Amen Amen I say to you (v. 26). That is: Listen very carefully to what I’m going to say. The words I have for you now are very deliberately chosen, and they bear with them divine authority. They are words of truth, and if you listen you will find life in them. They are words spoken by a man - precisely by “the Son of Man” (v. 27) - but they are words also of divine revelation.
Do not work for food that cannot last (v. 27). That is: lift up your hearts! I’m not speaking now merely of earthly things. My subject is heavenly realities. I speak of God, who is my Father. I speak of eternity; of what is above, not of what is below (cf. 8:23); I speak of God’s invitation to you, and God’s gift to you. I speak of the life that is now being offered to you: a life which is altogether better than the one you ignorantly cling on to now.
Again: Amen Amen I say to you. It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven (v. 32).
Of course your minds turn now to the manna in the desert at the time of the Exodus. How could they not, at the time of the Passover feast (v. 4), and in the light also of yesterday’s miracle of bread, given to the 5,000 on the mountain? You rightly think of the manna as a defining event in sacred history. It was a miraculous sign by which Israel was marked out as God’s chosen people, and Moses was shown to be God’s true prophet. I certainly do not say that the manna then was somehow false. But it was only ever a figure, a sign, a pointer, a preparation. For God, such a gift was not big enough; not sufficiently final, or complete. That wonderful food only fed people’s bodies, and for a time. When they entered the Promised land, it stopped. Then more than a thousand years passed. The people took possession of the land, in spite of many enemies all about. Then there arose the Judges; the long line of Prophets began, and then came the Kings. The promise of an heir was made to David, and the Temple was built. But the people were not faithful, so many disasters followed: the Assyrians first, and then the Babylonians. The ten Northern Tribes were lost; the Temple was destroyed, and the remaining people went into Exile. Then came the Persians, and the Return from Exile, and the Second Temple. Then came the Greeks, and worse persecution, and the dispersion, and the Rabbis; then the Romans, and King Herod, and the Pharisees.
Now, when the situation of God’s people seems so bad, God is ready to fulfil his promise. Now, my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The manna seemed to be fallen from the sky. This bread is more truly from heaven, in that it comes from God’s presence, from his own infinite life and glory. It’s God’s gift of Himself, through his Incarnate Word; through the eternal Son of the Father made man. This is a definitive gift than cannot ever be surpassed; that can never be sufficiently understood or appreciated: infinitely beyond what anything on this earth could give.
I am the Bread of Life. This is the first of the great I AM sayings in St. John’s Gospel. For the Jews in that Capernaum synagogue, it must have sounded like raving madness, megalomania, ultimate blasphemy. For the disciples, it will have seemed a bafflingly hard saying. But they will have noted the serene authority with which Jesus speaks, and the profound humility which clothes all his words, and his constant use of holy scripture, and his referring all things to his Father, and his unwavering attitude of obedience and of love.
I am the Bread of Life. Jesus begins by applying the divine title, I AM, to himself. But he does not do so in order to draw attention to himself, as if arrogating power to himself, or seeking adulation, or inciting fanaticism. Instead he points immediately to his identity as total self gift. The mission of Jesus, given him by his Father, is to be bread: the true bread; bread which gives life to the whole world. To eat this bread is to express faith in Jesus, and communion with him, and total acceptance of all he says, and does, and gives, and is. And because of who he is, eating this bread will also involve entering directly into the divine presence; having even now a share in the life of heaven; receiving even now divine life: life for all eternity.
The Holy Eucharist has marvellous effects even in this life. Analogously with the healing miracles of Jesus during his ministry, if we are sick we can ask Jesus to heal our body with his Body: and sometimes he does. We can think of our holy communion also as a protection against danger, and against physical or diabolical attack. We can expect that through it our faith will be strengthened, and built up; and our relationship with God deepened; and our desire for moral goodness and virtue made more effective; and that the help we need to overcome our weaknesses and faults and sins and failings will be given. But we don’t stop there. What the Holy Eucharist is for above all, what it gives us is simply Jesus: and Jesus gives us God. Jesus came to clear away all obstacles that stand between us and God. He came to invite us to heaven; to be with him, with God, forever; to make of us a worthy dwelling place for God, even in this life, until God Himself will finally become our dwelling place.
In the Old Testament divine Wisdom cries out: Whoever eats me will hunger for more; whoever drinks me will thirst for more (Sir 24:21). That is: divine wisdom is utterly desirable; and delicious and nourishing beyond all earthly food. Once tasted, even to a small degree, you will always want more. Now Jesus says of himself: Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst (v. 35). That is: it’s impossible for God to do more for us than what he has done in Jesus. And it’s impossible for any gift to be more valuable than the gift which is Jesus. For he is God’s own self gift, and in him we have life, and all that is good.