Memorial of Saint Stanislaus, bishop and martyr
Readings for Friday of the Third Week of Easter[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings for Friday of the Third Week of Easter[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Today St. Luke gives us the first of three accounts of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. According to these accounts, Saul, the enforcer of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, was an involuntary convert, a person of zeal and energy that the Lord turned, as scripture says, into God’s instrument.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
This, “shortest” of all the Psalms, is a hymn of praise sung by the community to the Lord who is faithful to his people.
The “Bread of Life” discourse continues and the Lord escalates his language. The people who had come to him because they had been fed with the five barley loaves just cannot make the leap from bread made from wheat or barley to the Bread of Life offered as true food and drink for the spirit. Even when he uses Manna as an example of real food they still do not see that the Son of God offers them his resurrected body as their meal and they are repulsed – especially because of the language (Jesus uses the word gnaw not just eat in the original texts) he uses.
Reflection:
The question that springs to mind as we think about today’s scripture is “Why do we follow Christ?” The people he is addressing with his Bread of Life discourse are the same people who followed him out into the country around Capernaum to hear him teach, the same people who were fed with the five barley loaves and two fishes. They now come to him in the synagogues. Why are they drawn – most of them may have had good intentions at the start but suddenly they saw a miracle and now they have forgotten his words. So the Lord takes their greed and holds it up.
Jesus tells them they must eat his physical body, clearly knowing the revulsion it would cause with them if they did not follow his earlier logic. If they were just after free food, image how they would feel when he told them, the true nature of the Eucharist. We can almost see there faces can’t we. He tells them; “For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.”
If it was their bellies they were thinking about, what he proposed was the violation of a taboo so basic that it was not even mentioned in polite company. We understand that those whose faith was purely superficial would fall away at this point, but what about us? What are we looking for from Jesus? Are we superficial, can we drink daily from the cup he offers? Do we offer him the praise he deserves or are we only asking for what he can give us? Do we give him thanks when, with his help, we accomplish great things or do we feel the pride in success that ignores the gift of the Holy Spirit?
What a great questions to ponder today as we are offered the Bread of Life.
Pax
Please Pray for Esther
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture used today “You are looking for me ... because you ate the loaves and had your fill” by James Tissot, 1886-96
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