Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of John (6: 30-35) in which Jesus tells the people, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst’.

Fr Paul says this passage in the synagogue at Capernaum launches the sermon on the Bread of Life. It begins with the words of Moses about the manna that appeared in the camp of the Israelites, that is, the bread the Lord gives you to eat.

Jesus then says that the ‘true bread from heaven’ is not really the manna that God gave them in the desert. That was simply perishable food. The Jews must look beyond Moses to the Father, who gives the ‘true manna’, the bread that brings life to the world.

And this bread that comes down from heaven is not something but someone – it is Jesus himself.

Jesus is the Bread of Life; he is the gift of the Father which satisfies the deepest hunger of human beings.