John Chrysostom

"And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh." "How then," saith some one, "doth He not go up unto the feast, but, when all are pressing to Jerusalem, goeth Himself into Galilee, and not Himself alone, but taketh His disciples with Him, and proceedeth thence to Capernaum?" Because henceforth He was quietly annulling the Law, taking occasion from the wickedness of the Jews.

Homily on the Gospel of John 42 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

"The Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near," he says. And yet He does not go to it, but withdraws into Galilee, because He was no longer subject to the ordinances of the law, so as to observe the legal feasts. And in another sense: since the malice of the Jews was pursuing Him, He, having found occasions, little by little weakens the law; the type has ceased. Note this also: "a feast of the Jews." It was not a feast of Christ, since Christ did not go to it, but only the Jews alone.

Commentary on John ↗

Bede

Matthew and Mark make mention of the murder of John [the Baptist] in connection with the miracle of the bread while John here mentions it was near the day of the festival of Pascha of the Jews. It is evident that the festival of the Passover here coincides with the beheading of John the Baptist, and that a year later [the evangelist] returns again to the time of the Pascha when the mystery of the Lord's passion was completed.

On the Gospel of Mark 2.6 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

The time is mentioned when he says, Now the Passover was near. This time was also well suited for their refreshment, for "Passover" means "passage": "It is the Passover of the Lord, that is, his passage" (Ex 12:11). We understand from this that anyone who desires to be refreshed by the bread of the divine Word and by the body and blood of the Lord, must pass from vices to virtues: "Our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed, and so let us feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:7). …

Commentary on John ↗

Bonaventure

There was also a suitability of time, because it was the Passover: whence He says: "Now the Passover, the feast day of the Jews, was near": on this feast the Lord had performed miracles, and he now had to renew them, because he had to make a new Passover. It should be noted, as Chrysostom says, that "from the Passover of John's imprisonment until this one, one year had passed, although the Evangelist narrates little about this," because others had narrated it.

Commentary on John, Chapter 6 ↗