My Dear Friends,

In the gospel of St. John we find insights not found in the other gospels. The more one reads John's gospel the more one finds Jesus revealing himself in an amazing way. 

St. John was very special. He had out-lived all the other apostles and it is said of him that he was the only apostle who had not been martyred. However, according to Butler's Lives of the Saints, "At Rome, St. John before the Latin Gate, who, at the command of Domitian, was brought in fetters from Ephesus to Rome, and by the verdict of the Senate was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil before that gate, and came forth thence more hale and more hearty than he entered it." (volume II, pp. 240-242) The early fathers of the church considered this as an "equivalent martyrdom". The May 6th celebration of this event, St. John before the Latin Gate, was dropped from the Roman Calendar in 1960.

John's subsequent exile to the island of Patmos undoubtedly provided much time for his continuous recollection, understanding, reviewing and meditating on all he had heard Jesus speak and all that he had witnessed.

Each evangelist had his own literary style with specific purposes in mind. Matthew, for example, was a grouper because he took different speeches of Jesus and put them together, grouped the miracles and the parables.

In writing Chapter 6 of his gospel St. John seems to have used this same style as the chapter deals with the discourse between Jesus and a crowd of people. The whole event occurs during a three-day period and is a crescendo, slowly increasing the levels of spirituality an individual may experience in accepting Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life. 

John's gospel also differs from the other gospels in that John writes of "signs" that Jesus performs rather that "miracles" as do the other evangelists. "Jesus performed this first of His signs at Cana." (Jn 2:11) The second sign was again at Cana when Jesus cured the royal officer's son who was some 20 miles away. The third of John's signs was at the pool of Bethesda where Jesus restored to health a man who had been ill for 38 years. The fourth and fifth signs were the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus' walking on the water. 

It pleases me, therefore, to review with you this Word. Chapter 6 begins with the story of the multiplication of the loaves. Jesus had multiplied five barley loaves and two fish, feeding 5,000 and collecting 12 baskets of leftovers. This had prompted the people to become so excited that they wanted to make a king of Him. Jesus did not want that kind of human worldly kingship so He dismissed the crowd and sent the apostles away. He then went up the mountain to pray. 

That evening the apostles found themselves in a storm as they were trying to cross the lake to Capernaum. They saw Jesus walking on the water toward them, and as he reassured them they found themselves at the shore.

The crowd persisted in looking for Jesus and finally located Him in Capernaum. We can imagine that the crowd now numbered more than the initial 5,000 which had been fed as the word about the multiplication of the loaves must have surely spread. Their tenacity in wanting to make Jesus a king would imply that they considered Jesus as being someone very special. Nobody feeds 5,000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and picks up 12 baskets of leftovers! They had failed to make Him a king the day before, but they would try again. 

The "Bread of Life Discourse" then begins. "And when they found him across the sea they said to him, 'Rabbi, when did you get here?' Jesus answered them and said, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal'." (Jn 6:25-27)

The crowd greets Jesus with the title, "Rabbi!" Andrew and probably John had called Jesus "Rabbi" after John the Baptist had declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God. Nicodemus also used that greeting in announcing that He was from God. While the title "Rabbi" is a polite salutation, it falls short of recognizing Jesus as the Messiah; proof that the crowd did not understand the significance of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. Otherwise, they would have said, "Messiah, when did you get here?" That would have shown clearly that they understood who Jesus was. They missed the point. They just saw bread. They're not looking at Jesus as the Messiah, so they simply called him "Rabbi".

In asking "When did you get here?" the crowd also meant "How did you get here?" because they had observed that He had not left by boat with the disciples. Jesus responds by ignoring their question and telling them that they had come because of their having been satisfied and filled with the bread He had given them the day before. 

From this point on Jesus takes the crowd to a higher spiritual level. Whereas they are now thinking only of material food, natural bread, a material kingdom, He is going to teach them about spiritual bread, about His plan. He wants them to be lifted to a deeper understanding of what He has to offer. In this, the first part of the four-part discourse, consideration is given to material bread, the corruptible bread, bread for the body. They are now more concerned with bread for the body than bread for the soul. 

It has been reported that the late Bishop Sheen said that the crowd had "bread hunger", not "God hunger", not "soul hunger". They were looking for Him; they were not looking to Him. This distinction of Bishop Sheen is interesting. They had not come to the point to look to Him as the One sent by God. 

