Today, we start Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, whose entire content is the subject of the bread. This issue has an important place in the message of Jesus, from the temptation in the dessert, through the multiplication of the loaves to the Last Supper.

The great sermon on the bread reveals the broad spectrum of this topic’s meaning. The hunger of people, who have listened to Jesus Christ, is initially described and food is given before being dismissed. But Jesus does not allow man’s need to be reduced to the bread, biological and material needs. «Man cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks» (Mt 4:4; Dt 8:3).

—The bread, miraculously multiplied, reminds us of the manna in the dessert and, furthermore, means at the same time that the true food for man is the “Logos”, the eternal Word, the eternal sense from which we come and on which we live.