From: John 6:41-51

The Discourse on the Bread of Life (Continuation)

[41] The Jews then murmured at [Jesus], because he said, “I am the bread which
came down from heaven.” [42] They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down
from heaven’?” [43] Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
[44] No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will
raise him up on the last day. [45] It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be
taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to
Me. [46] Not that any one has seen the Father except Him who is from God; He
has seen the Father. [47] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
[48] I am the bread of life. [49] Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and
they died. [50] This is the bread which comes down from Heaven, that a man may
eat of it and not die. [51] I am the living bread which came down from Heaven; if
any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give
for the life of the world is My flesh.”

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Commentary:

42. This is the second and last time St. John mentions St. Joseph in his Gospel,
putting on record the general, though mistaken, opinion of those who knew Je-
sus and regarded him as the son of Joseph (cf. Jn 1:45; Lk 3:23; 4:22; Mt 13:55).
Conceived in the virginal womb of Mary by the action of the Holy Spirit, our Lord’s
only Father was God himself (cf. note on Jn 5:18). However, St. Joseph acted as
Jesus’s father on earth, as God had planned (cf. notes on Mt 1:16, 18). Therefore,
Joseph was called the father of Jesus and he certainly was extremely faithful in
fulfilling his mission to look after Jesus. St. Augustine explains St. Joseph’s father-
hood in this way: “Not only does Joseph deserve the name of father: he deserves
it more than anyone else. In what way was he a father? As profoundly as his fa
ther hood was chaste. Some people thought that he was the father of our Lord Je-
sus Christ in the same way as others are fathers, begetting according to the flesh
and not receiving their children as fruit of their spiritual affection. That is why St.
Luke says that they supposed he was the father of Jesus. Why does he say that
they only supposed it? Because human thoughts and judgments are based on
what normally happens. And our Lord was not born of the seed of Joseph. How-
ever, to the piety and charity of Joseph a son was born to him of the Virgin Mary,
who was the Son of God” (”Sermon” 51, 20).

In this verse, as elsewhere (cf. Jn 7: 42; 4:29), St. John put on record the peo-
ple’s ignorance, whereas he and his readers knew the truth about Jesus. The
Jews’ objection is not directl refuted; it is simply reported, on the assumption
that it presents no difficulty to the Christian reader, to whom the Gospel is ad-
dressed.

44-45. Seeking Jesus until one finds Him is a free gift which no one can obtain
through his own efforts, although everyone should try to be well disposed to re-
ceiving it. The Magisterium of the Church has recalled this teaching in Vatican
II: “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move
and assist him; he must have the interior help of the Holy Spirit, who moves the
heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and makes it ea-
sy for all to accept and believe the truth” (”Dei Verbum”, 5).

When Jesus says, “They shall all be taught by God”, He is invoking Isaiah 54:
13 and Jeremiah 31:33ff, where the prophets refer to the future Covenant which
God will establish with His people when the Messiah comes, the Covenant
which will be sealed forever with the blood of the Messiah and which God will
write on their hearts (cf. Isaiah 53:10-12; Jeremiah 31:31-34).

The last sentence of verse 45 refers to God’s Revelation through the prophets
and especially through Jesus Christ.

46. Men can know God the Father only through Jesus Christ, because only He
has seen the Father, whom He has come to reveal to us. In his prologue St.
John already said: “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bo-
som of the Father, He has made Him known” (John 1:18). Later on Jesus will
say to Philip at the Last Supper: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”
(John 14:9), for Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one goes to
the Father except through Him (cf. John 14:6).

In other words, in Christ God’s revelation to men reaches its climax: “For He
sent His Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all men, to dwell among men
and to tell them about the inner life of God (cf. John 1:1-18). Hence, Jesus
Christ, sent as ‘a man among men’, ‘utters the words of God’ (John 3:34), and
accomplishes the saving work which the Father gave Him to do (cf. John 5:36;
17:4). To see Jesus is to see His Father (cf. John 14:9)” (Vatican II, “Dei Ver-
bum”, 4).

48. With this solemn declaration, which He repeats because of His audience’s
doubts, (cf. John 6:35, 41, 48), Jesus begins the second part of His discourse,
in which He explicitly reveals the great mystery of the Blessed Eucharist.
Christ’s words have such a tremendous realism about them that they cannot be
interpreted in a figurative way: if Christ were not really present under the species
of bread and wine, this discourse would make absolutely no sense. But if His
real presence in the Eucharist is accepted on faith, then His meaning is quite
clear and we can see how infinite and tender His love for us is.

This is so great a mystery that it has always acted as a touchstone for Christian
faith: it is proclaimed as “the mystery of our faith” immediately after the Conse-
cration of the Mass. Some of our Lord’s hearers were scandalized by what He
said on this occasion (cf. verses 60-66). Down through history people have tried
to dilute the obvious meaning of our Lord’s words. In our own day the Magiste-
rium of the Church has explained this teaching in these words” “When Transub-
stantiation has taken place, there is no doubt that the appearance of the bread
and the appearance of the wine take on a new expressiveness and a new pur-
pose since they are no longer common bread and common drink, but rather the
sign of something sacred and the sign of spiritual food. But they take on a new
expressiveness and a new purpose for the very reason that they contain a new
‘reality’ which we are right to call “ontological”. For beneath these appearances
there is no longer what was there before but something quite different [...] since
on the conversion of the bread and wine’s substance, or nature, into the body
and blood of Christ, nothing is left of the bread and the wine but the appearan-
ces alone. Beneath these appearances Christ is present whole and entire, bo-
dily present too, in His physical ‘reality’, although not in the manner in which
bodies are present in place.

For this reason the Fathers have had to issue frequent warnings to the faithful,
when they consider this august Sacrament, not to be satisfied with the senses
which announce the properties of bread and wine. They should rather assent to
the words of Christ: these are of such power that they change, transform, ‘trans-
element’ the bread and the wine into His body and blood. The reason for this,
as the same Fathers say more than once, is that the power which performs this
action is the same power of Almighty God that created the whole universe out
of nothing at the beginning of time” (Paul VI, “Mysterium Fidei”).

49-51. The manna during the Exodus was a figure of this bread — Christ Himself
— which nourishes Christians on their pilgrimage through this world. Communion
is the wonderful banquet at which Christ gives Himself to us: “the bread which I
shall give for the life of the world is My flesh”. These words promise the manifes-
tation of the Eucharist at the Last Supper: “This is My body which is for you” (1
Corinthians 11:24). The words “for the life of the world” and “for you” refer to the
redemptive value of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. In some sacrifices of the
Old Testament, which were a figure of the sacrifice of Christ, part of the animal
offered up was later used for food, signifying participation in the sacred rite (cf.
Exodus 11:3-4). So, by receiving Holy Communion, we are sharing in the sacri-
fice of Christ: which is why the Church sings in the Liturgy of the Hours on the
Feast of Corpus Christi: “O sacred feast in which we partake of Christ: His suf-
ferings are remembered, our minds are filled with His grace and we receive a
pledge of the glory that is to be ours” (”Magnificat Antiphon”, Evening Prayer II).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading	1 Kings 19:4-8 ©

The angel gives Elijah food to reach the mountain of God

Elijah went into the wilderness, a day’s journey, and sitting under a furze bush wished he were dead. ‘O Lord,’ he said ‘I have had enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down and went to sleep. But an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked round, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. But the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you.’ So he got up and ate and drank, and strengthened by that food he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 33(34):2-9 ©