After Jesus had fed the multitude by multiplying the bread near the Sea of Tiberias, he slipped away to Capernaum on the other shore, to get away from the crowd that wished to make him king. Even so, many went to look for him and caught up with him. He, however, did not accept their overly self-interested enthusiasm. They had eaten miraculous bread, but they had stopped short at the material advantage without grasping the deep meaning of that bread which showed Jesus to be sent by the Father to give true life to the world. They saw him merely as a wonder worker, an earthly Messiah, able to get them material bread in abundance and on the cheap. In this context Jesus says to them these words:

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”

The ‘food that endures’ is the person of Jesus himself and it is also his teaching, since Jesus’ teaching is one and the same with his person. When we read Jesus’ other words later on, we see that this ‘bread that endures’ is also identified with Jesus’ Eucharistic body. So, we can say the ‘bread that endures’ is Jesus in person, who gives himself to us in his Word and in the Eucharist.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

The image of bread is often used in the Bible, as is the image of water. Bread and water represent the basic foods indispensable for human life. Now, by applying the image of bread to himself, Jesus means that his person, his teaching are indispensable for the spiritual life of human beings, just as bread is for the life of the body. Material bread is certainly necessary. Jesus himself provides it miraculously for the crowds. But on its own it is not enough. Human beings bear in themselves, perhaps without fully knowing it, a hunger for truth, justice, goodness, love, purity, light, peace, joy, infinity, eternity, that nothing in the world can satisfy. Jesus offers himself as the only one capable of satisfying the inner hunger of humanity.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

In presenting himself as the ‘bread of life’, however, Jesus is not limiting himself to affirming the need to feed on him, and so believe in his word, in order to have eternal life. But he wants to encourage us to have an experience of him. Indeed, when he says, ‘work for the food that does not perish,’ he gives us an urgent invitation. He means that we must be involved seriously, do every possible thing needed to have this food. Jesus does not impose himself, but he wants to be discovered, he wants to be experienced.

Certainly by their own strength alone human beings cannot reach Jesus. They can do it as a gift from God. Nonetheless, Jesus continually invites people to put themselves in a position to receive the gift of himself, which he wishes to give. And it is precisely by striving to put the Word into practice that human beings come to full faith in him, to taste his Word as one would taste sweet-smelling and flavoursome bread.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

The Word of Life is not about a specific point of Jesus’ teaching (such as forgiving offences, detachment from riches and so on), but it brings us back to the very root of Christian life, which is our personal relationship with Jesus.

I think that those who have started living the Word with commitment, and especially the commandment of love for our neighbour (the summary of all the words of God and of all the commandments) sense at least in some small way that Jesus is the ‘bread’ of their lives, able to satisfy the desires of their hearts, the source of their joy, of their light. By putting the Word into practice they have at least begun to taste it as the true answer to the problems of humanity and of the world. And, since Jesus, the ‘bread of life’, gives the supreme gift of himself in the Eucharist, they go spontaneously to receive the Eucharist with love, and it has an important place in their lives.

Those of us who have had this amazing experience must not keep it for ourselves. With the same concern that Jesus urges us to work for the ‘bread of life’, we should communicate it to others so that they may find in Jesus what their hearts have always sought. It is an enormous act of love for our neighbours because already from this earth they can know what true life is and they will have the life that does not die. And what more could anyone want?

Chiara Lubich

First published in August 1985