In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
My beloved, welcome now to the second part of the fifth lecture. If you have been following along with us, we have spoken quite a bit in the last several series or in the last several parts of the fourth lecture where we spoke about how it is that the Eucharist truly is there in order for us to be able to go from a state of corruption and to be rendered back to a state of incorruption. So, the Eucharist is the very means that helps us to achieve this incorruptibility, if you wish.
And now, we are going to be speaking specifically about how the Eucharist is life-giving. So, let's go ahead and dive right in and understand how the Eucharist gives us life, because it is the very body and blood of Him who is life.
The same way that He made it clear that He wants to give us this life and He wants to give it to us in a way that we could never imagine. And this is why He became a human being for our sakes, so that He could restore to us the real option of life, not only life in this flesh, not only life here and now for 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, a hundred years, no! He wants to give us life eternal. Listen to the words that are spoken to us in the Gospel. In John, chapter 10, the Lord Himself says what?
'' 10 (...) I came that they may have life, and [that they may] have it [what?] abundantly.'' (John 10:10) - [New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised]
Everlasting, eternal. He says, in John, chapter 14, when He is speaking to Thomas and the disciples before He is betrayed and crucified... he says:
'' 6 Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, (...) [I am] the truth, and [I am] the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' '' (John 14:6) - [New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised]
You see, life now is not only a state of being. Life is not something that can be measured. Life is not just this idea of having your heart beating, no! Life is now personified. Life is now known as a person. He is life. He is not alive; He is not living; He is life itself, because He is the life-giver; He is the author of it. And so now, He becomes to us the very thing that we pursue. He is life. I am the way, I am the truth and I am the life. And this is what is most beautiful, that life to us becomes something that we participate in. How? Through the knowledge of God, through intimacy and relationship and participation with God.
He says this in John, chapter 17, and this is the chapter where the Lord makes it very clear what His desire for humanity is. This is where He is found in the garden of Gethsemane, right before He is betrayed. And this is the conversation between God the Son and God the Father and it's beautiful to hear what He says. And the Lord Jesus Christ, when speaking to the Father, says:
'' 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.'' (John 17:3) - [New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised]
And here, to know God is not knowledge at the level of information; it's not data. It's true knowledge; it's intimacy; it's relationship; it's this experience of God; it's real knowledge. This is eternal life: to know the Lord our God. And so now, if He has come to give us life, if He is life itself and we are called to participate and to know Him who is life, to be in relationship with Him who is life, then surely He must make Himself accessible to us.
So, let's go back to the garden. Remember that tree of life that was removed from us, that was made inaccessible, that He placed a cherubim in the front of it, so that He can prevent Adam and Eve from partaking of it? Well, now He reintroduces it. And the Church teaches us that He reintroduces it and He is the very fruit that hangs on that tree. St. Gregory the Theologian, he says something very beautiful in his theological orations. He says the following... he says:
''Christ is brought up to the tree and [he is] nailed to it ─ yet by the tree of life he restores us. Yes, he saves even a thief crucified with him; he wraps all the visible world in darkness.'' (St. Gregory the Theologian, Theological Orations 29.20)
What is St. Gregory saying? He's saying that the tree of life now is made accessible to us again, how? When we see the fruit of life, when we see Him that we have to taste of. The same way that Adam and Eve plucked off the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate of it, we now have a new tree that is presented before us. And the fruit that is on that piece of wood, the fruit that is on that tree becomes the source of life to us.
St. Gregory's telling us that the tree of life is presented to us where? On the Golgotha. That the cross is the tree and that the Lord Christ Himself is the fruit that we must eat of. And it's so beautifully written, because now the tree is made accessible to us once again, why? Because He's conquered death; because He's destroyed the enemy. And so, He now is the fruit that hangs on this tree and we read this in the Gospel of St. John, chapter 6, where He says Himself:
'' 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, (...) I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.'' (John 6:56-57)
You see, my beloved, this chapter, John, chapter 6, is one of the most important chapters when studying the Eucharistic theology of the Church. We, as orthodox Christians, we mould our understanding of the Eucharist on this passage of the bread of life. And He says it very clearly: whoever eats me will live because of me. He now becomes to us the very fruit that hangs on this tree. He has given us the option of life once again.
And how does He do this? Well, it's simple. It really is simple. It's a mystery and we don't completely understand it, but it is very simple. If we believe He is life, then when He allows us to participate in Him through the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood, then what have we taken inside us? Life. And where there is life, there can be no death. The process itself is mysterious, but it is simple, isn't it?
