The 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 4, 2024

John 6, 24–35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So 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. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So 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 hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass continues with the second part of the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John.  John described the Lord’s miraculous feeding of the five thousand and the people’s misreading the sign as revealing Jesus as the new king of Israel in the first part of the chapter.  In this second part, the people pursue Jesus, intent on making him their king, and the Lord begins to challenge their false interpretation of the sign he had given them, announcing that rather than a conqueror of armies, he was the Bread of Life.

Before proceeding to today’s reading we should look at the verses that come after last Sunday’s reading and come before today’s, which are omitted from this series of readings of John 6:

“And when evening was come, his disciples went down to the sea. And when they had gone up into a ship, they went over the sea to Capharnaum. And it was now dark: and Jesus was not come unto them. And the sea arose, by reason of a great wind that blew. When they had rowed therefore about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking upon the sea and drawing nigh to the ship. And they were afraid. But he saith to them: It is I. Be not afraid. They were willing therefore to take him into the ship. And presently the ship was at the land to which they were going” (John 6, 16-21).  And then: “When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats, etc.”. By walking on the water, something only God could do, the Lord Jesus confirms for the Apostles that it was God who miraculously fed the crowd the evening before.  He does this for the sake of the crowd, who will be astounded by his teaching that he is giving them his Body and Blood to eat so that they might have eternal life.  Many will leave him because they lack faith, but others will continue to follow and their faith will be strengthened in seeing that his closest followers, the Apostles, do not depart from him.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”  Here, the Lord challenges the crowd on why they pursued him.  He tells them, in essence, that they have misinterpreted the sign he performed for them and that rather than seeking the spiritual meaning they assigned it a physical, worldly one.  He urges them to look beyond their conclusion and to allow him to explain to them the reality it actually points to: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”  “For on him the Father, God, has set his seal”: the miracles the Son has performed, show the Father’s approbation.

“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”  That is, We will follow you if God has sent you.  What works should we do that will distinguish us as your followers?  “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”  The disciples of the Pharisees assiduously obeyed the interpretation of the Law given by their masters.  They also fasted and studied the Scriptures.  They believed in doctrines not found in the Jewish Law, such as in angels and the resurrection of the dead.  The disciples of John the Baptist  fasted and did penance.  Jesus tells his would-be disciples to believe in him.

“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”  This seems like an odd question, considering what they had already seen the Lord do.  But they are signaling to Jesus that they understand the miracle of his feeding them as pertaining to the miraculous feeding of the Hebrews with manna.  They want now for him to clarify this for them: You fed us with a miracle in the wilderness.  Moses fed our ancestors with manna in the wilderness.  What are you telling us?  What does this mean?  “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.”  The Lord Jesus prepares them to understand what this means by first equating himself not with Moses, as the people wished him to do, but with the Father, with whom, indeed, he and the Holy Spirit are equal in power and majesty.  “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  Jesus now explains that the manna of Moses was a sign of “the bread of God”.  In a request that almost duplicates that of the Samaritan woman at the well (cf. John ,4, 15), they respond to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

And now the revelation: “I am the Bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”  Jesus declares himself the Bread of life.  He does not say that he is “like” the Bread of life, but that he is.  This is a stunning, shocking turn in the exchange between the “rabbi” and his followers.  The people anticipate, like the Samaritan woman, a reply having to do with the things of this world.  The woman wanted a source of drinking water that would be easily accessible for her so that she did not have to go all the way outside her town to the well.  The people are probably thinking the Lord would supply them with a renewed fall of the daily manna so that they could follow him whoever he went in Galilee and Judea and still be sure of plenty of food.  And like the woman, they very greatly underestimate what the Lord wants to do for them.