A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
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.” 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.”
In today’s Gospel, the people who follow Jesus are from the same crowd that shared in the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus tells them that they are only seeking him because he provided them with food, not because they believe in him as the Son of God. Jesus says earlier in John’s Gospel: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.” So when the crowd asks Jesus what they can do to accomplish the works of God, Jesus tells them to believe in him, the Son of God. As sung in the responsorial psalm, to be a disciple is to know the law of the Lord: “I declared my ways, and you answered me; teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds.”
God, just as the crowd followed Jesus because he had fed them, I go looking at times for you without understanding what it is I need. As your Son was fed by doing your will, give me the grace to understand that the imperishable food Jesus speaks of is the food that endures for eternal life. The Gospel acclamation from today’s readings is explicit: “One does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Yet, what is the ultimate word that comes forth from the mouth of God? It is the Word Incarnate, Jesus your Son—body, blood, soul, and divinity—under the appearances of bread and wine. God, thank you for the gift that sustains me in this life and is at the same time the food that endures for the life to come.
“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!” God the Father, make your presence known to me today; strengthen my faith in you and in the one you sent.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.