaks of comes to pass, and what it is to eat His body and to dnnk His blood. " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." This it is, therefore, for a man to eat that meat and to drink that drink, to dwell in Chr'ist, and to have Christ dwelling in him. Consequently, he that dwelleth not in Christ, and in whom Christ dwelleth not, doubtless neither eateth His -flesh [spiritually] nor drinketh His blood [although he may press the sacrament of ihe body and blood of Christ carnally and visibly with his teeth], but rather doth he eat and drmk the sacrament of so great a thing to his own judgment, because he, being unclean, has presumed to come to the sacraments of Christ, which no man taketh worthily except he that is pure: of such it is said, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."'
19. "As the living Father hath sent me," saith He, " and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." He says not: As I eat the Father, and live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same shall live by me. For the Son, who was begotten equal, does not become better by participation of the Father; just as we are made better b}' participation of the Son, through the unity of His body and blood, which thing that eating and drinking signifies. We live then by Him, by eating Him; that is, by receiving Himself as the eternal life, which we did not have from ourselves. Himself, however, lives by the Father, being sent by Him, because " He emptied Himself, being made obedient even unto the death of the cross. '' = For if we take this declaration, " I live by the Father," ^ according to that which He says in another place, " The Father is greater than I; " just as we, too, live by Him who is greater than we; this results from His being sent. The sending is in fact the emptying of PJimself, and Flis taking upon FLm the form of a servant: and this is rightly understood, while also the Son's equality of nature with the Father is preserved. For the Father is greater than the Sun as man, but He has the Son as God equal, — whilst tlie same is both God and man. Son of God and Son of man, one Christ Jesus. To this effect, if these words are rightly understood, He spoke thus: "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me: " just as if He were to say, My emptying of myself (in that He ' Matt. V. 8.
' Phil. li. r.
[Tractate XXVII.
sent me) effected that I should live by the Father; that is, should refer my life to Him as the greater; but that any should live l)y me is effected by that participation in which he eats me. Therefore, I being humbled, do live by the Father, man being raised up, liveth by me. But if it was said, " I live by the Father," so as to mean, that He is of the Father, not the Father of Him, it was said without detriment to His equality. And yet further, by saying, "And he that eateth me, even he shall live by me," He did not signify that His own equality was the same as our equality, but He thereby showed the grace of the Mediator.
20. "This is the bread that cometh down from heaven;" that by eating it we may live, since we cannot have eternal life from^ ourselves. Not," saith He, "as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth this bread shall live forever." That those fathers are dead, He would have to be understood as meaning, that they do not live forever. For even they who eat Christ shall certainly die temporally; but they live forever, because Christ is eternal life.
TRACTATE XXVII.
Chapter VI. 60-72.
1. We have just heard out of the Gospel the words of the Lord which follow the former discourse. From these a discourse is due to your ears and minds, and it is not unseasonable to-day; for it is concerning the body of the Lord which He said that He gave to be eaten for eternal life. And He explained the mode of this bestowal and gift of His, in what manner He gave His flesh to eat, saying, " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me,- and I in him." The proof that a man has eaten and drank is this, if he abides and is abode in, if he dwells and is dwelt in, if he adheres so as not to be deserted. This, then, He has taught us, and admonished us in mystical words that we may be in His body, in His members under Himself as head, eating His flesh, not abandoning our unity with Him. But most of those who were present, by not understanding Him, were offended; for in hearing these things, they thought only of flesh, that which themselves were. But the apostle says, and says what is true, " To be carnallyminded is death.".' The Lord gives us His flesh to eat, and yet to understand it according to the flesh is death; while yet He says of His flesh, that therein is eternal life. Therefore we ought not to understand the flesh carnally. As in these words that follow: 2. " Many therefore," not of His enemies, but "of His disciples, when they had heard this, said. This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" If His disciples accounted this saying hard, what must His enemies have I Rom. vii. 6.
