I am the Bread of Life (John 6:22-71)

The first of Christ’s great ‘I am’ sayings, included in St John’s gospel, was when he declared himself to be “the bread of life” (John 6:35). He shared this saying as part of a mysterious speech about heavenly food, which was later understood to refer to the Eucharist.

The speech took place on the day after the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Some of the people who had witnessed this had tracked Christ down to Capernaum. When he realised that they had only come to see him because they were hungry, he said: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” (John 6:27)

They then asked him about this food, referring to the story of the Miracle of the Manna, when God fed the Israelites with bread during their time in the desert. It was then that Christ announced: “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and yet they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat it and not die.” (John 6:48-50)

As Pope St John Paul II explained: “The words of John’s Gospel are the great proclamation of the Eucharist, after the miraculous multiplication of bread near Capernaum. Anticipating as it were the time even before the Eucharist was instituted, Christ revealed what it was. He spoke thus: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51).”

He continued: “And when these words brought protests from many who were listening, Jesus added: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-56).”

The pope reflected: “These are words which concern the very essence of the Eucharist. Behold, Christ came into the world to bestow upon man divine life. He not only proclaimed the Good News but he also instituted the Eucharist which is to make present until the end of time his redeeming mystery. And as the means of expressing this he chose the elements of nature — the bread and wine, the food and drink that man must consume to maintain his life.”

This stained glass window picturing Christ as the Bread of Life is found within the Blessed Sacrament chapel of St Giles, Cheadle. Dating to the 1840s, it was produced by William Wailes for A.W.N. Pugin, who built this stunning church.

The window is full of symbols relating to the Eucharist. This including a vine (referring to the sacramental wine), images of Christ as a sacrificed Lamb (the Agnus Dei) and angels holding sayings from this biblical passage.

The central pane is captioned with the following words in Latin: ‘Amen, amen, dico vobis, ego sum panis vivus qui de caelo descendit.’ This means ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the living bread that came down from heaven’, which is what Christ said in his speech to the people (6:47,51).

See the full image:

Where to find this work of art
St Giles, Cheadle

Read the relevant passage
John 6:22-71

On a similar theme

• In the Old Testament: Christ compared the ‘bread of life’ of the Eucharist with the Miracle of the Manna, where the Israelites had been fed with bread from heaven.
• In the New Testament: The meaning of Christ’s mysterious speech on his flesh and blood as real food only became apparent during the Last Supper.