Original Douay–Rheims AnnotationsJohn 6

Work not the meat.

By their greedy seeking after him for meat of the body, he taketh occasion to draw them to the desire of a more excellent food which he had to give them, and so by little to open unto them the great mean and mystery of the B. Sacrament: which (as he proveth) doth not only far pass their ordinary bread or his marvelous multiplied loaves, but Manna itself, which they thought came from heaven, and so much wondered at it.

The true bread.

Though the person of Christ incarnate, even out of the Sacrament also, be meant under the Metaphores of bread and drink from heaven: and our belief in him, be signified by eating and feeding: yet the causes why they should be recommended unto us in such terms, were, that he was to be eaten and drunken indeed in the forms of bread and wine: for the which cause his body on the cross is called ^[1] his bread: & his blood shed on the cross, ^[2] the blood of the grape: no doubt because the same body and blood were in Holy Sacrament to be eaten and drunken. In which speeches, either of Christ's person generally, or peculiarly of the same as in the B. Sacrament, the true bread is not taken properly and specially for that substance which is of corn, and called with us bread: ^[3] but generally for food or meat, and therefore it hath joined with it lightly a term signifying a more excellent sort of sustenance: as, the true bread, the bread of heaven, the bread of life, Supersubstantial bread. in which sort the holy Sacrament which is Christ's body, is both here, and in S. Luke and S. Paul also, ^[4] often called bread, ^[5] even after consecration: not only for that it was made of bread, but because it is bread more truly, ^[6] and by more excellent property and calling, than that which ordinarily is named bread.

• 1 Why Christ is called bread: & believing, eating.
• 2 Ierem. 11, 19. Gen. 49, 11.
• 3 What signifieth, The true bread.
• 4 Lu. 24, 35. Act. 2, 42. 20, 7.
• 5 The B. Sacrament called bread.
• 6 1. Cor. 10.

Draw him

The Father draweth us and teacheth us to come to his Son, and to believe these high and hard mysteries of his incarnation and of feeding us with his own substance in the Sacrament: ^{[1] [2]} not compelling or violently forcing any against their will or without any respect of their consent, as Heretics pretend: but by the sweet internal motions and persuasions of his grace and spirit he wholly maketh us of our own will and liking to consent to the same.

• 1 Aug. cont. duas Ep. Pelag. li. 1. c. 19. & Ser. 2. de verb. Ap. c. 2.
• 2 God draweth us with our free will.

Manna, and died.

The Heretics holding the fathers of the old Testament to have eaten of the same meat, and to have had as good Sacraments as we, be here refuted: Christ putting a plain difference in the very substance thereof, and in the graces and effects much more at large. ^◦ Manna was only a figure of the B. Sacrament, though a very excellent figure thereof for many causes. It came in a sort from heaven, our Sacrament more: it was made by God miraculously, our Sacrament more: it was to be eaten for the time of their peregrination, our Sacrament more: it was to every man what he liked best, our Sacrament more: a little thereof served and sufficed as well as much, our Sacrament more: it was reserved for such days as it could not be gathered, and our Sacrament much more: it was kept for a memorial in the ark of the Testament, our Sacrament much more: the discontented and incredulous murmured and gainsaid it, at our Sacrament much more: it sustained their bodies in the desert, our Sacrament both body and soul much more.

• ◦ The manifold preeminences of the B. sacrament above Manna.

How can this man?

It came not to their mind that nothing was impossible to God, that wickedly said, How can this man give us his flesh? But we may make great profit of this sin, believing the Mysteries, and taking a lesson, never to say or once think, How? For it is a Jewish word and worthy all punishment. ^◦ So saith S. Cyril. li. 4. c. 13 in Io. Nevertheless if one asked only for desire to learn in humility, as our Lady did touching her having a child in her virginity, then he must take the Angel's answer to her, That it is of the Holy Ghost. so saith S. Damascene li. 4. c. 14.

• ◦ In the B. Sacrament, How, is a Jewish word.

Unless you eat.

Christ commending the Sacrament of the faithful unto us, said, Except you eat &c. you cannot have life in you. So the life saith of life, and to him that thinketh the life to be a liar, this meat shall be death & not life to him. ^[1] August. Ser. 2 de verb. Ap. c. 1. And S. Leo thus, ^[2] Because our Lord saith, Except you eat &c. let us so communicate that we nothing doubt of the truth of Christ's body and blood: for that is received with mouth, which is believed in heart: and they answer Amen in vain, that dispute against that which they receive.

• 1 The real presence.
• 2 Ser. 6. de ieiun. 7. mens.

And drink.

