In this passage we have the full explanation of what Irenæus meant when he said that the elements “by receiving the Word of God become the Eucharist,” and what Cyril meant by saying that “as the Bread corresponds to the body, so also the Word is appropriate to the soul.”  Their common doctrine is, that besides the Body and Blood of Christ, that is, His Humanity offered upon the Cross for our redemption, His Divine Nature, the Word is also present, and that it is by receiving the Divine Word that the Bread is made the Body of Christ.  “The fathers,” says Touttée, “often play upon the ambiguity of the term, saying at one time that the Divine Word, at another that the word and oracles of God nourish our soul.  Both are true.  For the whole life-giving power of the Eucharist is derived from the Divine Word united with the flesh which He assumed:  and the whole benefit (fructus) of Eucharistic eating consists in the union of our soul with the Word, by meditation on His mysteries and words, and conformation thereto Mystag. iv. note 4..”  O si sic omnia!