How do you get rid of the darkness in a room? You turn on a light and as soon as the light goes on, the darkness is immediately eradicated; the darkness flees, because a light has shone. How do I destroy death? Death is nothing more than the absence of life. And so, if I introduce life into the state of a dead heart, a dead soul... If I receive life inside me, what will happen? Then I will become alive. St. Cyril of Alexandria, he says this... he says:
'' [The] Son is life by nature as God from God and life from life.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
Just as the Father is life, so is the Son, because they share in their essence. And so, just as He is God from God, He is also life from life.
'' [And] if the Father is life and the Son is also life, how is the Son inferior to the Father? In that case, we will not have perfect life in us even if Christ dwells ''in the inner being''.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
What St. Cyril is saying here is that because the Father is life, the Son also must be life. And we know that the Son is not inferior to the Father in anything. Now the heretic Arius and all of those who followed him might believe that the Son is inferior to the Father, but we don't believe this. The Holy Creed teaches us that they are light from light, true God of true God, begotten, not created of one essence with the Father. That is what we say in the Creed and so, just as He is life, God the Father is life, so also is the Son. God from God, life from life, light from light, true God of true God. There is no distinction between the fact that they share in their essence. They are consubstantial.
And so, my beloved, He is life and because He is life, then He becomes what I take inside me, because He places Himself in us; He places Himself in us. St. Cyril, on his commentary of St. John, he says:
''He mixes himself in, so to speak, with those things that do not have eternal being by their own nature,...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
Our own nature, our human nature was created from dust and so it has the potential to decay, to go back to dust, to die. But when He places Himself, or the word that St. Cyril uses, when He mixes Himself in us, He then has the power to place in us His own power. Because we do not have that power in us, He places that power within us.
''...and he becomes life to those things that exist so that once they have come into being, they may remain and be preserved, each one according to the definition of its own nature.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
And so, He places Himself in us. He puts His power into His flesh and so, His flesh becomes what? Life-giving, because that body that He took on has become His. That very body, His humanity, His flesh and His blood have become life-giving. And so, because they are life- giving because they belong to Him, when I participate in them, I now allow that power that is in His flesh to enter into me. Let's read what St. Cyril says:
''The flesh, when it [becomes] his, had to participate in the immortality that comes from him. Fire can put the visible manifestation of its natural activity into wood and practically transform the wood ─ in which it resides by participation ─ into itself. It would be down right absurd [he says it would be foolish or crazy] if fire could do this, but the Word of God, who is over all, is thought not to bestow his own good activity ─ that is, life ─ to the flesh.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
If fire is capable of giving of its nature to wood when they participate in each other, how could we not believe that my participation with the immortal and life-giving flesh of the Lord Jesus- Christ will not also allow me to participate in His power that He gives to me when He becomes one with me through the Eucharist?
So, my beloved, St. Cyril is becoming more and more clear on this. And it's not St. Cyril alone, because St. Cyril and other fathers speak of the power of the Eucharist as the source of our solution; that we, who are now found dead, because we have separated ourselves from the Lord God... Remember, Adam and Eve, that's what they chose. They separated themself from Him who is life and so, they slowly started moving towards eternal death. The countdown began.
Exactly like... forgive me for the very simple example, but as long as your phone... as long as your phone is plugged into the charger, the battery stays where? At 100%, because it is connected to a power source. But when you unplug it from the power source, what happens? It very slowly starts to go from 100 to 90, to 80, to 70, and then finally, it reaches all the way down to the battery where it reaches zero, and then you say my phone is dead. That's what we say, isn't it? How much more does this apply to the human being when we disconnect ourselves from the source of life! We slowly start moving towards a state of death, a state of non-existence, as St. Athanasius would say.
So, my beloved, it is very clear that the only way for us to be able to stay alive fully is to reconnect, is to be reconciled, is to have life flowing within us. So, how do we understand this? We understand it as the Eucharist being that very energy, that very godly power, that life-giving attribute that is given to us. So, St. Cyril says you cannot understand the Eucharist unless you understand who Christ is. So, look at what he says... he says:
''Christ declared: 'Verily I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in yourselves.' Surely then Christ's holy body and blood are life-giving. For the body, as I said, does not belong to some human participant in the Life but is personally owned by Life himself, that is, the Only begotten.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Select Letters, On the Creed)
This is not simply the flesh of some random man who is alive, no! This body belongs to Him who is life. And so, Christ's holy body and His blood must be life-giving, because He is life, because He is the life-giver.
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