Jesus "becomes true food and true drink," the pope said. "Thank you, Lord Jesus! Let's say, 'Thank you, thank you' with all our heart," he told visitors and pilgrims who joined him in St. Peter's Square Aug. 18 for the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer.

In the day's Gospel reading from St. John, Jesus tells the crowd that he is "the living bread that came down from heaven" and that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life.

Some were surprised by Jesus' words, and not in a good way, the pope said. But for Catholics, "the bread from heaven is a gift that exceeds all expectations."

"The heavenly bread, which comes from the Father, is the Son himself made flesh for us," he said. More than the bread that human beings need to survive, the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist "satisfies the hunger for hope, the hunger for truth and the hunger for salvation that we all feel not in our stomachs, but in our hearts."

"Every one of us needs the Eucharist," Pope Francis said.

"He saves us, nourishing our lives with his own, and he will do this forever," the pope said. "And it is thanks to him that we can live in communion with God and with each other."

The Eucharist, he said, is not "something magical, no. It is not something that will immediately solve all problems, but it is the very body of Christ that gives hope to the poor and overcomes the arrogance of those who gorge themselves at their expense."

Pope Francis asked Catholics to ponder two questions: "Do I hunger and thirst for salvation, not just for myself, but for all my brothers and sisters? When I receive the Eucharist, which is the miracle of mercy, do I stand in awe before the body of the Lord, who died and rose again for us?"