THURSDAY - April 27, 2023
“I pray God may preserve your health and life many years.”
St. Junipero Serra
TODAY'S READINGS
Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Lectionary: 275
Reading I
Acts 8:26-40
The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip,
"Get up and head south on the road
that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route."
So he got up and set out.
Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch,
a court official of the Candace,
that is, the queen of the Ethiopians,
in charge of her entire treasury,
who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home.
Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit said to Philip,
"Go and join up with that chariot."
Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said,
"Do you understand what you are reading?"
He replied,
"How can I, unless someone instructs me?"
So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.
This was the Scripture passage he was reading:
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who will tell of his posterity?
For his life is taken from the earth.
Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply,
"I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this?
About himself, or about someone else?"
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.
As they traveled along the road
they came to some water,
and the eunuch said, "Look, there is water.
What is to prevent my being baptized?"
Then he ordered the chariot to stop,
and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water,
and he baptized him.
When they came out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away,
and the eunuch saw him no more,
but continued on his way rejoicing.
Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news
to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
R.(1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Bless our God, you peoples,
loudly sound his praise;
He has given life to our souls,
and has not let our feet slip.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia
Gospel Jn 6:44-51
Jesus said to the crowds:
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world."
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The Gift of Living Bread
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says, “I am the living bread from heaven.” Is he only talking about the Eucharist — or is it more than that? When he taught us the “Our Father” prayer, he said we should ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” Is there a connection between the living bread and our daily bread?
During the Israelites’ sojourn in the desert, God miraculously provided manna when they ran out of their own supplies. It was unlike any bread of human invention. These delicious flakes of wafers appeared on the ground every morning. They lasted only a day and then rotted, because God wanted to teach the people to rely on him daily.
God wants us to do everything we can while relying on him for everything we cannot do, every day, each and every moment. In all that we need — whether it’s money for living expenses or patient love for someone who’s causing us problems — God stretches us beyond our limitations and provides us with his limitless resources.
When I was giving retreats in New Zealand in 2010, my hosts prayed over me: “Lord God, be all that she needs for all that she needs.” I like the way they said that!
“Do you really understand what you’re reading?” That’s the question that Philip asked the Ethiopian in our first reading today. The foreign official had just completed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and now he wanted to grow closer to God through the scriptures. However, he didn’t meet his Savior until someone explained to him that Isaiah was prophesying about Jesus.
When you pray “give us this day our daily bread”, do you understand what you’re saying? It’s not just about asking God to be the provider of our food. We’re asking God to help us be more like Jesus, the living bread — the Jesus who told his disciples to go out in ministry without traveling bags or food or money, the Jesus who relied on his Father for everything, the Jesus who told us not to worry about what we will eat or drink.
So why do we pray like everything depends on God and act like it all depends on us? Why do we put away extra money “for future needs” while others are unable to meet their current needs? Why do we pay rent on storage sheds to hold possessions that we no longer need while others could benefit from using them?
When we act this way, we’ve forgotten that Jesus, who is the living bread, is our daily bread. We’ve received the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, selfishly, which is hardly what Jesus intended when he instituted the Mass.
Alternatively, when we live believing that God is our provider, we feel safe emptying ourselves, like Christ, to serve the needs of others. In this emptying, we more fully understand the Real Presence of Jesus within us, and only then do we grasp the full meaning of the Real Presence of Jesus in the consecrated, living bread of the altar.
Today's Prayer
Today I ask You to open my ears, Lord Jesus, so that I may hear the Father through everything You teach me every day. Amen.
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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