Readings for Saturday of the Third Week of Easter[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 Acts 9:31-42
The Church is at peace following Paul’s conversion and the cessation of persecution by the Sanhedrin’s main enforcer. Peter now demonstrates through miraculous healings that the authority of Christ over illness and death has been passed on to the Apostles.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 116:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
R. How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?
Psalm 116 is a song of thanksgiving. This selection is an individual prayer and promise to God. The singer understands that the Lord is his salvation. A little confusing is -“Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.”- The meaning is that the death of God's faithful is grievous to God, not that God is pleased with the death.
Gospel John 6:60-69
Today we come to the ebb and flow of the Lord’s followers. He is concluding his discourse on the “Bread of Life” and has just told the disciples once more: “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.” This was cannibalism, they did not get it and they did not like what they did get, so many who had seen him perform the sign of the Multiplication of the Loaves and followed him now were repulsed and went home.
The twelve stayed with him and in response to Jesus question; “Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered; “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
Reflection:
“…to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
This profession of faith, wrenched from Peter who is speaking for all of the disciples challenges us today. We wonder where we would be if we did not have the Lord. We wonder about what path we would take if we were not steadfastly seeking a path to the Lord. To whom should we go? Thank God we do not have to ask that question. We have the Lord of Life, we too have come to believe and are convinced that Jesus if the Christ, the savior, the “Holy One of God.”
But it must not have been so easy for those early friends of the Lord. He had been talking to a large crowd, many of whom had been among the multitudes who had seen him feed everyone present with just a few barley loaves. He had them in the palm of his hand when he started talking about the “Bread of Life”. They were ready to follow this miracle worker, stunned by the signs he performed but not understanding what it all meant.
Jesus, with the multiplication of the loaves still fresh in their memories, reminds them that Moses had asked God to feed the children of Israel as they sojourned in the desert. God in reply had sent manna to them, to sustain them and to save them. The crowd that followed Jesus must have wondered if this sign Jesus had shown them could somehow be related to the Exodus story. Could this man from Nazareth be some kind of Holy Man destined to lead them out of cruel bondage like Moses had done? Was he going to do it again – make the bread multiply?
They had asked him as much "Sir, give us this bread always." They asked this just after he had just told them that he could give them bread that would give everlasting life. They did not understand. He went further with his explanation, without being too explicit he tried to tell them that this was bread for a spiritual journey not a physical one.
When he launched into his final and complete explanation “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." We can hear them grumbling "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?" And while we are not told what was in the hearts of the disciples at this moment some at least must have been thinking “No, no, Lord, don’t go there – it’s too hard for them, they don’t understand. They’ll run away. You have them, don’t go there.”
But Jesus knew. He knew it would be too hard for a vast majority especially since he was using a very graphic word. Where we read eat, he used the Hebrew word for “gnaw” (“to bite or chew persistently”[3]). Seeing what was in their minds the Lord turns to Peter and the rest and asks "Do you also want to leave?" He was releasing them – if they could not make the leap of faith, he would understand. So we come back to the profession of faith from which we started.
Today we are offered the Eucharistic encounter. We are not forced. The Lord offers his Body and Blood, real food and real drink, for the life of the world. When we say “Amen”, let us recall the worlds of Peter who said: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Pax,
Please Pray for Esther
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture today is “Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabatha (right view)” by Masolino da Panicale, 1426-27
[3] From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gnaw
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 Acts 9:31-42
The Church is at peace following Paul’s conversion and the cessation of persecution by the Sanhedrin’s main enforcer. Peter now demonstrates through miraculous healings that the authority of Christ over illness and death has been passed on to the Apostles.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 116:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
R. How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?
Psalm 116 is a song of thanksgiving. This selection is an individual prayer and promise to God. The singer understands that the Lord is his salvation. A little confusing is -“Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.”- The meaning is that the death of God's faithful is grievous to God, not that God is pleased with the death.
Gospel John 6:60-69
Today we come to the ebb and flow of the Lord’s followers. He is concluding his discourse on the “Bread of Life” and has just told the disciples once more: “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.” This was cannibalism, they did not get it and they did not like what they did get, so many who had seen him perform the sign of the Multiplication of the Loaves and followed him now were repulsed and went home.
The twelve stayed with him and in response to Jesus question; “Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered; “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
Reflection:
“…to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
This profession of faith, wrenched from Peter who is speaking for all of the disciples challenges us today. We wonder where we would be if we did not have the Lord. We wonder about what path we would take if we were not steadfastly seeking a path to the Lord. To whom should we go? Thank God we do not have to ask that question. We have the Lord of Life, we too have come to believe and are convinced that Jesus if the Christ, the savior, the “Holy One of God.”
But it must not have been so easy for those early friends of the Lord. He had been talking to a large crowd, many of whom had been among the multitudes who had seen him feed everyone present with just a few barley loaves. He had them in the palm of his hand when he started talking about the “Bread of Life”. They were ready to follow this miracle worker, stunned by the signs he performed but not understanding what it all meant.
Jesus, with the multiplication of the loaves still fresh in their memories, reminds them that Moses had asked God to feed the children of Israel as they sojourned in the desert. God in reply had sent manna to them, to sustain them and to save them. The crowd that followed Jesus must have wondered if this sign Jesus had shown them could somehow be related to the Exodus story. Could this man from Nazareth be some kind of Holy Man destined to lead them out of cruel bondage like Moses had done? Was he going to do it again – make the bread multiply?
They had asked him as much "Sir, give us this bread always." They asked this just after he had just told them that he could give them bread that would give everlasting life. They did not understand. He went further with his explanation, without being too explicit he tried to tell them that this was bread for a spiritual journey not a physical one.
When he launched into his final and complete explanation “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." We can hear them grumbling "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?" And while we are not told what was in the hearts of the disciples at this moment some at least must have been thinking “No, no, Lord, don’t go there – it’s too hard for them, they don’t understand. They’ll run away. You have them, don’t go there.”
But Jesus knew. He knew it would be too hard for a vast majority especially since he was using a very graphic word. Where we read eat, he used the Hebrew word for “gnaw” (“to bite or chew persistently”[3]). Seeing what was in their minds the Lord turns to Peter and the rest and asks "Do you also want to leave?" He was releasing them – if they could not make the leap of faith, he would understand. So we come back to the profession of faith from which we started.
Today we are offered the Eucharistic encounter. We are not forced. The Lord offers his Body and Blood, real food and real drink, for the life of the world. When we say “Amen”, let us recall the worlds of Peter who said: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Pax,
Please Pray for Esther
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture today is “Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabatha (right view)” by Masolino da Panicale, 1426-27
[3] From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gnaw
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