Gospel (Jn 6:30-35)
They said to Jesus, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father 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 said to him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”
Commentary
In the Gospel for today's Mass, Jesus is presented as the Bread giving life to the world. As we read this passage during the Easter season, we are reminded that Christ is truly alive and that in Him is the source of life. Everything great and beautiful in our world, everything that fills us with joy and makes us experience that life is worth living, is somehow connected to Jesus. For as Saint John says: “all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn 1:3-4).
In Jesus we have everything. Therefore we can say with the people in this Gospel scene: “Lord, give us this bread always.” When we notice an emptiness in our hearts or feel that we lack the strength to face our daily work – what a great remedy we have in the Eucharist! There we can rekindle our eagerness to live each day to the full and bring to the world the joy of knowing we are loved by God.
The Mass is where we let ourselves be renewed by our Lord. Saint Josemaría passed on to us his own experience: “when I pray at the foot of the altar ‘to God who gives joy to my youth,’ I feel young and I know that I will never consider myself old. If I keep true to my God, Love will constantly vivify me. My youth will be renewed like that of the eagle” (Friends of God, no. 31).
But we don’t want this youthful joy that our Lord grants us to remain enclosed within our own heart, but to overflow in our daily activities and in the people around us. Hence we will find it helpful to place on the altar what we have in our hands each day: our plans, dreams, concerns. Our Lord will take all this and make it his own. It will cease to be something merely human and be transformed, by the action of grace, into food that gives life to the world.