My Flesh is true bread and my Blood true drink. As the discourse on the bread of life progresses, Jesus invites his audience to transcend the immediate need that the multiplication of the loaves had served (relief of physical hunger) in order to see in the miracle an opportunity for changing their lives for the better. By saying that his flesh is “true” food, Jesus is not implying that the bread that he multiplied was a mere illusion or that what he had done was not important. The multiplication of the loaves was both real and necessary since it was part of his mission. However, from the conversations that ensued, it was becoming clear that the people had failed to understand that the multiplication of the loaves was itself a sign pointing to something deeper. If what had interested them was having their fill, then they were reducing themselves to beings whose needs are fleeting (in the sense that a one-time fill can never satisfy physical hunger). But this is not who they are. As beings created in the image and likeness of God, their needs are more than material (cf. Matthew 4:4: man does not live on bread alone). As was expected, the multiplied loaves of bread soon got depleted, and those who had partaken of the loaves and had their fill found themselves hungry the following day. The multiplied loaves of bread were certainly not enough to meet their real needs (their souls’ yearning).
The deepest yearning of the human person is met in God his creator (the human heart/soul remains restless until it finds rest in God – St. Augustine). It is a yearning that can never be met by anything or anyone else apart from God. This yearning, put in the human soul at creation, enables the human person to live the transcendent life that distinguishes him/her from the other created animals. However, as a consequence of sin, this yearning has been blurred and blinded to the extent that it gets confused with other yearnings and cravings that the human heart cultivates. Jesus, as it were, rectifies this hitch by redirecting the human soul’s yearning to its proper object: God. And it is this that Jesus was offering the crowd. He was the only means for the human soul to attain its true desire. Jesus is the nourishment that the human soul needs if it has to get re-united with God, the source of life. He is indeed the bread of human life.