No Hunger or Thirst!

Tuesday, May 5, 2025

Acts 7:51-8:1a; Jn 6:30-35

Today’s Gospel highlights how Jesus, the bread of life, gives us eternal life. 

When the crowd holds on to its memory of its ancestors eating manna in the desert, Jesus offers some correctives. 

1. Jesus clarifies that it was not Moses but his Father who gave them bread from heaven. 

2. Jesus also corrects the use of the past tense and makes it present, thus reminding them of God’s continuing providence. Hence, for Jesus, ‘God gave’ should be ‘God gives.’

3. Jesus also enlightens the crowd regarding the nature of the bread. The true bread of God is more than ordinary food, especially as it becomes life to the world by eliminating hunger and thirst that otherwise cripple human existence. 

Thus, when the crowd is lost in its demand for a sign, Jesus establishes his identity as the ‘bread of life’ that sacrifices itself for the sustenance of others. 

The bread of life is life-giving and not just stomach-filling. 

Let us pray that we may continue to enjoy God’s providence through Jesus, the bread of our lives. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar