John 6:35–40
35 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. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; 39 and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day..
Cited in the Catechism: In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, St. John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 161, 606, 989, 1001, 2824.
Commentary
Jesus is the one who reveals the Father (6:35–47)
6:35. Going to Jesus means believing in him, for it is through faith that we approach our Lord. Jesus uses the metaphor of food and drink to show that he is the one who really meets all man’s noblest aspirations: “How beautiful is our Catholic faith! It provides a solution for all our anxieties, calms our minds and fills our hearts with hope” (St Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 582).
6:37–40. Jesus clearly reveals that he is the one sent by the Father. This is something St John the Baptist proclaimed earlier on (Jn 3:33–36), and Jesus himself stated it in his dialogue with Nicodemus (3:17–21) and announced publicly in Jerusalem (5:20–30). Since Jesus is the one sent by the Father, the bread of life come down from heaven to give life to the world, everyone who believes in him has eternal life, for it is God’s will that everyone should be saved through Jesus Christ. These words of Jesus contain three mysteries: 1) that of faith in Jesus Christ, which means “going to Jesus”, accepting his miracles (signs) and his words; 2) the mystery of the resurrection of believers, something which begins in this life through faith and becomes fully true in heaven; 3) the mystery of predestination, the will of our Father in heaven that all men be saved. These solemn words of our Lord fill the believer with hope.
St Augustine, commenting on vv. 37 and 38, praises the humility of Jesus: Jesus chose not to do his own will but that of the Father who sent him: “Humbly am I come, to teach humility am I come, as the master of humility am I come; he who comes to me is incorporated in me; he who comes to me, becomes humble; he who cleaves to me will be humble, for he does not his will but God’s” (In Ioann. Evang., 25, 15 and 16).
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
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"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome
