17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Coming to Mass Empty and Leaving Full

Today's Gospel reading, which introduces the 6th Chapter of John, is an apt start to the most explicit teaching on the Eucharist in all of the Gospels. It's no coincidence that John describes a meal in which everyone attendance ate abundantly with lots leftover. Our stomachs don't get full when we go to Mass, but because the bread of the Eucharist is not mere bread but Jesus Himself, our souls leave Mass full of God.