John 6: 30-35
So the crowd said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
The New Bread of Life
Today’s Gospel impresses us with a sense of the profound patience Jesus must have had during his ministry.
Even though the crowd addressing him has just witnessed the multiplication of the loaves and had their hunger satisfied, they are still coming to Jesus asking for a sign as a precondition of belief. It’s hard not to imagine that Jesus must have felt a bit frustrated.
Yet Jesus does not chide them for this. Instead, by his patient explanations, he draws them deeper into the mystery of how God is acting in the world through his presence. He is the new Bread of Life, sent from God to nourish them.
Our faith in the Eucharist reminds us that Jesus is still here with us, patiently accompanying us on life’s journey. He is patiently waiting for you at every Mass and in every tabernacle. Go and pay him a visit.
—Brennan Dour, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic and social studies teacher at Loyola High School of Detroit.
Prayer
May it please the supreme and divine Goodness
to give us all abundant grace
ever to know his most holy will
and perfectly to fulfill it.
—St. Ignatius of Loyola