thought? And yet so it behoved that to be said which should not be understood by all. The secret of God ought to make men eagerly attentive, not hostile. But these m_en quickly departed from Him, while the Lord said such things: they did not believe Him to be saying something great, and covering some grace by these words; they understood just according to their wishes, and in the manner of men, that Jesus was able, or was determined upon this, namely, to distribute the flesh with which the Word was clothed, piecemeal, as it were, to those that believe on Him. " This," say they, " is a hard saying; who can hear it? " 3. " But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it," — for they so said these things with themselves that they might not be heard by Him; but He who knew them in themselves, hearing within Himself, — answered and said, "This offends you; " because I said, I give you my flesh to eat, and my blood to drink{ this forsooth offends you. " Then what if ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before?" What is this? Did He hereby solve the question that perplexed them? Did He hereby uncover the source of their offense? He did clearly, if only they understood. For they supposed that He was going to deal out His body to them; but He said that He was to ascend into heaven, of course, whole: " When ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He wa^ before; " certainly then, at least, you will see that not in the manner you suppose does He dispense His body; certainly then, at least, you will understand that His grace is not consumed by tooth-biting.
Tractate XXVU.]
4. And He said, "It is the Spirit that quictceneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Before we expound this, as the Lord grants us, that other must not be negligently passed over, where He says, " Then what if ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before?'' For Christ is the Son of man, of the Virgin Mary. Therefore Son of man He began to be here on earth, where He took flesh from the earth. For which cause it was said prophetically, " Truth is sprung from the earth."' Then what does He mean when He says, " When ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before "? For there had been no question if He had spoken thus: " If ye shall see the Son of God ascending where He was before," But since He said, " The Son of man ascending where He was before," surely the Son of man was not in heaven before the time when He began to have a being on earth? Here, indeed. He said, "where He was before," just as if He were not there at this time when He spoke these words. But in another place He says, " No man has ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven."- He said not " was," but, saith He, " the Son of man who is in heaven." He was speaking on earth, and He declared Himself to be in heaven. And yet He did not speak thus: "No man hath ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven," the Son of God, "who is in heaven.'' AMiither tends it, but to make us understand that which even in the former discourse I commended to your minds, my beloved, that Christ, both God and man, is one person, not two persons, lest our faith be not a trinity, but a quaternity? Christ, therefore, is one; the Word, soul and flesh, one Christ; the Son of God and Son of man, one Christ; Son of God always, Son of man in time, yet one Christ in regard to unity of person. In heaven He was when He spoke on earth. He was Son of man in heaven in that manner in which He was Son of God on earth; Son of God on earth in the flesh which He took. Son of man in heaven in the unity of person.
5. What is it, then, that He adds? "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Let us say to Him (for He permits us, not contradicting Him, but desiring to know), O Lord, good Master, in what way does the flesh profit nothing, whilst Thou hast said, "Except a man^eat my flesh, and drink my blood, he shall not have life in him?" Or does life jirofit nothing? And why are we what we are, but that we may have eternal life, which Thou dost promise by Thy flesh? Then what means " the flesh profiteth nothing"? It profiteth nothing, but only in the manner in which they understood it. They indeed understood the flesh, just as when cut to pieces in a carcass, or sold in the shambles; not as when it is quickened by the Spirit. Wherefore it is said that " the flesh profiteth nothing," in the same manner as it is said that " knowledge pufteth up." Then, ought we at once to hate knowledge? Far from it! And what means "Knowledge puffeth up"? Knowledge alone, without charit}'. Therefore he added, "but charity edifieth."^ Therefore add thou to knowledge charity, and knowledge will be profitable, not by itself, but through charity. So also here, " the flesh profiteth nothing," only when alone. Let the Spirit be added to the flesh, as charity is added to knowledge, and it profiteth very much. For if the flesh profited nothing, the Word would not be made flesh to dwell among us. If through the flesh Christ has greatly profited us, does the flesh i:)rofit nothing? Rut it is by the flesh that the 9»pirit has done somewhat for our salvation. Flesh was a vessel; consider vvhat it held, not what it was. The apostles were sent forth; did their flesh profit us nothing? If the apostles' flesh profited us, could it be that the Lord's flesh should have profited us nothing? For how should the sound of the Word come to us except by the voice of the flesh? Whence should writing come to us? All these are operations of the flesh, but only when the spirit moves it, as if it were its organ. Therefore "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing," as they understood the flesh, but not so do I give my flesh to be eaten.
