[17] He who has ears let
him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes I shall
grant to eat of the hidden manna, that is, of “the bread which came down
from heaven,” of which the manna in the wilderness was a figure, because, as
the Lord himself said, many of those who ate died, and others ate and did not
die, such as Moses and others. He did not repudiate that bread, but showed that
it was hidden. For that bread was the same which is now in the church, as it is
written: “They ate the same spiritual food.” Even now spiritual bread is eaten,
but “the bread of life” is not for all; “for the one who eats unworthily eats
damnation to himself.”
And I shall give to him a
white stone, that is, a
body made white through baptism, and upon
the stone a new name written, that is, the mystery of the Son of Man, which no one knows except the one who
receives it. Indeed to hypocrites, although they seem to have it, it is not
given them to understand, as it is written: “To you it has been given to know
of the mystery of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given.” On this John
says: “One who says ‘I know him’ and does not keep his commandments is a liar,
and the truth is not in him”; and again: “One who says that he is in the light
and hates his brother is still in darkness.” For if hypocrites had known the
mystery of God, they never would have slain God in his family. (Tyconius,
Exposition of the Apocalypse [trans. Francis X. Gumerlock; The Fathers
of the Church 134; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
2017], 46-47)
