In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
Welcome again, my beloved, now to the third part of the fifth lecture. So far, we've been focusing very much on how it is that the Eucharist really is the remedy to so much of our spiritual ailment, what restores the human being back to what he ought to be. We've seen how it is that the Eucharist renders us incorruptible. We've spoken about how it is that the Eucharist is life-giving.
And now, we're going to focus a little bit on how it is that the Lord Jesus Christ is that bread of life which came down from Heaven. We're going to study a little bit John, chapter 6, and see how it is that the Lord Christ makes it very clear that, unless we eat His body and drink His blood, there is no life in us. Let's go ahead and take a deeper look.
St. Cyril says this is why it makes sense for us to believe that He is right when He says that He is the bread of life. And the passage for the bread of life, if you would like to read it in detail, go read John, chapter 6. It is beautifully written by the evangelist and it is very, very powerful, very thought-provoking. Because even the Lord, when He says I am the bread of life, people are not capable of understanding it. What do You mean You want us to eat Your body and drink Your blood? What do You mean You came down from Heaven? What do You mean You are the real manna? What does that mean?
And so, it's so thought-provoking that even some of the disciples left Him. It says that some of those who followed Him stopped following Him that day, because what He said was so powerful and so thought-provoking. And even the Lord turns to His disciple that day and He says: Do you also want to leave? But those of His disciples, those twelve who loved Him, or those eleven who loved Him and one of them later on became the traitor, they continued following Him. But this was a very difficult thing to hear and to understand that He is the bread of life, He came down from Heaven, that He is going to be the source of life within us, that we must eat of Him if we want to have life in us. Listen to what St. Cyril says about this passage. He's speaking of the Lord Christ and he says Christ would say:
''...'My father gives you bread from heaven.' This bread was sketched in shadows by the provision of manna to the ancients...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
He's saying that the manna was nothing but a shadow of what was really to come, that the manna was only pointing to the Lord Christ. He says:
''...Let no one think, he says, that this is the true bread from heaven, but let them rather acknowledge him who clearly has the power to feed the whole earth and, in short, to give ''life to the world''...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
Let them look at Jesus Christ and realize that He is the manna, he is the one who feeds the nations, He is the bread of life which gives life to the world. Jesus, he says:
''...He accuses the Jew then of clinging to events that occurred in type and refusing to investigate the beauty of the truth...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
To the Jewish person who Jesus was speaking to at that time, the Jews were still holding on to the symbolism of the manna of the past, because it was only a type of what was to come and they are refusing to see the beauty of the truth that is manifested before them who is manifest in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ.
''...That was not the manna in the strict sense, but rather the only begotten Word of God himself was the manna, who comes from the substance of the Father, since he is life by nature and the one who gives life to all.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
He is the bread of life which came down from Heaven. He is that bread of life that we must eat of, that we must participate in. This is the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and when we eat of it, we receive life into our being. And so, it's through the Eucharist that we are saved and that life is given back to us.
But before I tell you what St. Cyril said, listen to what another great father who lived in the same time as him and died a little bit before him said: St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory of Nyssa who happens to be the brother of St. Basil the Great who was a bishop in the area of Nyssa, in the area of Cappadocia. He says the following and it's beautifully, beautifully said. He explains that just as we introduced poison into our body, we introduced death into our body through the process of eating, so also through the process of eating, the Lord gives us the remedy to heal us of this poison, to heal us of death which entered into us. Listen to what St. Gregory says:
''(2) Those who have been tricked into taking poison offset its harmful effect by another drug. The remedy, moreover, just like the poison, has to enter [into] the system,...'' (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On Religious Instructions, Subsection 37, Paragraph 2)
So the same way that poison enters into a person and destroys him, so also the remedy or the antidote has to enter into them.