This the Protestants allege for the necessity of receiving in both kinds: but in respect of themselves (who lightly hold all this chapter to pertain nothing to the sacramental receiving, ^◦ but to spiritual feeding on Christ by faith only) it can make nothing for one kind or other. And in respect of us Catholics, who believe Christ's whole person both humanity and Divinity, both flesh and blood to be in either form, and to be wholly received no less in the first, than in the second or in both, this place commandeth nothing for both the kinds.

• ◦ Receiving in both kinds not necessary.

You shall not have life.

Though the Catholics teach these words to be spoken of the Sacrament, ^[1] yet they mean not (no more than our Saviour here doth) to exclude all from salvation, that receive not actually and Sacramentally under one or both kinds. For then children that die after they be baptized and never received Sacramentally, should perish: which to hold, were heretical. Neither did S. Augustine mean, ^[2] applying these words to infants also, that they could not be saved without receiving sacramentally, as not only the Heretics, but Erasmus did unlearnedly mistake him: ^[3] but his sense is that they were by the right of their Baptism joined to Christ's body Mystical, and thereby spiritually partakers of the other Sacrament also of Christ's body and blood. As all Catholic men that be in prison, joining with the Church of God in heart and desire to receive and be partakers with the Church of this Sacrament, and those specially that devoutly hear Mass and adore in presence the body and blood of Christ, joining in heart with the Priest, all these receive life and fruit of the Sacrament, though at every time they receive not sacramentally in one or both kinds. ^[4] And although in the Primitive Church the holy Sacrament in the second kind were often given even to infants to sanctify them, yet (as the holy Councel hath declared) it was never ministered unto them with opinion that they could not be saved without it. and therefore the Heretics do untruly charge the Church and the Fathers with that error.

• 1 The Sacramental receiving of Christ's body, not always necessary to salvation.
• 2 Li. de pec. merit. c. 20.
• 3 The true meaning of S. Augustin's words touching infants receiving of the B. Sacrament.
• 4 Conc. Trid. Ses. 21. c. 4.

I will raise him.

As the Son liveth by the Father, even so do we live by his flesh, saith S. Hilary. li. 8. de Trin. And S. Cyril again thus. ^[1] Though by nature of our flesh we be corruptible, yet by participation of life we are reformed to the property of life. ^[2] For not only our souls were to be lifted up by the Holy Ghost to life everlasting, but this rude gross terrestrial body of ours is to be reduced to immortality, by touching, tasting, and eating this agreeable food of Christ's body. And when Christ saith, I will raise him up, he meaneth that this body which he eateth, shall raise him. Our flesh (saith Tertullian) ^[3] eateth the body and blood of Christ, that the soul may also be fatted. therefore they shall both have one reward at the Resurrection. And S. Irenæus, ^[4] How do they affirm that our bodies be not capable of life everlasting, which is nourished by the body and blood of our Lord? Either let them change their opinion, or else cease to offer the Eucharist. S. Gregory Nyssene also saith, ^[5] That lively body entering into our body, changeth it and maketh it like and immortal.

• 1 Cyril. li. 4. c. 14, 15.
• 2 The effects of the B. Sacrament both in our body and soul.
• 3 Tertul. de resur. car. nu. 7.
• 4 Li. 4, c. 34.
• 5 Nyss. in orat. catech. magna.

Meat indeed.

Manna, was not the true meat: nor the water of the rock, ^◦ the drink indeed: for they did but drive away death or famine for a time and for this life. But the holy Body of Christ is the true food nourishing to life everlasting, and his blood the true drink that driveth death away utterly, for they be not the body and blood of a mere man, but of him that being joined to life is made life: and therefore are we the body and members of Christ, because by this benediction of the mystery we receive the son of God himself. So saith S. Cyril li. 4 c. 16 in Io.

• ◦ The B. Sacrament is the true Manna & water of the rock.

He that eateth this bread.

By this place the holy Councel ^[1] proveth that for the grace and effect of the Sacrament, ^[2] which is the life of the soul, there is no difference whether a man receive both kinds or one, because our Saviour who before attributed life to the eating and drinking of his body and blood, doth here also affirm the same effect, which is life everlasting, to come of eating only under one form. Therefore the Heretics be seditious calumniators that would make the people believe, the Catholic Church and Priests to have defrauded them of the grace and benefit of one of the kinds in the Sacrament. Nay, it is they that have defrauded the world, by taking away both the real substance of Christ, and the grace from one kind and both kinds, ^[3] and from all other Sacraments. The Church doth only (by the wisdom of God's Spirit and by instruction of Christ and his Apostles, according to time and place, for God's most honour, the reverence of the Sacrament, and the people's most profit thereby) dispose of the manner and order, how the Priest, how the people shall receive, and all other particular points, Which himself (saith S. Augustine) ^[4] did not take order for, that he might commit that to the Apostles, by whom he was to dispose his Church's affairs. though both he and the Apostles and the Fathers of the primitive Church left us example of receiving under one kind, Christ ^[5] at Emmaus, The Apostles Act. 2. 42. ^[6] The primitive Church in giving the blood only to children, Cypr. li. de lapsis, nu. 10. in reserving most commonly the body only, Tertul. li. 2 ad uxo. nu. 4. Cypr. li. de lapsis, nu. 10. in houseling the sick therewith, Euseb. ec. hist. li. 6 c. 16. in the holy Eremites also that received and reserved it commonly and not the blood, in the wilderness, Basil. ep. ad Cæsariam Patritiam. and in diverse other cases which were too long to rehearse.

