The Gospel reminds me of a story about an uncle, a physician who stopped coming to Church for fifteen years. Then, one day, while his younger brother, Fr. Basil Colasito, was vacationing with them, the older brother announced that he would shower and would like Fr. Basil to hear his confession. Everyone was surprised, and Fr. Basil, probably praying for this moment, candidly said: That’s what I am a priest for.

When Jesus spoke of the food that endures for eternal life, the crowd challenged Him to do something better than the manna their ancestors received in the exodus. In response, Jesus identifies himself as the bread of God that came down from heaven. He is the new bread from heaven, the Bread of Life. I am the BREAD of Life; whoever eats this bread will have eternal life. The bread that Jesus gives is His flesh, His crucified and glorious flesh. And now, He gives the same flesh in the Eucharist, the sacrament of His Body and Blood.

Jesus became the Bread of Life by dying for us on the cross. He is the Bread God provided in our journey, much like the one provided for Elijah as he journeyed to Mt. Horeb, the miraculous bread. For forty days, Elijah lived with only this bread at Mt Horeb. The hearth cake that sustained Elijah was like the Holy Eucharist God provided food to sustain him in his journey. Is this not what Jesus said in the Gospel: He is the Bread of Life that came down from heaven, the source and sustenance of life until we reach our final destiny, eternal life?

Many of the Jews of the Exodus were stubborn, grumbling, and complaining people. They grumbled and complained to Moses, and God performed several miracles to show His providential care for the people of Israel in their wilderness journey. He sent them manna, a word derived from the Hebrew expression: What is it? (manhu) (Ex. 16:15).There were attempts to reduce the symbolism of the manna as a congealed sap of a desert shrub. But the Scriptures clearly say that the manna was a supernatural phenomenon. Its appearance is limited to the forty years when Israel was in the wilderness (Ex. 16:35). Thus, there is only one possible explanation: God performs the miracle (Hebrew niphloth) in the deliverance of the people of Israel.