Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Cyril of Alexandria
That man was carnal, and a careless hearer of the things which Christ delivered, for he thought the reward of the saints was to be bodily.
Theophylact of Ohrid
The Lord, saying this, turns us away from trading in friendliness. And a certain man, having heard this and thinking that God would honor and treat the righteous with sensible foods, said: "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God." He was probably not spiritual enough to understand, that is, he was guided by human reasoning. For a natural man is such that he believes nothing supernatural, for he judges everything by the laws of nature. There are three states in man: carnal, natural, and spiritual. …
Clement of Alexandria
But love (agape) is in truth celestial food, the banquet of reason. "It beareth all things, endureth all things, hopeth all things. Love never faileth." "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." But the hardest of all cases is for charity, which faileth not, to be cast from heaven above to the ground into the midst of sauces. And do you imagine that I am thinking of a supper that is to be done away with? "For if," it is said, "I bestow all my goods, and have not love, I am nothing."
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
Or because he sighed for something afar off, and that bread which he desired lay before him. For who is that Bread of the kingdom of God but He who says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven? (John 6:51.) Open not thy mouth, but thy heart.
Bede
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard this, he said to him, "Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God." The bread eaten in the kingdom of God, according to Cerinthus, is not to be understood as food of the body, but truly he who says: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John VI). …
Bonaventure
Third, as to the approval of the reason adduced, he adds: When one of those who sat at table with him had heard these things: had heard, I say, not only with the ear of the body, but also with the ear of the heart, according to that of Apocalypse 2: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches." And since he who hears in this way believes, according to that of Romans 10: "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ," that is, he who believes by hearing renders testimony by speaking and …
Translation