The Bread of Life Discourse

Today's Reflections 

                                                 

 

The Bread of Life Discourse 

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Jn 6:30-35

³⁰[The crowd] said to [Jesus], “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? ³¹Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” ³²So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” ³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven. The multiplication of the loaves and fish to feed thousands of people is not a chance event. Jesus uses the miracle to remind the apostles to do away with sheer calculation when faced with problems in the task of following him. When they tried to reason that not even 200 days’ wages worth of food would be enough to feed the crowd, they were just minimizing the possibilities of serving the people. They saw only the limitations and forgot that Jesus was with them.

Jesus is more than the manna that the Israelites gathered in the desert. The manna momentarily satisfied their hunger. They had their fill of it, but they also realized that it could not last for the morrow. Jesus is the true bread from heaven that satisfies man’s deepest hunger—in this life as in eternity.

More important than food is Jesus’ teaching

that gives us spiritual nourishment.

Let us listen to Jesus and believe in him.