"How is it," they will say, "that the Lord said one should not labor for perishable food?" He said this in order to cut short their excessive concern about foods and redirect it toward spiritual matters. Granted, they will say; but that Christ uproots bodily activity is evident from His words to Martha: "Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed"; "Mary has chosen the good part" (Luke 10:41, 42), and from the words: "do not worry about tomorrow" (Matt. 6:34). So reason those who wish to be idle. What then shall we say? That what was said to Martha was said neither about work, nor about activity, nor about idleness, but about the need to know the proper time and not to spend the time for listening on concern about foods. He said this with the aim of teaching her that the time of instruction should not be wasted on occupation with matters pertaining to the belly. And when He says "do not worry," He does not reject activity, for worry is one thing and activity is another. It happens that a person does something yet is not at all anxious about it. Thus the Lord, teaching us not to be nailed down to worldly things, not to worry about rest for tomorrow, but rather desiring that we labor daily, says: do not worry about how, having labored today, you might be at ease tomorrow, but, acquiring food each day through daily labor, do not worry about tomorrow.
He calls the "enduring food" the mystical communion of the Lord's Flesh, which He Himself gives to us, having become the Son of Man, upon whom the Father "set His seal," that is, showed and confirmed that He is His Son. Although Christ Himself also confirmed His dignity by miracles, since He is speaking to the Jews so that they would not be provoked, He refers to the Father and says that He has been sealed by Him, that is, proven and attested. Since the Son is the image of the Father, and the seal, and the reflection, He has been sealed by the Father, inasmuch as He is His image and seal. Therefore these words have the following meaning: This One, who in appearance is the Son of Man, the Father has sealed, that is, begotten as His seal and image, preserving perfect immutability and natural identity with Him.
Jn. 6:28. So they said to Him: what must we do, that we may work the works of God?
The Jews want to learn about the work of God not in order to perform it, but in order to obtain an occasion for talk.
Jn. 6:29. Jesus answered and said to them: this is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.
Therefore, although He knows that they will receive no benefit, nevertheless, for the general benefit of teaching, He gives an answer and shows them, as well as all people, that the work of God consists in believing "in Him whom He has sent." Faith in Him is a work truly sacred, and perfect, and sanctifying those who possess it; for a well-grounded faith guides one to every good work, and good activity preserves faith; and as works without faith are dead, "so also faith without works is dead" (James 2:17, 26).
Jn. 6:30. To this they said to Him: what sign then do You give, that we may see and believe You? What do You do?
See what ingratitude and insensibility. After having seen so many and such great miracles, they again ask for a sign, and one even greater than the loaves with which they were fed. As gluttons, they again demand such a miracle as would serve their belly. The justice of this is evident from what follows.
Jn. 6:31. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written: "He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
Not in vain did we say that they ask for a sign as slaves of the belly. Such was the miracle of the loaves. Here they remember the manna (Ps. 78:24), and not some other miracle, whether performed against the Egyptians or at the Red Sea. Wishing to provoke Him to perform such a miracle as could feed their flesh, they bring up the manna out of extreme gluttony.
Jn. 6:32. Jesus then said to them: Truly, truly, I say to you: it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
Jn. 6:33. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
What then does the untried Wisdom of God, our Lord Jesus, answer them? "Moses did not give you this bread," that is, Moses did not give you the true bread, but all that happened then served as an image of what is accomplished now. Thus, Moses represented an image of God, the true Leader of the spiritual Israelites, and that bread prefigured Me, Who came down from heaven, Who truly nourishes and truly exists. He calls Himself the true bread not because the manna was false, but because it was an image and a shadow, and not the truth itself. For the Only-begotten Son of God, having become Man, is in the proper sense "Manna," an astonishing word and hearing. Manna means: "What is this?" For the Hebrews, each one having seen it fallen in abundance around his tent, struck by the extraordinariness and strangeness of the sight, asked one another: what is this? And the Lord, the Son of God, having become Man, is Himself the Manna that astonishes all, so that each one says in bewilderment: what is This? How is He both the Son of God and the Son of Man? How from two opposite natures is there one Person? What is this Mystery?
So this Bread, being Life by nature, as the Son of the living Father, does what is proper to Him: He gives life to all things. Just as earthly bread sustains the weak nature of the flesh and does not allow it to decompose, so also Christ by the operation of the Spirit gives life to the soul, and indeed sustains even the body itself in incorruption. For through Christ the resurrection from the dead and the incorruption of bodies have been granted to human nature.
Jn. 6:34. On this they said to Him: Lord! give us this bread always.
But the Jews, still occupied with the belly and being entirely earthly, understand these words concerning sensible bread and say: "Give us such bread." Raving in this manner, they exposed themselves. "Always," they say, "give us such bread, not for one day, not for two." They said this also out of love of money. So that we need not spend our own money on acquiring food, always give us this easily obtained bread.
Jn. 6:35. And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Since the Jews, being earthly-minded, think that the Lord is speaking of material bread, and therefore insistently ask for it, the Lord, reproving them and showing that they sought Him only as long as they expected material food, but when they learn that it is spiritual, they will no longer come running, says: "I am the bread of life." He did not say "the bread of food," but "of life."
Since all things had been put to death, He gave us life by Himself. He is Bread, inasmuch as we believe that the leaven of human mixture was baked by the fire of the Godhead. Bread of "life" — not ordinary, common life, but a special life that is not cut short by death. He who believes in such Bread will not hunger, will not endure a famine of hearing the word of God, and will not have a rational thirst, which comes from the lack of the water of baptism and the sanctification of the Spirit. For the unbaptized has thirst and great dryness, not partaking in the holy water that regenerates the soul, while the baptized, having the Spirit, is always given life by Him.
Jn. 6:36. But I said to you that you have both seen Me and do not believe.
Jn. 6:37. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me;
Showing that faith in Him is not a matter of chance, but a gift of God, given by the Father to those who are worthy and noble of heart, He says: "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me," that is, those will believe in Me whom the Father gives Me. But you—the Jews—as unworthy, are not given to Me by the Father, and therefore you do not come to Me. For you do not have an upright heart, so that God the Father, having loved you, might lead you to faith in Me.
Jn. 6:37. And him who comes to Me I will not cast out,
And I "will not cast out the one who comes to Me," that is, I will not destroy him, but will save him and bestow upon him much delight.
Jn. 6:38. For I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me.