Gospel: John 6:44-51

 

In the celebration of the Passover, the Jews recalled the bread of the desert. Jesus helps them to take a step ahead. The true sense of the Passover is not to recall the manna, but to accept Jesus, the new Bread of Life. It is no longer a question of eating the meat of the paschal lamb, but rather of eating the flesh of Jesus, so that the one who eats will have eternal life. We are invited to eat the new manna and the new paschal lamb that was sacrificed on the cross.

 

The feast of the Passover was the prodigious remembrance of the Exodus, the liberation of the people from the Pharaoh. 

 

The whole episode which is narrated in chapter VI of the Gospel of John has a parallel in the episodes related to the feast of the Passover, whether as liberation from Egypt or with the journey of the people in the desert in search of the promised land. The discourse of the Bread of Life, in the Synagogue of Capernaum, is related to chapter XVI of the Book of Exodus which speaks about the Manna. In perceiving the difficulties of the people in the desert we can better understand the teaching of Jesus here in chapter VI. 

 

As when the Jews “complained”, they do the same thing as the Israelites in the desert, when they doubted of the presence of God in their midst during their journey across the desert. The lack of food made the people doubt about God and they began to complain against Moses and against God. Here too, the Jews doubt God’s presence in Jesus of Nazareth and begin to complain.