What is Jesus going to do? He sets two breads before them. On the day before He had set bread for the body. They ate it all up, ate their fill. Now He sets bread for the soul and they don't want it. It's too much. He sets bread that perishes and bread that will last for eternal life. They're willing to take the one that perishes; but the one that lasts for eternal life, they're not sure they can deal with. It's kind of unfortunate. The crowd asked Him, "How did you get here?" and he tells them that He came from heaven, "on him the Father God has set his seal". An interesting answer! Jesus is saying in effect: I came from heaven; that's where I came from. You think I was across the lake yesterday, but it's more than that. Before I was across the lake, I was in heaven. I was sent by my Father. "No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him." (Jn 1:18) So Jesus Christ came to reveal His Father. That's why He insisted that they were not looking for Him because they had seen signs. They had seen the signs, the multiplication of loaves, the crowds, the great number of people who had eaten, how they all had their fill and the 12 baskets of leftovers. YOU STILL DO NOT RECOGNIZE WHO I AM. You did not understand the sign; you did not realize the meaning; you saw just the material aspect; you failed to go beyond. Now, He is going to raise their minds to higher things. 

Again, in effect He says to them: Just think of how hard you worked. You sailed from across the lake or you walked all the way around trying to find me. Look how hard you worked for material things. "Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life which the Son of Man will give you." (Jn 6:27) Clearly He is telling them there is another kind of food that they should look for. In a way Jesus blames them for their material viewpoint. He wants them to look farther, to look deeper, not just to be concerned about the earth, but about heaven. That's why He said that the bread He has will bring them eternal life, will bring them to heaven. They had just eaten the bread; they had just seen the meal. Now they return with a desire for more of that bread. They did not recognize Him as a person sent by God. They did not recognize Jesus as a man with a mission from the Father. 

The problem of the people of Jesus' day is very much the problem of the people of today. Both groups are so taken up by material things, by material food that when Jesus speaks about spiritual food, they don't have time. They cannot think that far; cannot accept that much. Let us reflect on Jesus' words: "Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." (Jn 6:27) 

A careful examination of our own lives will reveal that much of our time is spent working for material food. Granted, we need food to eat; we need lodging; we need all those things; but our lives must be oriented to the primary cause of our existence; to seek first His Kingship over us; His was of holiness. Everything else is secondary. 

"Do not work for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal." (Jn 6:27) In calling Himself "Son of Man" Jesus declares His identity. He is really all that we can desire. He is the very embodiment of salvation. He is it! There's no salvation except in Jesus Christ. The Son of Man is a man who lives with the glory of God; a man who meets God and who communicates with God. Since God, the Father, has set His seal upon Jesus, He has been given the authority to come to us. He has been approved by the Father for His mission! God loved the world so much that He sent His Son. Jesus tells us that He can do nothing except what He sees His Father doing. He, then, comes with the Father's seal upon Him. 

Recall that "after Jesus was baptized, (in the Jordan river) he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens saying, 'This is by beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.' " (Mt 3:16-17) 

The Father gave the Son His backing. You could say that He gave Him power to do all kinds of miracles and backed Him up. Jesus said, "...The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me." (Jn 5:36) We could say that the Father set His seal on Him because He had the full power of the Spirit resting on Him. "In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit." (Eph 1:13) St. Paul used that same idea for us; that we have been sealed. 

Remember that Jesus has been sealed by the Father. This truth remains. He has the backing of God the Father in anything and everything He did in this world and in anything and everything He wants to do for you right now.

"So they said to him, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.' So they said to him, 'What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: "He gave them bread from heaven to eat." So Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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.' " (Jn 6:28-33) 

Jesus gently, progressively takes the people where they were and tries to lead them up to His understanding. He had come to create a mentality of faith. You see, faith is an essential condition to accept His doctrine. Then He tried to explain in a deeper way the plan of His Father. His teaching comes from the depth of His heart. Chapter 18 of Deuteronomy helps us to know from where Jesus came. 