• 1 Conc. Trid. Ses. 21. c. 1.
• 2 The whole grace and effect thereof in one kind, and therefore the people not defrauded.
• 3 Receiving in one or both kinds, indifferent, according to the holy Church's appointment.
• 4 Ep. 118. c. 6. ad Ianuarium.
• 5 Lu. 24, 15.
• 6 Authority of Scriptures and the Primitive Church for receiving in one kind.

^[1]

Whereby the Church being warranted and in the ruling of such things fully taught by God's spirit, as well for the reproving of certain heresies, that Christ God and man was not whole and all in every part of the Sacrament, as specially for that the Christian people being now enlarged, and the communicants often so many at once, that neither so much wine could be conveniently consecrated, nor without manifold accidents of shedding or abusing be received (whereof the Protestants have no regard, because it is but common wine which they occupy, but the Church knowing it to be Christ's own blood, must have all dreadful regard) therefore I say she hath decreed and for some hundreth years put in use, that the Priest saying Mass, should always both consecrate and also receive both kinds, ^[2] because he must express lively the Passion of Christ, and the separation of his blood from his body in the same, and for to imitate the whole action and institution as well in sacrificing as receiving as to whom properly it was said, Do this, ^[3] for that was spoken only to such as have power thereby to offer and consecrate. But the Lay men, and the Clergy also when they do not execute or say Mass themselves, should receive in one kind, being thereby no less partakers of Christ's whole person and grace, than if they received both. For (as S. Paul saith) He that eateth the hosts, is partaker of the altar. ^[4] He that eateth, saith he: for though there were drink-offerings or libaments joined lightly to every sacrifice, yet it was enough to eat only of one kind, for to be partaker of the whole.

• 1 The causes of the Church's practice & ordinance concerning one kind.
• 2 The Priests that say Mass, must receive both kinds.
• 3 Lu. 22, 19. 2. Cor. 11.
• 4 1. Cor. 10, 18.

If you shall see.

Our Savior seemeth to insinuate, that such as believe not his words touching the holy Sacrament, ^◦ and think it impossible for him to give his Body to be eaten in so many places at once, being yet in earth, should be much more scandalized and tempted after they saw or knew him to be ascended into heaven. Which is proved true in the Capharnaites of this time. whose principal reason against Christ's presence in the Sacrament is, that he is ascended into heaven: yea, who are so bold as to expound this same sentence for themselves thus, It is not this body or flesh which I will give you, for that I will carry with me to heaven. Whereby if they meant only that the condition and qualities of his body in heaven should be other than in the Sacrament, it were tolerable: for S. Augustine speaketh sometime in that sense. but to deny the substance of the body to be the same, that is wicked.

• ◦ Christ insinuateth that faithless men shall not believe his presence in the B. Sacrament, because he is ascended.

The flesh profiteth nothing.

If this speech were spoken in the sense of the Sacramentaries, it would take away Christ's Incarnation, manhood, and death, no less than his corporal presence in the Sacrament. for if his flesh were not profitable, all these things were vain. Therefore Christ denieth not his own flesh to be profitable, but that their gross and carnal conceiving of his words, of his flesh, and of the manner of eating the same, was unprofitable. ^◦ Which is plain by the sentence following, where he warneth them, that his words be spirit and life, of high Mystical meaning, and not vulgarly and grossly to be taken, as they took them. And it is the use of the Scripture to call man's natural sense, reason, and carnal resisting or not reaching supernatural truths, flesh or blood. as, Flesh and blood revealed not this to thee &c. Mat. 16.