9. Hence "the words," saith He, "which I have spoken to you are Spirit and life." For we have said, brethren, that this is what the Lord had taught us by the eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood, that we should abide in Him and He in us.. But we abide in Him when we are His members, and He abides in us when we are His temple. But that we may be His members, unity joins us together. And what but love can effect that unity should join us together? And the love of God, whence is it? Ask the apostle: " The love of God," saith he, " is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us."-" Therefore "it is the Spirit that quickeneth," for it is the Spirit that makes living members. Nor does the Spirit make ' Ps. Ixxxv. 12.
4 Rom. V. 5.
1/6 [Tractate XXVII.
any members to be living except such as it finds in the body, which also the Spirit itself quickens. For the Spirit which is in thee, O man, by which it consists that thou art a man, does it quicken a member which it finds separated from thy flesh? I call thy soul thy spirit. Thy soul quickeneth only the members which are in thy flesh; if thou takest one away, it is no longer quickened by thy soul, because it is not joined to the unity of thy body. These things are said to make us love unity and fear separation. For there is nothing that a Christian ought to dread so much as to be separated from Christ's body. For if he is separated from Christ's body, he is not a member of Christ; if he is not a member of Christ, he is not quickened by the Spirit of Christ. "But if any man," saith the apostle, "have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."' "It is the Spirit," then, " that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." What means "are spirit and life "? They are to be understood spiritually. Hast thou understood spiritually? "They are spirit and life." Hast thou understood carnally? So also " are they spirit and life," but are not so to thee.
7. "But," saith He, "there are some among you that believe not." He said not. There are some among you that understand not; but He told the cause why they understand not " There are some among you that believe not," and therefore they understand not, because they believe not. For the prophet has said, " If ye believe not, ye shall not understand. ""^ We are united by faith, quickened by understanding. Let us first ad acre to Him through faith, that there may be that which may be quickened by understanding. For he who adheres not resists; he that resists believes not. And how can he that resists be quickened? He is an adversary to the ray of light by which he should be penetrated: he turns not away his eye, but shuts his mind. " There are," then, " some wlio believe not." Let them believe and open, let them open and be illumined. " For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed, and who should betray Him." For Judas also was there. Some indeed, were offended; but he remained to watch his opportunity, not to understand. And because he remained for that purpose, the Lord kept not silence concerning him. He described him not by name, but neither was He silent about him; that all might fear though only one should perish. But after 1 Rom. viii. 9.
Isa. vii, o, LXX.
He spoke, and distinguished those that believe from those that believe not, He clearly showed the cause why they believed not. " Therefore I said unto you," saith He, "that no man can come unto me except it were given to him of my Father." Hence to believe is also given to us; for certainly to believe is something. And if it is something great, rejoice that thou hast believed, yet be not lifted up; for " What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" ^ 8. '' From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." Went back, but after Satan, not after Christ. For our Lord Christ once addressed Peter as Satan, rather because he wished to precede his Lord, and to give counsel that He should not die, He who had come to die, that we might not die for ever; and He says to him, "Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men."-* He did not drive him back to go after Satan, and so called him Satan; but He made him go behind Himself, that by walking after his Lord he should not be a Satan. But these went back in the same manner as the apostle says of certain women: "For some are turned back after Satan. "s They walked not further with Him. Behold, cut off from the body, for perhaps they were not in the body, they have lost life. They must be reckoned among the unbelieving, notwithstanding they were called disciples. Not a few, but " many went back." This happened, it may be, for our consolation. For sometimes it happens that a man may declare the truth, and that what he says may not be understood, and so they that hear it are offended and go away. Now the man regrets that he had spoken that truth, and he says to himself, " I ought not to have spoken so, I ought not to have said this." Behold, it happened to the Lord: He spoke, and lost many; He remained with few. But yet He was not troubled, because He^new from the beginning who they were that believed and that believed not. If it happen to us, we are sorely perplexed. Let us find comfort in the Lord, and yet let us speak words with prudence.