God had called Moses and all the people to the foot of the mountain. He spoke to Moses with a thundering voice and the people were scared stiff. They were scared by the voice; they were scared by the fire and by the cloud of smoke that covered the mountain. They then asked Moses to speak to Him in their behalf. They did not want to hear the voice of God nor see the great fire anymore unless they die. God agreed, but being a loving Father concerned about us, He still had to find a way to communicate with us. This is where we see the depth of God's love. God made a promise echoed by Moses. "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words, into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. If any man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it." (Dt 18:17-18) So we see Jesus coming along and as Son of God. 

He is coming with a tremendous message. Jesus speaks of this very reality. "Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him; the word that I spoke; it will condemn him on the last day because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak." (Jn 12: 48-49) We have to believe that word of Jesus Christ. Whatever is spoken is spoken just as the Father instructed and His Word means your eternal life. Let's try to grasp that dimension about Jesus. What He has to offer is eternal life, yet He came into the world like one of us. "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen..." (Dt 18:17) 

So He came, born of Mary, from Nazareth, "a nothing town". Nazareth never appears in the Old Testament. The name is not even mentioned and that's why I call it "a nothing town". Nathaniel asked if "anything good could come out of Nazareth". No one had ever heard of anyone coming from Nazareth and having made a difference in the world. So Jesus comes from Nazareth, from a humble background, son of a carpenter. This is where it begins. What does He have to offer? Eternal life! Reconciliation with the Father! How and when is He going to announce it? I would like you to think about this seriously because it will help you to understand Jesus as it has helped me. All during His life Jesus had all this tremendous understanding about God and about our lives; yet He was born in Bethlehem and lived in obscurity in Nazareth until He was old enough to become a Rabbi to speak about God in an official manner. He had to wait until He was thirty years old. Jesus always understood who He was and didn't reveal it. Then, finally, John the Baptist prepared the way for Him and Jesus is able to start talking. How is He going to talk about the fact that He came from God? How is He going to tell anyone that He is God? How is He going to tell anyone that He has power to do anything and everything; power over nature, power over sickness and even death? How can He say that? John's gospel portrays precisely a supreme effort on the part of Jesus to tell people who He is and to tell people what He has to offer. 

Jesus had performed all kinds of miracles; had taken care of practically all the needs of the people He had met: the lame, the sick, the lepers, the blind, the deaf, the mute and the paralyzed. He had taken care of all kinds of needs including the feeding of 5,000 people. This act was exceptional because the crowd was not downtown, but in a deserted area as was Moses when he supplied food to the Hebrews with the help of God. The crowd's returning to Jesus for more bread indicated to Jesus that they might be willing to accept more. This prompted Jesus to open His heart to them; to tell them what it really is all about. 

These events, the first part of the discourse, probably took place in Capernaum proper; whereas it is most likely that the second part of the discourse which follows took place in the synagogue. Capernaum is the town of Jesus and it is in the synagogue that He gave the key ideas about Himself as the Bread of Life. The event probably occurred on the Sabbath and was part of a regular service. Verses 35-66 in John's gospel record the event. 

"So they said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always'. Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen (me), you do not believe.' " (Jn 6:34-36) In this second part of the discourse, Jesus speaks of another kind of bread. He explains that He has a better kind of bread that will not corrupt. He says, "I myself am the Bread of Life". (Jn 6:35) He means that He Himself, Jesus, is the Bread of Life; He and his teaching; that's bread for anyone who is hungry. When we say it's Jesus, we could say it's Jesus Himself with all His gifts of grace; His doctrine and His sacramental life. The sacrament of Holy Eucharist is part of that. Jesus really is the bread for souls. As bread is food for the body, Jesus, the Holy Eucharist, is food for our souls. He is the Bread of Life and we can receive Him through faith. His heart was moved to deep mercy on the second day when He realized that the people were so engrossed in their material needs that they could not even listen to Jesus' words promising to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He had told them that He had another bread. 

I think that if He had multiplied the loaves on the second day and had said, "O.K., Here's some more bread," then everybody would have had bread. They would have been excited but it would not have changed anything. He did perform the miracle another time, but to have done it that day would not have resulted in a change of heart for them. He said to them, "I have another bread. I have a better bread. That's what you should be looking for. It's going to last even into eternal life."