''(2)...so that its remedial effect may thereby spread through the whole body. Similarly, having tasted the poison, that is the fruit, that dissolved our nature, we were necessarily in need of something to reunite it...'' (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On Religious Instructions, Subsection 37, Paragraph 2)
We introduced poison; we introduced death through the disobedience. And so, the act of Adam and Eve eating from that tree and introducing disobedience and poison and death into them must be counterbalanced now, how? Through this reconciliation of also having something enter into us, having something fix the system that was now destroyed. So, he says what
''(2)...Such a remedy had to enter into us, so that it might by its counteraction undo the harm the body had already encountered from the poison. (3) And what is this remedy? [, asked St. Gregory] Nothing else than the body that proved itself superior to [the] death and became the source of our life.'' (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On Religious Instructions, Subsection 37, Paragraph 2 & 3)
What is this body that proved itself superior to death? It is the very body of our Lord Jesus Christ who resurrected in the flesh, who rose from the dead. That body that conquered death is now offered to us on the altar and it becomes the remedy that we take within ourselves. It is through the Eucharist that we receive life again. And St. Cyril says the same thing as St. Gregory. He says:
''Therefore, Christ has given his own body for the life of all, and through it he makes life dwell in us again. How he does this I will explain as I am able. Since the life-giving Word of God has taken up residence in the flesh, he has transformed it so that it has his own good attribute, that is, life. And since, in an ineffable mode of union, he has completely come together with it, he has rendered it life-giving, just as he himself is by nature. For this reason, the body of Christ gives life to those who participate in it. His body drives out death when that body enters [into] those who are dying, and it removes decay since it is fully pregnant with the Word who destroys decay.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
So, when that body, that body which is life-giving, which belongs to the only begotten Son of God, which belongs to life Himself now becomes one with me, a person who is sinful and who is dying, I have now received what within me? I have received life Himself inside me. So, what happens to the death that is ruling inside me? It is conquered; it is destroyed. This is the power of the Eucharist. This is what the Eucharist offers you and me: it restores us.
And this is why, in the liturgy of St. Basil in the Coptic Orthodox Church, what do we say? The priest or the bishop who is praying will take the paten that has the holy body in it and he will raise it and he will place it in front of the chalice that has the blood in it and he will say aloud in front of everybody and say what?
''Amen. Amen. Amen. I believe, I believe, I believe, and [I] confess to the last breath that this is the life-giving Flesh that your only-begotten Son, our Lord God, and Savior Jesus Christ, took from our Lady, the Lady of us all...'' (St. Basil the Great, Divine Liturgy, Confession)
This is the same body that He took from St. Mary. This is the same body that He took in His incarnation. And this is the same body that has life flowing in it, because it belongs to life Himself. This is the life-giving flesh. And when the priest says this, what does he say? I believe, I believe, I believe and I confess to what? To the last breath. Until I die, I will never deny the fact that this is the life-giving flesh of my Lord, my God and my Saviour, Jesus Christ.
So, in conclusion to this segment of the Eucharist as life-giving, we must understand that because He is life and He offers Himself to us, we receive life in our bodies. St. Cyril finishes by saying what?
''Just as if one were to take a spark and bury it in a great heap of chaff so that the seed of fire may be preserved, so also our Lord Jesus Christ hides life in us through his own flesh,...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
If we were to take a small spark of fire and place it in a big haystack, a big heap of chaff, he says, what will happen? A fire will grow within it. It will grow within it, because it's placed, a very small spark, even in a mountain of chaff, that spark will overtake it all. The fire will grow. And so, the Lord, he says, and this is beautiful, He hides life in us through His own flesh. He hides Himself in us through His own flesh.
''...and like a seed he places immortality in us, abolishing all the decay that is in us. Therefore, whoever eats the holy flesh of Christ has eternal life because the flesh has (...) itself the Word, who is life by nature.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
My beloved, hopefully it is very clear that, according to the teachings of the Church, and especially the teachings of our holy father St. Cyril of Alexandria, the Eucharist is the solution to the state of death that the human being is in. The human condition, which was once corrupt, can now be rendered to a state of incorruption. The human condition, which has chosen death over life, now has the option of choosing life again by participating through the Eucharist, which is the very life-giving flesh of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus-Christ.
Next time, God willing, when we discuss, we will take a look at... forgive me, this is not right, not the Eucharist as life-giving, but rather, we will take a look at how it is that the Eucharist is the source of union between us and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you remember, part of the discussion that we had in the very beginning was for us to realize that there was three major effects of the fall: that we went from incorruption to corruption, that we went from being called to live to choosing death, and that we were called to know God and have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us to be in union with God, and now, we are separated from Him. Hopefully we'll see how the Eucharist now reconciles us to God and allows us to be truly in union with Him.
Until then, please keep me in your prayers and to God be all glory, now and forever and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.
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