Today the sixth chapter of John begins its exclusive eucharistic focus that will remain until the end of the chapter. Today’s passage as well as what would have been tomorrow’s but for the feast of St. Mark, may be seen as the preface to chapter six’s full eucharistic expression that launches with verse 6:35 when Jesus says to the Jewish leaders as well as the crowds who followed him from the feeding of the five thousand, “I am the bread of life,” which we will hear at Wednesday’s liturgy.
 
The crowds are aware that Jesus did not depart in the boat with his Apostles but they also discover that he is no longer on the side of the lake where they feasted on the loaves and fish and they too embark across the lake in search of him. They are both curious as to how Jesus got to the other side of the lake and about what he might do next. (Jesus’ walking on the water of lake Galilee after the feeding of the five thousand is recounted in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John. Only Matthew tells us that Peter, called by Jesus, also walked on the sea until he doubted and began to sink!)
 
Jesus’ response to the question of the crowd suggests that he knows they merely want to be given more. They have not seen the multiplication of the loaves and fish as a sign (of who Jesus is), which would have been a spiritual experience of the miracle. Rather, they see it only through the eyes of the flesh; their stomachs were fully fed. So Jesus explicitly tells them that it was indeed a sign of “the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Jesus turns the focus to himself, the one on whom “God the Father has set his seal.” From now on, Jesus will be speaking of an entirely different kind of food and an entirely different way of being fed that depends completely on faith in him.
 
But the people stubbornly refuse to go where Jesus is leading, asking what they can do to “perform the works of God.” It seems they merely want to again experience the abundance of before. But Jesus simply tells them that such work is accomplished only through faith in him, the one whom God has sent.
 
At this point it now feels like Jesus is again speaking (in the passage that immediately follows today’s) to the scribes and Pharisees. For they ask for a sign from him, which is somewhat astounding given the sign the crowds just witnessed earlier. They actually challenge his miracle by comparing it to Moses feeding the people wandering in the dessert with manna from heaven. In other words, that Jesus had nothing to do with it. But the Lord tells them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who 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.” They reply, “Sir, give us this bread always,” again confusing it with earthly food. And finally, Jesus becomes explicit in 6:35 (we will hear Wednesday) saying plainly in the first of the great “I Am” statements of John, “I am the bread of life.”
 
And with that we are given the great mystery, that Jesus, in his very person, in his own body, is “the true bread from heaven,” that not only gives life to our bodies (as does all food) but gives life to the whole world and not just life but eternal life. In God becoming one with us by taking on our flesh, our body in Jesus’ body, he has made us one with God through that same flesh made immortal in Jesus’ death and resurrection. By putting our faith in Jesus, God (in Jesus) will raise us up on the last day. All the rest of John 6 will entail Jesus further elaborating on this central mystery of our faith. It bears all our closest and most prayerful attention.