April 23, 2026
Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Lectionary: 276
Reading
1
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
R.(1) Let
all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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, alleluia.
Gospel
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."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042326.cfm
Commentary on Acts
8:26-40
Again we meet the deacon Philip, whom we see in preceding
passages to be a very successful preacher of the gospel to the people of
Samaria. The Samaritans were doing so well that Peter and John were now sent to
baptise them in the Holy Spirit. In today’s reading, Philip gets instructions
from God to take the desert road to Gaza on the south coast of Palestine. The
distance from Jerusalem to Gaza is about 80 km (50 miles).
On his way, Philip runs into an Ethiopian eunuch, the finance
minister of the queen of Ethiopia, who was on his way back to his country after
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Eunuchs were commonly used in positions of seniority
and trust, especially where the women of the royal household were concerned.
They often became powerful and very rich.
‘Ethiopia’ corresponded in this period to Nubia, spanning
from the Upper Nile region at the first cataract (Aswan) to Khartoum. It would
now be part of the Sudan. ‘Candace’ (or Kandake) was the traditional title of
the queen mother, who was responsible for performing the secular duties of the
reigning king. The King was thought to be too sacred to have to deal with such
administrative chores.
As we are told the eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
it is very likely he was a convert to Judaism or else a Gentile who believed in
the God of Israel. As Philip catches up with him, the man is reading a passage
from the prophet Isaiah. It was Isaiah 53:7-8, from the Fourth Song of the
Suffering Servant which is read at the liturgy on Good Friday, and is a text
long seen by the Church as pointing to Christ in his passion. It was also the
usual practice at the time to read aloud, and that is why Philip knew what he
was reading.
Philip asked him if he understood the passage. The man
replied:
How can I, unless someone guides me?
This is something we need to acknowledge too. It is
difficult (and perhaps not possible) to fully understand the meaning of the
Scriptures unless ‘someone’ explains them to us. We cannot simply expect to
know what they mean just by reading, nor should we expect that God will
directly inspire us. We have to take the natural means available to us, namely,
the experience and the knowledge of experts and people of deeper wisdom. The
texts are separated from us by language and centuries of custom and lifestyles.
Like the eunuch, we need interpreters to help us understand.
Here, the eunuch was quite at a loss to know what the
passage was about, and said to Philip:
About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this,
about himself or about someone else?
And Philip proceeded to show the official how the words
applied to Jesus in his suffering and death, and this gave him the opportunity
to proclaim the whole message of the gospel.
So completely won over was the eunuch that, as they passed a
stretch of water, he asked to be baptised there and then. In other words, he
was expressing his total faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Where was this
stretch of water? There are several possibilities—a brook in the Valley of Elah
(which David crossed to meet Goliath; 1 Sam 17:40) or the Wadi el-Hasi, just
north of Gaza, or it could have been any other suitable stretch of water.
As soon as the baptism was done, Philip disappeared, but the
eunuch continued on his journey home filled with happiness. This is typical of
the joy which is associated in Acts with salvation.
Meanwhile, Philip’s work of evangelising was not done. He
found himself in Azotus. It was one of five Philistine cities about 30 km from
Gaza. From there he proceeded north all the way to Caesarea in Syria, a
distance of about 100 km. Caesarea had been rebuilt by Herod. With an excellent
harbour on the Mediterranean, it served as headquarters for the Roman
procurators.
We now say goodbye to Philip, but he will reappear again
some 20 years later, still in Caesarea, still an evangelist, and now enjoying
domestic bliss (Acts 21:8).
As we read this story we might reflect that there will be
times when we will be given opportunities to share the gospel with people who
are searching for meaning in their lives. Will we be ready? If someone presents
us with a question about a Bible passage or a belief of our Christian faith,
will we have the answer? Will we be ready to go beyond the answer and lead our
enquirer to a further level of understanding? If not, then, like the eunuch, it
may be time for us to take steps to deepen our understanding of the Scriptures
and of our Christian beliefs.
