26. Respondit eis JESUS et dixit: "Amen, amen dico vobis quæritis me non quia vidistis signa, sed quia manducâstis ex panibus et saturati estis.

27. "Operamini non cibum qui perit, sed qui permanet in vitam æternam, quem Filius Hominis dabit vobis. Hunc enim Pater signavit Deus."

28. Dixerunt ergò ad eum: "Quid faciemus ut operemur opera DEI ?"

29. Respondit JESUS et dixit eis: "Hoc est opus DEI, ut credatis in eum quem misit ille."

26. Jesus answered them, and said: Amen, amen I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

27. Labour not for the 'meat which perisheth, but for that 'which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man "will give you for him hath God the Father 'sealed.

28. They said, therefore, to him: 'What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?

29. Jesus answered, and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent.

The great miracles which Our Lord had performed had excited the wonder of all who heard Him and saw Him. Never, perhaps, in the course of His ministry, had the veneration and imperfect faith of His hearers reached so high a pitch. It was all the preparation for a new and grand revelation. A something that would try their faith and allegiance, high as these had become; and he must approach it gradually.

Catholic theologians are divided as to whether His discourse from verse 27 to verse 48 have reference to the Eucharist. Many very worthy men are for the negative, and many more are for the positive. Beginning with S. Cyril and following commentators on Scripture down to the latest we have seen published, we

are of opinion that Our Lord speaks about the Eucharist from the very first verse here (26) even unto verse 68 inclusive.

To understand the reason of this rather singular opinion, let us take in the scope of the whole chapter. There is something great and something new to come. His doctrine and His faith forsooth! He has given these already, time after time, and confirmed them all by miracles. There is something new they have not heard of yet, which He promises to give them.

Rising from the natural food supernaturally given, He comes to a supernatural food supernaturally given. He Himself in His Incarnation was the food of the soul which the Father sent into this world and sealed. His sacred Humanity, rather than His Divinity (but not without it), was the great model of the human He had become united to mankind in one individual, in order to make that individual immortal, He would now invent a mode whereby He could be united to everyone who was properly prepared to receive Him.

He

Step by step He brings them to the great announcement. is interrupted-He answers questions-He proceeds; but the grand climax comes at length, and many walk away from Him. In verse 27 He speaks of a bread that endureth for ever.. which the Son of man will give.

In verse 35 He says: I am the bread of life.

In verse 48 He says: I am the bread of life.

In verse 51: I am the living bread.

In verse 52: The bread which I shall give (27) is my flesh, for the life of the world.

In verse 55: He that eateth . . . hath life everlasting. To the end the same thing continues.

Now we see no distinction whatever between Our Lord lecturing the people in Capharnaum, and Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. Both then and now, as a living man speaking, and as hidden under the Sacramental veils, He can do no good to those who have not faith in Him, and who do not believe in His word.

He became incarnate to bring life into the world, He became hidden under the species of bread and wine in order to continue that life until it become consummated in life everlasting.

With this key the whole chapter becomes at once intelligible. Nor is it amiss to observe that verse 71, in which He alludes to

the first who would profane this sacrament, He confirms the opinion which now generally prevails that the whole chapter has reference to the promise of the Blessed Eucharist.

One thing more. S. John passes by the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, and does not give us the words of consecration, like the other Evangelists.

Beautiful trait in the Beloved Disciple. "I told you Jesus promised to give us His Body and Blood for our food and drink, I am sure you would not expect me to descend so far as to tell you He kept His word. This I did not deem necessary or worthy of Him or His Evangelist." This would seem to be the mind of the Saint, and the answer we should receive did we ask him the reason of the omission.

1Answered.—He did not tell them how He came there, which was the question they asked Him. S. John uses answered in the Hebrew idiom. He began to speak.

2Eat of the loaves.-They were a selfish and consequently a self-seeking people. Our Lord knew their minds, and placed their thoughts before them.

Meat which perisheth.—As He rose, with the Samaritan woman, from the water of the well to the water of celestial comfort, so does He rise here, from material food to the food of everlasting life.

Which endureth.-This means Himself incarnate and the fruits thereof culminating in the Eucharist.

Will give you. This is something which He has not given yet, but is preparing them for by degrees.

Sealed. This is generally said to be the Incarnation as regards the sacred Humanity-some confine it to the manifestations of the same.

What works shall we do ?—A lazy life fed upon bread from heaven seems to them the only thing Our Lord is reproving. They ask for the practical work.

Believe in Him.-This is the work just now before them. If they believe in Him, in His Incarnation, and His mission; if they only do this, and then believe what He tells them and follow it, their way is prepared for heaven.

The revelation is advancing. They ask for a sign to confirm what He had already said. The sign of the multiplication of loaves had been outdone by Moses, who gave manna (from Heaven), enough to feed over half-a-million of people, for forty years.

Those who consider that these people, having tasted the beautiful bread which Jesus gave them the day before on the hillside, longed to press Him to give them a continuous supply of it and thus make their lives happy in comfort and idleness, have some foundation for their opinion. Their ideas of life were confined to the mortal life and seldom touched upon the immortal. Jewish teaching of old was material, and when we see how material Christians are who have been instructed about eternal life from their childhood, we need not be so much surprised at the low notions of the Jews of Capharnaum.

However, they have risen from the mere eating process to remember some eaten thing that came from Heaven.

Our Lord starts from this at once to try and raise their minds to His new revelation. Moses' bread was not from Heaven, except as we say volucres cæli, but from the air. It had another property: that it fed only the bodies. What would you think of a bread that comes not from the air merely, but from the bosom of the Eternal Father, and feeds not the body but the soul?

Here Our Lord puts before them the Incarnation again, with a view of preparing them for the Great Sacrament.

The parallel is this: You see Me like an ordinary man, walking about, eating, drinking and speaking to you, and you do not know that I make your corn grow, see after your welfare and reach My care over the whole world. Moreover, I do all this and this extra work of preaching in order to make your souls rise from these things. Think of eternal life and prepare yourselves for it.

Similarly a Sacrament will be given, of which I now only give you hints, in which there will be real eating and drinking of the most stupendous kind, when all this will be done by a seeming creature more despicable and helpless than am I now who address you.

The difficulty of raising the minds of the Jews thus far was very great. A material thing to produce spiritual effects far beyond its scope and nature was a thing unknown to them. The prodigies which Our Lord performed were in some measure terminating in material improvements: a sick man got well, water became wine, a small quantity of bread became great, and so on.

A new thing is started before them now, a thing which philosophers can scarcely reach. Material things, even insignificant, can