27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that [pg 120]which endureth unto life everlasting. As our Version indicates, the meat is the object for the attainment of which they are exhorted to do their part. The meaning cannot be that they are to make the food by believing, as if the food were faith; for they had not made the bread in the desert the previous day, nor were they thinking of making it now, but they were trying, striving to obtain it. This sacramental food will endure in its effects unto eternal life. This food the Son of Man will give; i.e., Christ as man will give us His flesh; but since the food is to endure in its effects unto eternal life, mere man could not give such; and hence it is added that the Father who is God has sealed with the impress of Divinity (August., Tolet.) the Son of Man, who therefore, being God as well as man, can give a food that will endure unto eternal life.

28. Dixerunt ergo ad eum: Quid faciemus ut operemur opera Dei?28. They said therefore unto him: What shall we do that we may work the works of God?
29. Respondit Iesus, et dixit eis: Hoc est opus Dei, ut credatis in eum quem misit ille.29. Jesus answered, and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent.

28-29. Some of His hearers now interrupt Christ, not however to inquire what this food was, but to ask what they must do on their part in order to perform the works which they take it for granted God requires, before they may receive such food. Christ's answer is, that in order to obtain it, so that it may remain unto eternal life, they must believe in Himself. So too is it even now; the sinner may sacrilegiously receive the Lord into his breast, but it is only for Him who believes (and acts accordingly) that the Sacrament endureth unto eternal life.

30. Dixerunt ergo ei: Quod ergo tu facis signum ut videamus, et credamus tibi? quid operaris!30. They said therefore to him: What sign therefore dost thou show that we may see, and may believe thee? what dost thou work?
31. Patres nostri manducaverunt manna in deserto, sicut scriptum est: Panem de coelo dedit eis manducare.31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

30-31. Christ having declared the necessity of faith in Himself, they now ask for motives of credibility, and point to the great standing miracle wrought for their fathers in the desert. But whereas He had demanded [pg 121] faith in Himself: “That you believe in Him whom He hath sent” (verse 29), they seem to miss the point, and speak not of believing in Him, but merely of believing Him, believing what He may have to say to them. They did not mention Moses, nor was the manna given by Moses; but our Lord's reply shows that the comparison between Himself and Moses was in their minds. It is as if they said: You call upon us to believe you on the strength of the miracle wrought yesterday in the desert, whereas Moses fed our whole race for forty years with a bread from heaven. These people who speak thus, are probably different persons from those who on the preceding day recognised Christ as the Messias (verse 14).

32. Dixit ergo eis Iesus: Amen, amen dico vobis: Non Moyses dedit vobis panem de coelo, sed Pater meus dat vobis panem de coelo verum.32. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you: Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33. Panis enim Dei est qui de coelo descendit, et dat vitam mundo.33. For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.

32-33. They had asked for some great miracle (comp. Matt. xii. 38), but since they had already had sufficient evidence to enable them to believe, Christ does not gratify their desire, but proceeds to declare that it was not Moses who gave the manna, but God (see Ps. lxxvii. 21-24); so that their tacit comparison of Moses with Himself is baseless. He then goes on to declare that His Father giveth them the true [pg 122] bread from heaven. This means, as we have already explained, that the Father gave us in the Incarnation what Christ gives us in the Eucharist, namely, the Person of the God-man. That it is true or perfect bread, He proves from the fact that it comes, not like the manna from the clouds, but from heaven itself, and that it not merely sustains the life of one people, but gives life to the world.

34. Dixerunt ergo ad eum: Domine, semper da nobis panem hunc.34. They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread.
35. Dixit autem eis Iesus: Ego sam panis vitae, qui venit ad me, non esuriet: et qui credit in me, non sitiet unquam.35. And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger; he that believeth in me, shall never thirst.

34, 35. They at once ask that He would give them this bread always. They evidently think that He speaks of some excellent food like the manna, which would support their corporal existence, and they desire to be constantly supplied with it. But as they know not what they ask, nor how they should be disposed to receive it, He tells them—(1) What the bread is, namely, Himself; and (2) what is required for a proper and fruitful reception of it, namely, faith in Himself. The words: He that cometh to Me, mean the same thing as: He that believeth in Me. The believer shall never thirst; because, if he act upon his belief, he will receive Christ in the Eucharist, and be spiritually filled, never again to thirst, except through his own fault.

36. Sed dixi vobis, quia et vidistis me, et non creditis.36. But I said unto you, that you also have seen me, and you believe not.
37. Omne quod dat mihi Pater, ad me veniet: et eum qui venit ad me, non ejiciam foras:37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will not cast out.