I am the bread of life

At 7,51-8,1 a; Ps 30; Jn 6,30-35
7 MAY

It is as if the Jews were stuck at the time of the desert, when Moses to push them forward to the Promised Land was forced to perform every kind of prodigy. It is as if the prophets had never existed. All the prophets acted for the Word of God announced. The sign of their truth as men of God was the Word that was realized. When the Lord announced the coming of a prophet equal to Moses, the signs of credibility would not have been prodigies and miracles, but the Word uttered that would have been accomplished. The same truth also applies to Jesus the Lord. Today the truth of Jesus is from his Word. Life is in it. Out of his Word there is only death. It is truth that history confirms every day. Everyone can experience the truth of the Word. It suffices to enter it. It is enough to give it perfect obedience. All life for man is from obedience to it.

“A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen. This is exactly what you requested of the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let us not again hear the voice of the Lord, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘This was well said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. If any man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it. But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.’ “If you say to yourselves, ‘How can we recognize an oracle which the Lord has spoken?’, know that, even though a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if his oracle is not fulfilled or verified, it is an oracle which the Lord did not speak. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously, and you shall have no fear of him (Dt 18,15-32).

At the request of signs and wonders similar to those made by Moses, Jesus promptly replies that the bread that came down from heaven was not the real bread. That bread did not free from death. It satisfied the body, but not the soul. The Father has established to give them today, at this time, the bread that comes down from heaven, the real one. But this is not a matter of a material bread. The bread of God is he who descends from heaven and gives life to the world. We move from the matter to a person. A bread that leaves in death must not be given. One is given that gives life to the world. Do the Jews understand the words of Jesus? Currently they are interested in only one thing: that Jesus gives them this bread. They need bread, in the same way that the Samaritan woman needed water. Everybody welcomes the matter. Today it is the same. Does not the world seek material from the Church? Then when from the matter one passes to the Person to be accepted, then things become difficult and impossible. They are rejected. Matter feeds on matter, sin on sin. The flesh on flesh. Only the spirit is nourished with spirit, truth and grace.

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.

At the request of the Jews to have this bread, Jesus responds with words that turn away from any misunderstanding. I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not be hungry and whoever believes in me will not be thirsty, never! The passage from the matter to the Person of Jesus is explicit. To Jesus one goes believing in him, that is, accepting all his Word as the purest truth. Without faith in his person and his Word, one remains in death. You do not pass into life. Also because one does not believe in Jesus once and for all. We must believe moment by moment and his Word must be eaten in full obedience of faith moment by moment. While the prophets were separated from the Word, Christ Jesus and the Word are one. We eat Him, we eat the Word. They are one thing.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, give us the true faith in Jesus bread of the life of every man.