Thomas Aquinas · 357 of 385

Chapter LXVIII. The Explanation of a Text

CHAPTER LXVIII—The Explanation of a Text

NOR is there anything contrary to the tradition of the Church in the word of the Lord saying to the disciples, who seemed scandalised: The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (John vi, 63). He did not thereby give them to understand that His true flesh was not delivered to be eaten by the faithful in this Sacrament, but that it was not delivered to be eaten in the way of ordinary flesh, taken and torn with the teeth in its own proper appearance, as food usually is; that it is received in a spiritual way, not in the usual way of fleshly food.