Saint Cyril of Alexandria (380-444)

Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Commentary on the Gospel of John, ch. 4

 As many as touched him were healed"

Even for restoring the dead to life the Savior did not stop at acting by word alone, though it was the bearer of divine commands. For such a surpassing work he took his own flesh as his assistant – if one might put it that way – that he might show that it has the power to give life and that he might cause it to be seen that it is entirely one with him. For it is indeed his very own flesh and not an alien body.

This is what happened when he restored life to the synagogue leader's daughter, saying to her: “My child, arise!” (Mk 5:41). He took her by the hand, as it is written. As God, he gave her back her life by his all-powerful command and animated her also by contact with his holy flesh. Thus he bore witness that, in flesh as in his word, one and the same divine energy was at work. In the same way, too, when he came to a town called Nain where the widow's only son was being buried, he touched the coffin, saying: “Young man, I tell you, arise!” (Lk 7:14).

Thus he not only conferred to his word the power to raise the dead, but he even touched the dead to show that his body is life-giving and, through his flesh, he caused life to pass into their corpses. If the touch alone of his sacred flesh restores life to a corrupting body, what profit shall we not discover in his life-giving Eucharist when we make of it our food? It will wholly transform into its own property, which is immortality, those who participate in it.