to do the works of God, it is necessary first of all,

that you may believe in Him whom He has sent.

Jesus said this to those whom he had just miraculously fed with five loaves and two fishes. But this miracle was not enough for them. Moses brought down manna from heaven and fed it to all the Jewish people for forty years, and the Messiah, according to the teaching of the rabbis, will also nourish the Jews; Therefore, what does it mean, in comparison with such constant feeding of all Jews, that only a few thousand people were miraculously fed once? "Thus reasoned the ungrateful and hard-hearted Jews, and they said to Jesus: 'Our fathers believed, and we believe, that Moses was sent from God, because he gave proofs of it by bringing down manna from heaven, which our fathers ate in the wilderness; and what sign wilt thou give us? What are you doing so that we may believe you, that you also are sent from God?"

Discourse on the Bread of Life

To this question Jesus meekly answered: "Moses did not give you the bread of heaven, of which I now speak; the manna which God gave to your fathers through Moses nourished only their bodies; But I speak of that bread of heaven which nourishes the soul and prepares it for eternal life; This is the bread which my Father now giveth you, having sent me to you;

for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Constantly in need of bread to maintain the vital activity of his body, a person cannot do without the nourishment of his soul, without spiritual food, if he does not want to be a beast-like creature, if he strives for self-perfection. The best souls of the ancient world languished in a vain search for truth, truth, thirsted to know the Unknown God; Yes, they languished, since the failure to satisfy the needs of the spirit is no less painful than the starvation of the body, and the answer to these needs is the spiritual food without which a person cannot live consciously. This answer was brought by Christ from God or, as they say, from heaven. This Word is the bread from heaven of which Christ now speaks, and this Word is Himself.