Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Thomas Cajetan (1469–1534) on John 6:63

  

Another way of interpreting the verse is to take “flesh” not as a substantive but as referring to a fleshly function. Thus, the meaning is that fleshly food avails nothing. This meaning is derived from this same source as in the case above where “flesh” was taken in an absolute sense and not as referring to Our Lord’s own flesh in the words, “The flesh avails nothing.” He distinguished flesh from Spirit, and with reference to eating said that it is the Spirit who gives life while the flesh is of no avail. The meaning is that fleshly food avails nothing, but spiritual food gives life. This was a direct answer to the question posed by the Jews who asked not about the substance of what was promised but about the way it would be given [John 6:52]: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Presupposing the gift of flesh, they asked how it would be given, Our Lord answered that the manner is not fleshly but spiritual. Flesh, that is, fleshly food, is of no avail toward eternal life, but spiritual food gives life to the soul.

 

The fact that in Holy Scripture “flesh” can refer not to the substance of flesh but to a fleshly function is clear from the Apostles in 1 Corinthians 15[:50], “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” It is clear that the fleshly function, not the substance of flesh and blood, is not excluded from the kingdom of God. for when we rise, we like Christ will have flesh and bones.

 

The context of John 6 shows that in this passage “flesh” does not refer to the substance of flesh, for Our Lord said of the substance of his flesh, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” [6:54]. Clearly the substance of his flesh, when eaten spiritually avails greatly and gives life, that is, eternal life. Therefore, the saying, “The flesh avails nothing,” is not about flesh as a substance, but refers literally to the fleshly function, as is clear from the carnal-minded question of the Jews (“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” [6:52]) to which they are a direct answer. “Flesh,” that is, fleshly food, profits nothing, while spiritual food gives eternal life. They were thereby given to understand what he meant by claiming, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man . . .”, and “My flesh is truly food” [6:53, 55]. He was speaking here of spiritual, not carnal food. (Tommaso De Vio Cajetan, “Errors in a Booklet on the Lord’s Supper—Instruction for the Nuntio 1525,” in Cajetan Responds: A Reader in Reformation Controversy [trans. Jared Wicks; Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 1978; repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2011], 157-58)