9. And now addressing the few that remained: "Then said Jesus to the twelve" (namely, those twelve who remained), "Will ye also," said He, "go away?" Not even Judas departed. But it was already manifest to the Lord why he remained: to us he was made manifest afterwards. Peter answered in behalf of all, one for many, unity for the : Cor.
4 Matt. xvi. 23.
Tim.
1 KACTATE XXX'li.J Ox\ THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
1/7 collective whole: "Then Simon Peter an svvered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go?" Thou drivest us from Thee; give us Thy other self. " To whom shall we go? " If we abandon Thee, to whom shall we go? " Thou hast the words of eternal life." See how Peter, by the gift of God and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, understood Him. How other than because he believed? " Thou hast * the words of eternal life." For Thou hast eternal life in the ministration of Thy body and blood. " And we have believed and have known." Not have known and believed, but " believed and known." For we believed in order to know; for if we wanted to know first, and then to believe, we should not be able either to know or to believe What have we believed and known? " That Thou art Christ, the Son of God;" that is, that Thou art that very eternal life, and that Thou givest in Thy flesh and blood onlv that which Thou art.
lo. Then said the Lord Jesus: " Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? " Therefore, should He have said, " I have chosen eleven:" or is a devil also chosen, and among the elect? Persons are wont to be called " elect " by way of praise: or was man elected because some great good was done by him, without his will and knowledge? This belongs peculiarly to God; the contrary is characteristic of the wicked. For as wicked men make a bad use of the good works of God; so, on the contrary, God makes a good use of the evil works of wicked men. How good it is that the m^embers of the body are, as they can be disposed only by God, their author and framer! Nevertheless what evil use doth wantonness make of the eyes? What ill use doth falsehood make of the tongue? Does not the false witness first both slay his own soul with his tongue, and then, after he has destroyed himself, endeavor to injure another? He makes an ill use of the tongue, but the tongue is not therefore an evil thing; the tongue is God's work, but iniquity makes an ill use of that good work of God. How do they use their feet who run into crimes? How do murderers employ their hands? And what ill use do wicked men make of those good creatures of God that lie outside of them? With gold they corrupt judgment and oppress the innocent. Bad men make a bad use of the very light; for by evil living they employ even the very light with whicli they see into the service of their villanies. A bad man, when going to do a l)ad deed, wishes the light to shine for him, lest he stumble; he who has already stumbled and fallen within; that which he is afraid of in his body has already befallen him in his heart. Hence, to avoid the tediousness of running through them separately, a bad man makes a bad use of all the good creatures of God: a good man, on the contrary, makes a good use of the evil deeds of wicked men. And what is so good as the one God? Since, indeed, the Lord Himself said, " There is none good, but the one God."' By how much He is better, then, by so much the better use He makes of our evil deeds. What worse than Judas? Among all that adhered to the Master, among the twelve, to him was committed the common purse; to him was allotted the dispensing for the poor. Unthankful for so great a favor, so great an honor, he took the money, and lost righteousness: being dead, he betrayed life: Him whom he followed as a disciple, he persecuted as an enemy. All this evil was Judas's; but the Lord employed his evil for good. He endured to be betrayed, to redeem us. Behold, Judas's evil was turned to good. How many martyrs has Satan persecuted! If Satan kft off persecuting, we should not to-day be celebrating the very glorious crown of Saint Laurence. If then God emplo)'s the evil works of the devil himself for good, what the bad man effects, by making a bad use, is to hurt himself, not to contradict the goodness of God. The Master makes use of tliat man. And if He knew not how to make use of him, the Master contriver would not have permitted him to be. Therefore, He saith, "One of you is a devil,'' whilst I have chosen you twelve. This saying, " I have chosen you twelve," may be understood in this way, that twelve is a sacred number. For the honor of that number was not taken away because one was lost, for another was chosen into the place of the one that perished. = The number remained a sacred number, a number containing twelve: because they were to make known the Trinity throughout the whole world, that is, throughout the four quarters of the world. That is the reason of the three times four. Judas, then only cut himself oif, not j'trofaned the number twelve: he abandoned his Teacher, for God appointed a successor to take his place.