The condition for getting that bread is simply to go to Jesus and to believe in Him. He says, "There's another kind of food that remains for eternal life that the Son of Man will give you." When He had said that He had another kind of food that was not perishable, people understood that He was speaking of some kind of miraculous food that would not perish. Obviously, it had to come from God. They realized that there was something they had to do about it. So they said to Jesus, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" (Jn 6:28) They think that by a particular personal act they will get that bread. That's not what Jesus meant. It was not that they could perform the works of God; that seems to be another misunderstanding on their part. They seemed to think that there was something they could do in order to get that bread. That wasn't so. Faith was and is required to receive the message of Jesus Christ. All that was necessary was to believe and they would get this bread that does not perish. So believing in the Son, in Jesus Christ, and having faith in Jesus as the one sent by God was the work they had to perform. Inasmuch as they could believe in Jesus then that would fulfill the necessary condition. 

Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father draws him." (Jn 6:44) Faith is given as a gift, but we must be open to receive the gift. We have free will and can receive it or reject it. We have to say "yes". It is obvious that the crowd for the most part rejected the gift. They requested a sign, some proof. This is really amazing! Just think of Jesus! You know who He is and why He came! He kept meeting people then who needed proof, and unfortunately, there are many today who still need proof. Isn't that amazing! The Lord loves His people who just believe in Him and walk with Him. True faith is unconditional. We cannot approach God requesting more signs with more proofs. The crowds by their remarks rejected the gift. "So that we can put our faith in you, what sign are you going to perform for us to see? What's the work you do? You want us to have faith, well, what will you do so that we can have faith in you?" Now, this happened in Capernaum where Jesus had performed so many miracles and still the people wanted more proof. It's really amazing! They misunderstood the words of Jesus. He asked them to have faith in Him. That was all they would have had to do, to believe in Him; yet it was too much. 

"Why don't you do like Moses? Are you as great as Moses?" Do you know what Moses did? He gave bread for forty years. So why don't you give us bread like that? What sign are you going to perform?" They want a miracle as a condition for their belief. They're saying, "We'll have faith if you demonstrate your power in another sign. We don't have faith in you or in your words, but if you perform another sign, another miracle, well, we might have faith because of that other miracle." Yesterday's miracle is already forgotten. They want Jesus to think the way they do about who the Messiah should have been and what the Messiah should have done. They really prove how materially minded they are. So Jesus simply refuses to give them the sign that they ask for. Yesterday's sign is forgotten; there's not much point in performing another one today. To reveal another miracle probably would not have produced any more faith anyway. 

"I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (Jn 6: 48-51) This third part of the discourse then is the climax as Jesus repeats "I am the Living Bread." He has not only come down from heaven, but He declares that He is bread to eat, life-giving flesh for the life of the world. This is a very different approach. The first part of the discourse centers on faith; the second centers on the Holy Eucharist as a meal; this climactic third section centers on Holy Eucharist as a sacrament. 

"Then many of his disciples who were listening said, 'This saying is hard; who can accept it?' Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, 'Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.' " (Jn 6:60-63) This fourth part of the discourse discloses the effects the teaching has produced. Either the disciples believed or they didn't. Jesus tried to explain that in the Eucharist He would give His body to eat and His blood to drink, and of course, these ideas certainly are not easily acceptable. 

Chapters 4 and 6 of John's gospel seem to parallel each other. Chapter 4 deals with the Samaritan woman at the well; Chapter 6 is the discourse dealing with the Bread of Life. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (Jn 4: 13-14) Jesus tells the crowd at Capernaum, "Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you." (Jn 6:27) The Samaritan woman: "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?" (Jn 4:12) The crowd at Capernaum: "Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' So Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.'; (Jn 6:31-32) Jesus to the Samaritan woman: "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.' " (Jn 4:10) To the crowd at Capernaum Jesus says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst." (Jn 6:35) The Samaritan woman: "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." (Jn 4:15) This is a very interesting discovery of John's gospel which scripture scholars and commentators have studied and researched and which is of benefit to us. 

Jesus is portrayed to us so beautifully by John as he shows Him proceeding in the work of salvation in very definite ways. 

To Nicodemus Jesus spoke about a new birth; to the Samaritan woman He spoke about living water. In both instances, there is a promise of the Holy Spirit. 

