Gospel (Jn 6,41-51) - At that time, the Jews began to murmur against Jesus because he had said: "I am the bread that came down from heaven". And they said: «Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father and mother? How then can he say: 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them: «Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets: "And all will be taught by God." Whoever has listened to the Father and learned from him comes to me. Not because anyone has seen the Father; only he who comes from God has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died; This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that whoever eats it will not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Jesus, in the speech he gives in the synagogue of Capernaum, applies to himself the passage that narrates the sending of manna to feed the people of Israel in the desert: «I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died; This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that whoever eats it will not die." Just as the manna was salvation for the people of Israel, so is Jesus for men. Whoever binds himself to Jesus (whoever eats his flesh) has eternal life. The Gospel does not say "he will have", but rather "has" eternal life, from now on, that is, he receives the gift of life that never ends (in the fourth Gospel "eternal life" is synonymous with "divine life"). The life of the Church, like that of every single believer, is supported by the "bread that came down from heaven". Saint John Paul II, in the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, states: «The Eucharist, the saving presence of Jesus in the community of the faithful and its spiritual nourishment, is the most precious thing the Church can have on its journey through history» (n. 9). The story of Elijah already prefigured this mystery. The prophet, persecuted by Queen Jezebel, had to flee. After an exhausting escape, he collapsed tired and sad, wishing only for death. While his strength, especially that of the spirit, was failing, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, awakened him from the torpor into which he had fallen and told him: "Get up, eat!". Elijah saw a cake near his head and ate it. But he went back to bed. It was necessary for the angel to return to him to wake him up again, almost as if to signify the need to always be woken up by the angel and to continue to feed on the "bread of life". In short, no one should feel self-sufficient, and therefore everyone is always in need of nourishment. «With the strength of that food he walked for forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb» (1 Kings 19.8). The prophet followed the path of the people of Israel, crossing the entire desert up to the mountain where Moses met God. It is the image of the pilgrimage of every Christian community, of every believer. The Lord Jesus, living bread come down from heaven, becomes our food to support us on the journey towards the mountain of encounter with God.