I am the bread of life. Homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Feeding a multitude of thousands of people from five barley loaves and two fish is certainly a miracle, but John’s gospel never uses the word “miracle”. It prefers the word “sign” because the significance of the miracle does not rest solely in the act of the miracle itself, but in that to which the miracle points. On one level the feeding of the multitude is a sign pointing to a new Exodus. Just as God fed his people in the wilderness with manna, Jesus feeds the crowd who has followed him. However, the Israelites who ate the manna were soon hungry again; the bread that Jesus offers satisfies a far deeper hunger: he is the bread of life.