Gospel (Jn 6,44-51) - At that time, Jesus said to the crowd: «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

The Gospel continues to present us with Jesus' speech in the synagogue of Capernaum. At the beginning of the passage Jesus clarifies that no one can understand his mystery without the faith that the Father himself gives. Faith is therefore not the fruit of the effort of men who perhaps commit themselves to practicing a virtuous life. Faith has its beginning in God: "No one – says Jesus – can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father". This coming to Jesus is not a purely intellectual matter, nor is it membership in a group organized for some purpose. We go to Jesus with the attraction of the mind and heart, with conviction and passion. Faith is a question of total love, of engaging commitment. And this happens in different ways, but they all require an encounter with Jesus which can be mediated by a brother, a sister, a poor person, an experience of prayer and also by listening to the Gospel. The free quotation that Jesus makes of the prophet Isaiah (54.13): "And all will be taught by God", recalls the primacy of listening in the context of faith. Jesus suggests that the encounter with God has a privileged path in willing listening to his Word. In his words, in fact, there is an attractive force: they broaden the mind and the heart, they introduce us to God's great plan for the world, they bring us closer to Jesus, to his heart, to his mind, they allow us to participate in the very action of Jesus among men. For this reason he states: "Whoever has listened to the Father and has learned from him comes to me", that is, he discovers the meaning of life and receives the nourishment it sustains. It is really difficult to think that God can present himself through the weakness of the evangelical words, that his love for him can be touched through the love of his children. It may seem more natural to look elsewhere, in apparently much more solid certainties, for the nourishment for our life, the certainties and affections that can guarantee happiness and support. In reality it is an illusion, we all know the finiteness and weakness of human things. Much better is to instead trust a God who chose the words of a man to manifest his Word, who chose the weak sacramental signs to give us his strength. There is no need for superhuman efforts to be able to understand the things of heaven. Whoever wants to know God must know his Son. Jesus makes it clear that no one has seen the Father except him. And he will say to Philip: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). Whoever wants to understand the mystery of God must meet Jesus, must let his heart be touched by his Word, by the Gospel. Whoever listens to this word is attracted by God and receives the bread of eternity, as Jesus clearly says: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty!". It is the mystery that we experience every time we participate in the Eucharistic Liturgy where the eyes of the heart are opened like the two disciples. It is the believers' way of meeting the Risen One.