1. First, let us consider the expression, “I live because of the Father.” (Jn 6:57). This is one of the darts they shoot in the sky for an ungodly use. I think this expression here refers to eternal life for deriving life from another means that one cannot have life in himself as when being warmed by another means that one does not have warmth in himself. Now the Lord says, “I am life.” But this life that he had “because of the Father” means the life he lived in the flesh and in time. It was his will to live a human life.
2. And he did not say, “I lived because of the Father” but “I live because of the Father” signifying plainly the present time. Christ can what he lived life because he had the Word (logos) of God in himself. We shall learn the meaning from what follows. He says, “He who eats me shall live because of me.” We eat his flesh and drink his blood, thereby becoming partakers of the Word (logos) and of Wisdom through the incarnation and his visible life.
3. He designated his entire mystical sojourn flesh and blood and revealed his teaching consisting of practical, natural, and theological. Through these the soul is nourished and prepared in the meantime for the contemplation of the things that exists.
1. Καὶ πρῶτον ἡμῖν τεθείσθω τὸ «Ἐγὼ ζῶ διὰ τὸν Πατέρα». Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν ἓν τῶν βελῶν τῶν εἰς οὐρανὸν πεμπομένων ὑπὸ τῶν ἀσεβῶς αὐτῷ κεχρημένων. Ἐνταῦθα δὲ τὸ ῥητὸν οὐ τὴν προαιώνιον, ὡς οἶμαι, ζωὴν ὀνομάζει (πᾶν γὰρ τὸ δι’ ἕτερον ζῶν αὐτοζῶν εἶναι οὐ δύναται, ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ ὑφ’ ἑτέρου θερμανθὲν αὐτοθερμότης εἶναι· ὁ δὲ Κύριος ἡμῶν εἴρηκεν· Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ζωή), ἀλλὰ ζωὴν ταύτην τὴν ἐν σαρκὶ καὶ ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τούτῳ γεγενημένην ἣν ἔζησε διὰ τὸν Πατέρα. Βουλήσει γὰρ αὐτοῦ ἐπιδεδήμηκε τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων,
2. καὶ οὐκ εἶπεν· «Ἐγὼ ἔζησα διὰ τὸν Πατέρα», ἀλλ’ «Ἐγὼ ζῶ διὰ τὸν Πατέρα», σαφῶς τὸν παρόντα προσημαίνων χρόνον. Δύναται δὲ καὶ ζωὴν λέγειν ἣν ζῇ ὁ Χριστὸς τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ. Καὶ ὅτι τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ δηλούμενον ἐκ τοῦ ἐπιφερομένου εἰσόμεθα. Καὶ “Ὁ τρώγων με, φησί,
ζήσεται δι’ ἐμέ”. Τρώγομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὴν σάρκα καὶ πίνομεν αὐτοῦ τὸ αἷμα, κοινωνοὶ γινόμενοι διὰ τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως καὶ τῆς αἰσθητῆς ζωῆς τοῦ Λόγου καὶ τῆς Σοφίας.
3. Σάρκα γὰρ καὶ αἷμα πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν μυστικὴν ἐπιδημίαν ὠνόμασε καὶ τὴν ἐκ πρακτικῆς καὶ φυσικῆς καὶ θεολογικῆς συνεστῶσαν διδασκαλίαν ἐδήλωσε, δι’ ἧς τρέφεταί τε ψυχὴ καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὄντων τέως θεωρίαν παρασκευάζεται.