Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life. . . the word of wisdom is the proper food of the
mind, because the mind is sustained by it: “He fed him with the bread of life
and understanding” (Sir 15:3). Now the bread of wisdom is called the bread of
life to distinguish it from material bread, which is the bread of death, and
which serves only to restore what has been lost by a mortal organism; hence
material bread is necessary only during this mortal life. But the bread of
divine wisdom is life-giving of itself, and no death can affect it. Again,
material bread does not give life, but only sustains for a time a life that
already exists. But spiritual bread actually gives life: for the soul begins to
live because it adheres to the word of God: “For with you is the fountain of
life,” as we see in the Psalm (35:10). Therefore, since every word of wisdom is
derived from the Only Begotten Word of God—The fountain of wisdom is the Only
Begotten of God” (Sir 1:5)—this Word of God is especially called the bread of
life. Thus, Christ says, I am the bread of life. And because the flesh of
Christ is united to the Word of God, it also is life-giving. Thus, too, his
body, sacramentally received, is life-giving: for Christ gives life to the
world through the mysteries which he accomplished in his flesh. Consequently,
the flesh of Christ, because of the Word of the Lord, is not the bread of
ordinary life, but of that life which does not die.
Next (v 35), he gives the reason for this from the
effect of this [spiritual] bread. When material bread is eaten, it does not
permanently take away our hunger, since it must be destroyed in order to build
us up; and this is necessary if we are to be nourished. But spiritual bread,
which gives life of itself, is never destroyed; consequently, a person who eats
it once never hungers again. Thus, he says: Whoever comes to me shall not
hunger; and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
According to Augustine, it is the same thing to
say, whoever comes, as to say, whoever believes: since it is the same to come
to Christ and to believe in him , for we do not come to God with bodily steps,
but with those of the mind, the first of which is faith. To eat and to drink
are also the same: for each signifies that eternal fulness where there is no
want: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they will
be filled” (Mt 5:6); so that food which sustains and that drink which refreshes
are one and the same.
One reason why temporal things do not take away
our thirst permanently is that they are not consumed altogether, but only bit
by bit, and with motion, so that there is always still more to be consumed. For
this reason, just as there is enjoyment and satisfaction from what has been
consumed, so there is a desire for what is still to come. Another reason is
that they are destroyed; hence the recollection of them remains and generates a
repeated longing for those things. Spiritual things, on the other hand, are
taken all at once, and they are not destroyed, nor do they run out; and
consequently the fulness they produce remains forever: “They will neither
hunger nor thirst” (Rv 7:16); “Your face will fill me with joy; the delights in
your right hand (i.e., in spiritual goods) will last forever,” as the Psalm
(16:11) says.
No comments:
Post a Comment