Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter, April 29, 2020

The Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

John 6:35-40

Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the Bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the Bread of life.”  In verses 32-34 of his sixth chapter, John quotes the Lord as saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but 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.”  And then he quoted the crowd as responding, “Lord, give us always this bread.”  Jesus uses the phrase “Amen, amen” four times in this particular encounter.  Like “manna”, of which we spoke yesterday, this is a Hebrew word, and it is as difficult to satisfactorily translate.  “Amen” here means something like “truly” or “indeed”, but with greater force.  The word is repeated in the phrase because this was how one applied extra emphasis in the Hebrew language, such as the title “The Song of Songs” means “the greatest song”.  Jesus uses this phrase in order to pronounce sacred doctrine.  In the present case, he declares that it was the Father giving the manna to the people through Moses.  Jesus says, “Moses gave you not bread from heaven”, that is, the ancestors of the people to whom he was speaking (for to the ancient Semitic     Mind, you yourself are your ancestors and your your descendants); and then he says, “My Father gives you [note the change to the present tense] the true Bread from heaven.”  Jesus again puts himself in the place of the revered Moses, who mediated between God and the Hebrews.  Jesus then makes clear what this new Manna, which will come through this new Moses, will do: “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  As the first manna, given through the first Moses, provided nourishment for their ancestors in the otherwise barren wilderness, so this new Manna, given through Jesus, the new Moses, will confer eternal life.  The crowd sees what Jesus is doing and, with the recent miracle of power of the loaves and fishes in mind, they respond, “Lord, give us always this bread.”

It is at this point that the Lord says, “I am the Bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”  Jesus is claiming to be much more than a new Moses.  If Moses was the waiter, then Jesus is both the waiter and the meal besides!  And the meal he promises is more than that which will sustain life in the wilderness of this world, but will offer eternal life in heaven.  This evidently gave the crowd pause.  John does not record their words to what the Lord has just said, or whether a considerable silence ensued, in which the members of the crowd each considered if he had heard right.  We get the sense of their reactions from what the Lord says next: “But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe.”  This sounds a bit odd in the context, almost as if it is the answer to an objection someone makes that John does not write down.  But the gist is, “You have seen the many works I have performed, including how I fed you with a few fish and loaves, and so you should believe what I tell you for their sake, but you do not.  I have established my credentials for you with these signs, but you balk at accepting the teaching I give.  What more can I do?”

The Lord then speaks of how greatly the Father desires all people to be saved. “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me.”  This is not a  mere statement.  It is a heart-felt plea.  It is a plea that echoed through the ages, delivered by the Patriarchs, Moses, the Judges, and the Prophets, and finally by the Son.  It is a plea that rings out to us from the Tabernacle and the Altar: Come to me!  How do we do this? “That everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.”  We see him vividly in our faith and believe in him with all of our heart, and carry out his loving commandments with gratitude for having them.