Jesus said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” The sixth chapter of the Gospel of John contains some of the most elevated language in the Bible. The scholars call it the Bread of Life Discourse because Jesus spells out the significance of the Eucharist as the Body and Blood in this passage. The chapter begins with the story, common to all four gospels, of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. The way St. John structues the story illustrates that Jesus understood that both our bodies and our souls need to be nourished. He couldn’t talk about spiritual food if people were physically hungry. That models how the Church should operate as well. We can only talk about the things of heaven after we have addressed the needs of us who are living on earth. Body and soul will share in the kingdom of God.
