In today’s Gospel Jesus once again solemnly declares: “I am the bread of life.” Jesus himself gives the gift of eternal life to those who come to him and believe in him. Jesus fulfills our deepest longings as he has proclaimed just a few verses earlier: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” (6:35). Jesus offers not only the bread of life but also the water of life as we heard earlier in his dialogue with the Samaritan woman:
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’” (4:13-14).
This food and water that Jesus is offering is his very self, his words, his teaching, his whole life and his passion and death. The Bread of Life is first and foremost Jesus himself.
As this Bread of Life Discourse continues it moves from Jesus himself as this bread to his real presence in the Eucharist.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (v. 51)
“For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (vv. 55-56).
Jesus is even greater than the manna that God gave the Israelites in the wildness: “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (6:58).
Jesus feeds us both through his word and in the breaking of the bread. This comes out strongly in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation:
“The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body.” (Dei verbum #21).
Jesus, Son of God and the Bread of Life, is present in our midst at the Eucharist:
“You are indeed Holy and to be glorified, O God, who love the human race and who always walk with us on the journey of life. Blessed indeed is your Son, present in our midst when we are gathered by his love, and when, as once for the disciples, so now for us, he opens the Scriptures and breaks the bread.” (Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs IV).
Image: “Croatia-01708 – Cathedral in Dubrovnik (Main Altar)” by archer10 (Dennis) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.