This carnality then of theirs, stood in two points specially: first, that they imagined that he would kill himself, and cut & mangle his flesh into parts, & so give it them raw or roast to be eaten among them. Which could not be meant, saith S. Augustine: ^[1] for that had contained an heinous and barbarous fact, and therefore they might and should have been assured, that he would command no such thing: but some other sweet sense to be of his hard, mystical, or figurative words, and to be fulfilled in a Sacrament, mystery, and a marvelous divine sort, otherwise than they could comprehend. Secondly, they did err touching his flesh, in that they took it to be the flesh of a mere man, and of a dead man also, when it should come to be eaten: of which kind of flesh Christ here pronounceth, that is profiteth nothing. Whereupon S. Cyril saith, ^[2] This body is not of Peter of Paul or any other like, but of Christ Jesus who is the life itself: and therefore this Body giveth life, the very fullness of the Divinity dwelling in it. ^[3] And the holy Councel of Ephesus in the 11. Anathematisme expounded also by the said S. Cyril: The Eucharist is not the body of any common person (for the flesh of a common man could not quicken) but of the Word itself. But the Heretic Nestorius dissolveth the virtue of this Mystery, holding man's flesh only to be in the Eucharist. Thus there. And ^[4] S. Ignatius cited of Theodorete, and many other Fathers have the like. Whereby we may see that it cometh of the Divinity and Spirit (without which Christ's flesh cannot be) that this Sacrament giveth life.

• 1 August. de Doct. Chr. li. 3. c. 13.
• 2 Li. 4. c. 23. in Io.
• 3 Christ's flesh giveth life because it is the flesh of God & man.
• 4 Ignatius apud Theodor. dial. 3.
• ◦ The Capharnaites' gross understanding of Christ's flesh to be given or eaten. And, how his flesh doth profit, and not profit.

That believe not.

It is lack of faith, ^[1] you see here, that causeth men to spurn against this high truth of the Sacrament: as also it may be learned here, that it is the great and merciful gift of God that Catholic men do against their senses and carnal reasons, believe and submit themselves to the humble acknowledging of this Mystery: lastly, that it may well ^[2] by Christ's insinuation of Judas, be gathered, that he specially spurned against our Master's speeches of the holy Sacrament.

• 1 Judas the chief of them that believe not the real presence.
• 2 vers. 64.

Went back.

It can be no marvel to us now that so many revolt from the Church, by offence or scandal unjustly taken at Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament: seeing many of his Disciples that saw his wonderful life, doctrine, and miracles, forsook Christ himself, upon the speech & promise of the same Sacrament. ^[1] for the mystery of it is so supernatural and divine in itself, and withal so low & base for our sake, by the shew of the forms of these terrene elements under which it is, and we eat it: that the unfaithful and infirm do so stumble at Christ in the Sacrament, as the Jews and Gentiles did at Christ in his humanity. For, the causes of contradictions of the Incarnation and Transubstantiation be like. And it may be verily deemed, that who soever now cannot believe the Sacrament to be Christ, because it is under the forms of bread and wine, and is eaten and drunken, would not then have believed that Christ had been God, because he was in shape of man, and crucified. ^[2] To conclude, it was not a figure nor a mystery of bare bread and wine, nor any Metaphorical or Allegorical speech, that could make such a troop of his Disciples revolt at once. When he said he was a door, a vine, a way, a Pastor, and such like (unto which kind of speeches the Protestants ridiculously resemble the words of the holy Sacrament) who was so mad to mistake him, or to forsake him for the same? For the apostles at the least would have plucked them by the sleeves, and said, Go not away my masters, he speaketh parables. The cause therefore was their incredulity, and the height of the Mystery, for that they neither knew the means how it might be present, nor would believe that he was able to give his flesh to be eaten in many places. And even such is the unbelief of the Heretics about this matter at this day.

• 1 Heretics believe not the real presence, because they see bread and wine: as the Jews believed not his God-head because of the shape of a poor man.
• 2 The disciples revolting at Christ's words, prove that he spake not metaphorically, as at other times.

Peter answered.

^[1] Peter answereth for the Twelve, not knowing that Judas in heart was already naught, and believed not Christ's former words touching the B. Sacrament, but was to revolt afterward as well as the other. ^[2] Wherein Peter beareth the person of the Church and all Catholic men, that for no difficulty of his word, nor for any revolt (be it never so general) of Schismatics, Heretics, or Apostatæs, either for this Sacrament or any other Article, will ever forsake Christ. And when company draweth us to revolt, let us say thus: Lord, whither or to whom shall we go, when we have forsaken thee? to Calvin, Luther, or such: and forsake thee and thy Church with the unfaithful multitude? No, thou hast the words of life, and we believe thee, and thy Church will not nor cannot beguile us. Thou hast (saith S. Augustine) ^[3] life everlasting in the ministration of thy body and blood, and a little after, Thou art life everlasting itself, and thou givest not in thy flesh and blood but that which thyself art.

• 1 As S. Peter beareth the person of all believing Catholics: so Judas of all unbelieving Heretics. He being the first Arch-heretic; and this, against the B. Sacrament, the first heresy.
• 2 Cypr. ep. 55. nu. 3.
• 3 Tract. 27. in Evang. Io.