Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
3RD WEEK OF EASTER
Psalter: Week 3 / (White)
Responsorial Psalm: 66: 1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a: Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
1st Reading: Acts 8: 1b-8
This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem.
All, except the apostles, were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria.
Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church. He entered house after house and dragged off men and women, and had them put in jail.
At the same time, those who were scattered went about, preaching the word. Philip went down to a town of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.
All the people paid close attention to what Philip said as they listened to him, and saw the miraculous signs that he did.
For, in cases of possession, the unclean spirits came out shrieking loudly.
Many people, who were paralyzed or crippled, were healed. So there was great joy in that town.
Gospel: John 6: 35-40
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in me shall never be thirsty. Nevertheless, as I said, you refuse to believe, even when you have seen.
Yet all those whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I shall not turn away. For I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the One who sent me.
And the will of him who sent me is that I lose nothing of what he has given me, but instead that I raise it up on the last day. This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall live eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
REFLECTION:
“Jesus is always life-giving.”
One of the profoundest descriptions of Jesus in John’s Gospel is that he made himself known to be the bread of life, explaining that whoever comes to him will never be hungry.
In today’s Gospel, this description is connected with eternal life, which will be received by the one who believes in Jesus. There will be no more starvation in eternal life and eternal life is given to the one who believes in Jesus who himself is the bread of life.
We may reflect on an aspect of eternal life as deeply related to Jesus’ offering of himself. Jesus as the bread of life gives his very self so that others may live. Bread might be ordinary but it is extraordinarily life-giving. Eternal life is already experienced, albeit in part, when one shares his or her very self for the life of others.
Jesus, being the bread of life, is always life-giving. We, Christians, are called to be like Jesus.
We are challenged to offer our lives so that other lives may also be nourished. Like a piece of bread that is broken and shared in order to give life, when was the last time we did something that is truly life-giving?
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