The Sustenance of Body and Soul
Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will never be hungry; and he who believes in me will never thirst. John 6:35
Jesus said that He is the bread of life and when Jesus made this affirmation He was thinking of several things at once which were very strong and had great significance for the disciples to whom He was addressing. The bread was one of the main foods in basic food of the Jews. Bread more than a food was a way of life.
Thinking about bread was something that covered many areas of social life, bread making took so much time and effort from many men and women, who dedicated themselves to make bread daily to feed children, the elderly, to adults, to men, to women, to foreigners, to Jews, to Romans, to Greeks and to everyone who passed through the cities of Israel in the time of Jesus.
As on other occasions, the Jews were only able to understand the words of Jesus in a material sense. The same thing had happened to the Samaritan woman when the Lord offered her the water of life; she said: "Lord, give me that water, so that I do not thirst, nor come here to take it out" (John 4:15). She also thought of a physical water, although certainly miraculous. It is interesting to note that on that occasion Jesus did not say that he was the water of life, but that it was a gift that he would give to those who asked him. But when he now speaks about the bread of life, he affirms the following: "I am the bread of life."
What is The Bread of Life?
What did our Lord Jesus Christ mean when he affirmed that he is the "bread of life"? In the first place, bread tells us about the sustenance necessary for life, that which is essential and essential for every human being. And secondly, having bread does not appease our hunger, it is necessary to eat it so that it really has an effect on us, and when we eat it, bread becomes part of ourselves. In the same way, when Christ offers himself to us as "the bread of life", it is necessary to believe in him to appropriate that life, thus establishing a degree of intimacy and union that is impossible to break.
At that time many Jews asked for a divine sign because they were reluctant to recognize in Jesus an authority superior to that of Moses, but evidently they were not understanding or accepting what he told them. They kept thinking about the material bread, and they expected to receive it in the same way that Moses had given it to them in the desert.
What they did not understand at that time is that the true Bread of Heaven had already descended, and the Father was giving it to him in the person of Jesus. God had already done his part, now they were the ones who had to go to him: "He who comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." As for what the expression "he who comes to me" means, we can find a good illustration in the history of manna. God made the manna of heaven descend every day, but the people had to go out to get it for him, and in the same way, Christ is the true bread that has come down from heaven, and people have to go to him to receive the eternal life that only he can give. Actually, we could say that "coming to him" is a way of illustrating what it means to "believe in him". It has to do with an act of the human will that after having understood the guilt of their sins and the futility of their own works, "comes to Christ", trusts in him, and entrusts him with his salvation.