Deven 🍇

According to Pope Pius II (Aeneas Sylvius), John 6 is not primarily about the Eucharist (although it is not excluded from the meaning of Christ's words!): Writing against an argument of the Bohemians for communion under both kinds that was based on this passage, he says: “But it is not in the Gospel of John, to which you attribute this meaning. There, sacramental drinking is not commanded, but spiritual drinking is indicated. . . . The Lord declares by these words, that not physical eating or drinking is contained there, but spiritual mysteries are hidden, when He says, 'It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.’ And again, ‘The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.’ Do you want to clearly understand that the Evangelist is speaking about spiritual eating, which is done through faith? Pay attention to what the Lord says: ‘He who eats and drinks,’ these are words of the present, not of the future time. So at the time the Lord spoke these words, there were people who were eating and drinking him. Yet the Lord had not yet suffered, and the sacrament had not yet been instituted. How, then, were they eating and drinking Christ, except spiritually, through faith and love, believing in him and doing his works? For He had also said earlier: ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.’ Those who believed in Him and followed His works were the ones eating His flesh, and they were the ones drinking His blood. And this is the truer meaning of the Gospel, because in no other way could the flesh be eaten or the blood of Christ be drunk. For the Lord’s speech was figurative, just as He said to the Samaritan woman, and on the cross said He thirsted, because He thirsted for her faith and our salvation.” Pope Pius II [Aeneas Sylvius], “Epistle 130,” as contained in Epistolae Familiares. De Duobus Amantibus Euryalo et Lucretia. Descriptio Urbis Viennensis, ed. Nicolaus de Wyle (Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1481). For this, I used archive.org/details/ita-bnc-…