Vigils Reading – 20th Sunday ORD

REAL FOOD

AND REAL DRINK

From a commentary by Theophylact of Ohrid1

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We have heard that unless we eat the flesh of the Son we shall not have

life. We must have unwavering faith, then, when we partake of the sacred

mysteries, and not inquire “How?” Unspiritual people, that is, those led by a

natural way of thinking, are not open to spiritual realities surpassing the natural

order, and so lack understanding of the spiritual nourishment the Lord’s flesh

affords.

Those who do not share this flesh do not share in eternal life because they

reject Jesus the true life. What is consumed is the flesh not merely of a man but

of God, and being one with the Godhead, it has power to deify. This is real

nourishment: its sustaining power does not last only for a time; it does not

decompose like perishable food. But helps us to attain everlasting life.

Likewise, the cup of the Lord’s blood is real drink, for it does not quench our

thirst only for a time, but keeps those who drink it free from thirst forever, as

the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: Whoever drinks the water that I shall

give will never thirst again. Whoever receives the grace of the Holy Spirit by

sharing in the mysteries will never suffer from spiritual hunger and thirst the

way unbelievers do.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me and I in them. As

I draw life from the living Father who sent me, so whoever eats me will draw

life from me. From these words we can begin to understand the mystery of

communion. Those who eat and drink the Lord’s flesh and blood lives in the

Lord and the Lord lives in them. A marvelous and inexplicable union occurs by

which God is in us, and we are in God. Does this not fill you with awe as you

listen?

It is not God alone that we eat, for he is intangible and incorporeal; he can

be apprehended neither by our eyes nor by our teeth; nor, on the other hand, is

it simply the flesh of a man, which would avail us nothing. Rather, in a union

defying explanation, God has made flesh one with himself, so that the flesh now

has life-giving power. This not because its nature is changed into the nature of

God. Of course not! A comparison may be made with iron put into fire. It

remains iron but displays the energy of fire. So also, the Lord’s flesh remains

flesh, but it has the life-giving power because it is the flesh of the Word of God.

And so, Christ says, As I draw life from the Father, or in other words, as

I was born of the Father who is life, so those who eat me will draw life from me,

because they will be united to me and, as it were, transformed into me, who am

possessed of life-giving power.