“…if we really yearn for eternal life, if we long to have the provider of immortality within ourselves, let us not abstain from the Eucharist like some of the more negligent, nor let us provide the devil in the depths of his cunning with a trap and a snare for us in the form of a pernicious kind of reverence. ‘Yes, indeed,’ someone might say. ‘But it is written: “Anyone who eats of the bread and drinks of the cup unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (cf. I Cor. 11:29). I have examined myself and I see that I am not worthy.’ But then when will you be worthy? My response would be: ‘When will you present yourself to Christ? If you are always going to be afraid of falling, you will never cease falling – “For who can discern his faults,” as the holy Psalmist says (Ps. 18:12 LXX) – and you will end up totally bereft of a share in saving sanctification.’ Make up your mind, then, to lead a more devout life in conformity with the law, and so partake of the Eucharist in the conviction that it dispels not only death but even the diseases that are in us (cf. I Cor. 11:30). For when Christ has come to be within us he lulls to sleep the law that rages in the members of flesh. He rekindles our reverence towards God, while simultaneously causing the passions to atrophy. He does not reckon our faults against us. Instead, He binds up that which has been wounded, he raises that which has fallen, as a good shepherd who has laid down His life for the sheep (Ez. 34:16; Jn. 10:11).”
+ St. Cyril of Alexandria (Cyril of Alexandria: The Early Church Fathers by Norman Russell, Commentary on John 6:56)