I learned from my old professor that in John's discourse on the Bread of Life Jesus indicates that there was food ready for the taking for those who wanted it. In the book of Genesis food could be found in abundance in the Garden of Eden. "God also said: 'See, I give you every seed bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food.' " (Gn 1:29) Thus we find another parallel between the two books. Adam and Eve in the beginning did not have to worry about getting food. It was there for the picking. Their disobedience, however, caused them to lose this gift. God said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat." (Gn 3:17-19) Can you see the difference between the availability of food before the fall as compared with that after the fall. Food is available for the taking and then food is difficult to get. The important distinction in this consideration is that when Jesus spoke about the Bread of Life, He said if people wanted, there was food ready for the taking. How often are we hungry spiritually and emotionally! Jesus has bread for us; bread from heaven. He wants to give us this Bread of Life, the Eucharistic bread! It's for all of us. Consider together the food that God had prepared in the Garden of Eden and the food that Jesus offers in Capernaum. 

"Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant." (Is 55:2-3) This sounds very much like the thinking of Jesus: "All you who are thirsty come to the water. You who have no money come, receive grain, eat. Come without pain, without cost, drink wine, milk. It's there for the taking." This is really what Jesus Christ was trying to tell the people in Capernaum, but I don't think that they understood. They were so taken up by material things that they could not look beyond and understand these spiritual messages.

"Thus says the Lord: 'In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you. To restore the land and allot the desolate heritage's, saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pastures be. They shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them; For he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water." (Is 49:8-10) This passage describes the life and mission of Jesus. Jesus' coming is an hour of salvation; a time of visitation. He invites us to follow Him so we don't have to walk in darkness; we don't have to go hungry and thirsty. He pities us. He is compassionate and merciful. 

"As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, 'Do you also want to leave?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.' Jesus answered them, 'Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?' He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve." (Jn 6:66-71) It is important to understand that Jesus gently, calmly, progressively, forcefully opened His heart to them and they quit on Him. They walked away. He lost many disciples who no longer walked with Him. He lost Judas on that day. It was a turning point. In spite of all the good that Jesus had done for them in His public life; in spite of His popularity which is at its peak at this moment when He tries to open His heart more deeply, He loses. He loses the crowd and will not get them back again. He loses a number of disciples. They are not coming back. He loses one of the Twelve! All because He opened His heart and told them exactly who He was and what He wanted to do. How much pain Jesus must have suffered because of the doubting, the rejection, the walking away. How fickle is man! Overnight, those who had witnessed the multiplication of the loaves, who were ready to make Jesus a king, who had eaten the bread, are now rejecting Him, walking away from Him. He is even being compared to Moses; His bread to the bread that Moses gave, the manna in the desert. In emphasizing that "IT'S MY FATHER who gives you the bread," Jesus is telling us that He is clearly the Son of God, that God is His Father. How I would love everyone to understand that relationship very well! 

"Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord." (Dt 8:2-3) There are two things to remember here. "It's not by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." So what Jesus is saying is, "I am the bread of life." He is telling us that He Himself is that bread that God sends down. Before He made that statement, He tried to make the people understand one thing, that when we say bread it can mean different things.

In the Old Testament "bread", of course, was food and also "bread" was teaching that came from God. There was also "rain down bread from heaven" which again had a different connotation. When the Messiah comes they will receive Him and His word as bread for their minds and for their hearts. They will receive divine teaching, divine wisdom. He will feed them with His word. "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah." (Jer 31:31) "All, from the least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord." (Jer 31:34) 

Now the Father is going to give bread from heaven again, and this bread does not merely sustain life as it did with Moses in the desert, but this bread that I'm talking about will bring you into life everlasting. The manna was only a symbol of the real bread from heaven. He is telling them that the manna was a pale reflection. It was transitory. His bread would remain forever. They had a shadow; now He is offering them the reality.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we adore you and we love you. We hunger so badly; we need to be fed. Help us to be open so that we can understand the rich teaching that Jesus gave us as we reviewed John's gospel. How often we settle for shadows when you give us the truth in your beloved Son Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. We also adore Jesus, your beloved Son, the Bread of Life, our brother, our friend, our food. We ask you, Lord, to help us so that we might look beyond; that we may not be taken up by so many material concerns that we are unable to recognize the spiritual dimensions of our lives. Give us the faith necessary to believe in you without condition, to accept Jesus Christ, to walk with Him, to live His word now and forever.