The prophet Elijah is weak from hunger, but the angel of the Lord
feeds him with a hearth cake and a jug of water. Elijah is no longer
hungry, but what is more important, “strengthened by that
food, he walked forty days and forty nights.” There was work
to do, a journey to be made, and the food made it possible.
When Jesus talks about the bread that he is giving, he compares it
to manna, which performed a role similar to Elijah’s food: it
enabled a journey to take place (out of the desert and into the
promised land). So it is obvious that Jesus intends the bread of
life not just to satisfy hunger but also to make possible the
accomplishment of a task, the completion of a journey.
In one sense, this journey is on the road to salvation: “bring
us to our promised inheritance,” we pray in the opening
prayer. Jesus has to have something else in mind also, because he
talks about not just feeding but also becoming food: “the
bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.”
We are to sacrifice ourselves, as Jesus on the cross and in the
Eucharist, for the sake of the poor ones, the lowly and the
afflicted. The Eucharist challenges us to become their food, so that
they may complete the journey “to the mountain of God.”
According to the Christian message, man's relationship to his neighbor is bound up with his relationship to God; his response to the love of God, saving us through Christ, is shown to be effective in his love and service of men. Christian love of neighbor and justice cannot be separated.
For love implies an absolute demand for justice, namely a recognition of the dignity and rights of one's neighbor. Justice attains its inner fullness only in love. Because every man is truly a visible image of the invisible God and a brother of Christ, the Christian finds in every man God himself and God's absolute demand for justice and love.
Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World, 1971: 34.