By Msgr. Joseph Prior • Posted August 2, 2024

The “bread of life discourse” from the Gospel according to John once again provides the gospel reading for this week. Last week we heard the first of these passages with the account of Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fishes. In that passage, we are reminded of God’s great love and concern for his people. Jesus sees the flock who are in need of food. He is moved with compassion at their need. And he provides for them in a quite dramatic and miraculous fashion. So great was his concern that when the disciples gathered the leftovers they could fill 12 baskets.

The narrative continues this week with an emphasis on faith. God cares for us and provides for us. Our response to him and his love is called faith. We put our faith, our confidence, our trust, indeed our love, in him. Jesus continually calls the people he encounters to faith. This happens in all four gospels and not just in this passage we have for today’s reading. The call to faith is expressed in different situations, contexts and manners. The variety within the repetitive invitation points to its importance. Faith leads to life.

In the account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, Jesus lays the groundwork for today’s invitation. As we pick up the reading in today’s passage, Jesus has left the mountain where he had multiplied the loaves and fishes. When the people realize he has left, they go looking for him. When finding Jesus, he gives them a rebuke saying they are only looking for him because he gave them something to eat. He has so much more to offer than food that will only sustain them for a short period of time.

He urges them: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They respond asking the question, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

The faith Jesus seeks is that they believe in him. He is the One from the Father and only he can lead them to the Father, for the Father has sent him for this purpose.

Let’s look back to last week’s passage for a moment. In the introduction, the evangelist mentions that the “Jewish feast of Passover was near.” He provides a theme that in one way or another runs the course of this long discourse. The Passover feast recalls God’s delivering and saving the Israelites from the Egyptians. In that event, we see faith present. Moses believed in God. When God asked him to return to Egypt to free his people, he went. Many of the Israelites believed Moses when he returned, and they followed him. In contrast, Pharoah would not believe. He was obstinate.

The reference to Passover is helpful here because what is happening with Jesus is much greater than even that central event in the life of Israel. The faith Jesus is calling for is faith in him as being sent from the Father. As we will see later it is this faith that will lead to life, not just here but eternal life. We will be sustained not just by food for the body, but food for the whole person; not just food that will keep us alive in this world, but food that will sustain us for life eternal. Jesus is the One who will provide this food. He is the One the Father sends to provide this food of life.

The first reading recalls the hungry Israelites in the desert grumbling against Moses and Aaron. The Lord then tells Moses: “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.” The manna the Lord provides “rains” down during the night. When the people awake and leave their tents, they find manna in abundance. They do not see it fall or know where it comes from – except that it comes from God. He provides bread for them.

Jesus takes this image on himself. He is the “one he (the Father) sent” and the one on whom “the Father has set his seal.” The people ask Jesus for a “sign.” It is an interesting request, for he had given several significant signs at this point in the gospel account; most recently the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

They say to him: “What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert.” Jesus reminds them that it was not Moses who provided the bread, but his Father. In other words, the same God who provided manna from heaven has sent Jesus from heaven. When the people then say, “Sir, give us this bread always,” Jesus replies: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Martin Luther King Jr. once described faith in these terms: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” The first step here is believing that Jesus is sent from the Father. Situations we face in life may test our faith in Jesus.

Sometimes we might grumble like the Israelites in the desert. Sometimes we might get so overwhelmed that we forget where to turn, where to seek help. Sometimes we may be so intent on looking for help from this world that we forget the One who provides for all our needs.

Jesus invites us once again to place our faith in him, to be renewed in that faith, and to take another step in trusting him who is “the Bread of Life.”

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Msgr. Joseph Prior is pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish, Penndel, and a former professor of Sacred Scripture and rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.