Bread And Manna

Hic est panis qui de cælo descendit. Non sicut manducaverunt patres vestri manna, et mortui sunt. Qui manducat hunc panem, vivet in æternum. Item quaeritur de dignitate huius manducationis. Dicit enim, quod manducantes hunc panem non morientur, sicut manducantes, manna. Contra: Hoc aut intelligit de vita spirituali, aut corporali; si de spirituali, nihil dicit, quia patres sancti, qui comederunt manna, non sunt spiritualiter mortui. Si de corporali, similiter; quia qui manducat hunc panem non vivit corporaliter, sed moritur. Si dicas, quod indigne manducantes manna sunt mortui spirituali morte, et hos vocat patres eorum; similiter indigne manducantes corpus Christi moriuntur morte spirituali; primae ad Corinthios undecimo: Qui manducat et bibit indigne iudicium sibi manducat et bibit. Propterea quaeritur: quid est manducare indigne, et quare peccat manducans indigne? Respondeo: Dicendum, quod cibus iste praeponitur illi cibo ratione vivificationis dupliciter: tum quia ille non poterat vivificare, nisi per istum quem signabat; ideo dicitur de iustis, quod omnes eandem spiritualem escam manducaverunt, primae ad Corinthios decimo; sed qui solum ad illum habebant oculum mortui sunt spiritualiter, quia tantum carnaliter gustaverunt. Ita respondet Augustinus. Aliter potest dici , quod manna ordinabatur ad conservationem vitae corporalis, sed hic ad conservationem vitae spiritualis. Et vult Dominus dicere, quod ille panis solummodo vitam corporalem continuabat ad tempus, sed iste vitam spiritualem continuat in aeternum in digne sumentibus; et ideo illo est dignior. Indigne vero accipientes peccant, et convertitur eis panis in venenura, et isti sunt qui remorsura habent mortalis peccati. Ratio, quare peccant, est contemptus, quia tantum hospitem inducunt in tam vile hospitium. Quomodo autem digne accipiatur, docet Augustinus: Innocentiam, inquit, ad altare apportate; peccata, si sint quotidiana, saltem non sint mortifera; antequam ad altare accedatis, dicatur: Dimitte nobis debita nostra etc. Tunc securi accedite; panis est, non venenum. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Evangelium Ioannem, Caput VI Source: Here, p695-6

This is the bread which comes down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate manna and died. He who eats this bread shall live in eternity. 1 One may enquire about the worthiness of this eating. For He says that those who eat 'this bread' shall not die, as they did who ate the manna. He says this concerning the spiritual life or the corporeal life. If it is said of the spiritual, He says nothing, because the holy fathers who ate manna are not spiritually dead. If concerning the corporeal, it is likewise, because he who eats 'this bread' does not live on in the body, but dies. If you should say that the unworthy eaters of manna are those who die the spiritual death, and He calls them their fathers, then likewise the unworthy eaters of the body of Christ die the spiritual death, as in the eleventh chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians: 'He who eats and drinks unworthily, he eats and drinks his condemnation.' 2 Whence it may be asked, what is it to eat unworthily, and how does one sin who eats unworthily? I answer that it must be said that 'this bread' is preferred to manna because of a twofold giving of life, because manna is not able to give life unless it signified the later bread , therefore it is said of the righteous, 'because all ate the same spiritual bread,' in the tenth chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians. 3 But they who had an eye for the former only are spiritually dead, because they tasted it only materially. Thus answers Augustine. 1 Besides this it is possible to say that He ordained the manna for the preservation of the bodily life, but 'this bread' for the preservation of the spiritual life. And the Lord wishes to say that the former bread was only for the continuation of bodily life for a time, but the later bread is for the continuation of the spiritual life forever, for those who receive it worthily, and therefore it is more valuable. However, they who receive it unworthily sin, and they change it into poison for themselves, and these are those who are gnawed by mortal sin. The reason why they sin in this way is contempt, because only they would greet such a great guest with such vile hospitality. Augustine teaches how it is received worthily, 'Bring innocence,' he says, 'to the altar.' 4 If sins are trivial they do not bring death. Before you come to the altar let it be said, 'Forgive us our trespasses,' etc. Then you may approach in safety, for it is bread not poison. Saint Bonaventura, Commentary On The Gospel Of Saint John, Chapter 6 1 Jn 6.58 2 1 Cor 11.29 3 1 Cor 10.3 4 Tractates on John 26.11