II. All this that the Lord spoke concerning His flesh and blood; — and in the grace of that distribution He promised us eternal life, and that He meant those that eat His flesh and drink His blood to be understood, from the fact of their abiding in Him and He in them; and that they understood not who believed not; and that they were offended through their understanding spiritual things ' M.->rk.\. la.
- Acts i. 26.
[Tractate XXVIII.
in a carnal sense; and that, while these were offended and perished, the Lord was present for the consolation of the disciples who remained, for proving whom He asked, " Will ye also go away?" that the reply of their steadfastness might be known to us, for He knew that they remained with Him; — let all this, then, avail us to this end, most beloved, that we eat not the flesh and blood of Christ merely in the sacrament, as many evil men do, but that we eat and drink to the participation of the Spirit, that we abide as members in the Lord's body, to be quickened by His Spirit, and that we be not offended, even if many do now with us eat and drink the sacraments in a temporal manner, who shall in the end have eternal torments. For at present Christ's body is as it were mixed on the threshingfloor: " But the Lord knoweth them that are His."' If thou knowest what thou threshest, that the substance is there hidden, that the threshing has not consumed what the winnowing has purged; certain are we, brethren, that all of us who are in the Lord's body, and abide in Him, that He also may abide in us, have of necessity to live among evil men in this world even unto the end. I do not say among those evil men who blaspheme Christ; for there are now few found who blaspheme with the tongue, but many who do so by their life. Among those, then, we must necessarily live even unto the end.
12. But what is this that He saith: " He that abideth in me, and I in him "? What, but that which the martyrs heard: " He that persevereth unto the end, the same shall be 2 Tim. ii. ig.
saved"?- How did Saint Laurence, whose feast we celebrate to-day, abide in Him? He abode even to temptation, abode even to tyrannical questioning, abode even to bitterest threatening, abode even to destruction; — that were a trifle, abode even to savage torture. For he was not put to death quickly, but tormented in the fire: he was allowed to live a long time; nay, not allowed to live a long time, but forced to die a slow, lingering death. Then, in that lingering death, in those torments, because he had well eaten and well drunk, as one who had feasted on that meat, as one intoxicated with that cup, he felt not the torments. For He was there who said, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." For the flesh indeed was burning, but the Spirit was quickening the soul. He shrunk not back, and he mounted into the kingdom. But the holy martyr Xystus, whose day we celebrated five days ago, had said to him, " Mourn not, my son;" for Xystus was a bishop, he was a deacon. "Mourn not," said he; "thou shalt follow me after three days." He said three days, meaning the mterval between the day of Saint Xystus's suffering and that of Saint Laurence's suffering, which falls on to-day. Three days is the interval. What comfort! He says not, " Mourn not, my son; the persecution will cease, and thou wilt be safe;" but, "do not mourn: whither I precede thou shalt follow; nor shall thy pursuit be deferred: three days will be the interval, and thou shalt be with me." He accepted the oracle, vanquished the devil, and attained to the triumph.
2 Matt. xxiv. 13.
TRACTATE XXVIII.
Chapter VII. 1-13.
I. In this chapter of the Gospel, brethren, our Lord Jesus Christ has most especially commended Himself to our faith in respect of His humanity. For indeed He always keeps in view, both in His words and deeds, that He should be believed to be God and man: God who made us, man who sought us; with the Father, always God; with us, man in time. For He would not have sought man whom He had made if Himself had not become that which He had made. But remember this, and do not let it slip from your hearts, that Christ became man in such manner that He ceased not to be God. While remaining God, He who made man took manhood. While, therefore, as man He concealed Himself, He must not be thought to have lost His power, but only to have offered an example to our infirmity. For He was detained when He willed to be, and He was put to death when he willed to be. But since there were to be His members, that is. His faithful ones, who would not have that power which He, our God, had; by His being hid, by His con- Tractate XXVIII.]