The sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John continues to unfold for us as we enter more deeply into the Easter Season. We must recall that God has a plan for salvation. With God there is no happenstance. His every action has a purpose.
Our Lord alludes to this intentionality in John 6:32 by looking back to the Exodus. “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread form heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” When God rained down manna for the Israelites during the Exodus (Exodus 16:4, 14, 35), Moses identified the manna as “the bread which the Lord has given you to eat” (Exodus 16:15). It is to this prefiguration that our Lord refers and proclaims as fulfilled in Him. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35). Our Lord Himself is the bread of life.
Here we must mention our Catholic Sacraments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church helps us understand Sacraments as follows: “Jesus’ words and actions during his hidden life and public ministry were already salvific, for they anticipated the power of his Paschal mystery. They announced and prepared what he was going to give the Church when all was accomplished. The mysteries of Christ’s life are the foundations of what he would henceforth dispense in the sacraments, through the ministers of his Church, for ‘what was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries’” (#1115, quoting St. Leo the Great, Sermo. 74, 2). The Sacraments are our most precious gift from our Lord. They convey to us our Lord Himself. These are not empty symbols, charming little keepsakes, but efficacious and powerful signs of His living presence. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).