REFLECTIONS TODAY

The crowds who have experienced the multiplication of the bread follow Jesus with such haste and urgency, believing that he is the answer to their immediate need of hunger. But Jesus chides them in searching for him for the wrong reasons. They are looking for bread, the way their ancestors asked Moses to provide them with food. Indeed, God rained down manna from heaven (Ex 16), but this food was given only on a daily and temporary basis, for it grew stale and inedible the next day. Rather, Jesus teases them to look for another type of food that lasts—even forever. This is no ordinary food. Jesus promises to give them the real food that comes from God that endures for eternal life. As the Son of Man—also as Son of God—Jesus is able to provide them that food because the Father [God] has set his seal on him. No longer would people “work for food” in the context of “workings” according to the teachings of the Torah as the way of salvation. In an enigmatic view, Jesus will present himself both as the “work of God” and as “the food that endures to eternal life.”

Responsorial psalm • Ps 119

“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!” or “Alleluia.”

Gospel • Jn 6:22-29

[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.] The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 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.” Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]); Website: [http://www.stpauls.ph](http://www.stpauls.ph).