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Commentary on John
6:44-51
We continue to read John’s sixth chapter about Jesus as the
Bread of Life. Today’s passage largely repeats what has been said already, but
at the end a new element is introduced. Jesus reminds us that it is not we who
find Jesus, but rather it is the Father who finds us and leads us to Jesus as
the Way to God. Here Jesus quotes from the Old Testament:
And they shall all be taught by God.
These are words to be found in Isaiah (54:13) and are
reminiscent of words spoken by Jeremiah:
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on
their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
(Jer 31:33)
We see a lovely instance of that in the First Reading today
about the eunuch who was led to Jesus by the deacon Philip. What was important
here was the readiness and openness of the eunuch to be drawn to the truth.
Jesus again repeats that he is the Bread of Life, using that
formal expression ‘I AM’ which points to divine origin. Unlike the manna that
the Jews’ ancestors ate in the desert, this Bread brings eternal life:
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that
one may eat of it and not die.
Jesus’ challengers were asking for a sign like manna, but
Jesus says that it did not give real life:
Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they
died.
The Bread that Jesus will give will bring a never-ending
life to those who eat it. Jesus is the Living Bread because he is the very Word
of God and because he offers up his Body and Blood in a sacrifice of love,
bringing life to the whole world.
And this Bread is his flesh, life-giving flesh. This flesh
will be given for the life of the world—a looking forward to Calvary. Giving
eternal life will cost the human life of the Giver.
With these words the chapter moves into its eucharistic
meaning. The word ‘flesh’ (Greek, sarx) introduces the link between
Eucharist and Incarnation. Jesus is the Word made flesh and that Word is the
food that we all need to ‘eat’. To ‘eat’ here, while involving actual eating
and drinking, really points to the total assimilation into oneself and into a
gathered community of the very Spirit of Jesus.
The Eucharist, as we shall see tomorrow, is the great sign
of the Christian community by which we both affirm and celebrate our union with
Jesus. By our eating of the Bread-that-is-flesh we affirm our total adherence
to all that Jesus is and stands for.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1035g/
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Father,
You draw all people
to You who believe in Your Son Jesus Christ.
Faith, Lord, faith it is that
we need.
Give it to us,
we pray You,
a living faith
that we can encounter today
Jesus Christ, Your Son, in Your word that You speak
to us in the bread that You offer us, and
in the food that we can give and can be to one another,
in Jesus Christ,
Your Son and our Lord, who lives with You and the Holy Spirit now and forever.
Gospel Reading - John 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."
Reflection
Up until now the dialogue had been between Jesus and the people.
From now on, the Jewish leaders begin
to enter into conversation and the discussion
becomes more tense.
•
John 6: 44-46: Anyone who opens himself to God accepts
Jesus and His proposal. The conversation becomes more demanding. Now, it is the
Jews, the leaders of the people who complain:
“Surely, this is Jesus, son of Joseph, whose father and mother
we know. How can He say: I have come down from heaven?” (Jn 6: 42). They thought they knew the things of God. But, in reality,
they did not know them. If we were truly open and faithful to God, we would
feel within us the impulse of God which attracts us toward Jesus and we would
recognize that Jesus comes from God, because it is written in the Prophets: “They will all be taught by God;
everyone who has listened to the Father and has learned
from Him, comes to me.”
•
John 6: 47-50: Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead. In the celebration
of the Passover, the Jews recalled the bread of the desert.
Jesus helps them to take a step ahead.
Anyone who celebrates the Passover, recalling
only the bread that the fathers ate in the past, will die as all of them
did! The true sense of the Passover is not to recall the manna which
falls from heaven,
but to accept Jesus, the new Bread of Life and to follow the way which He has indicated. It is no longer a question of eating the meat of the paschal lamb, but rather of eating the flesh of Jesus, so that the one who eats it will
not die, but will have eternal life!
•
John 6: 51: Anyone who eats of this
bread will live forever. And Jesus ends saying: “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread
he will live
forever and the
bread that I shall give
is My flesh for the life of the world.” Instead of the manna and the
paschal lamb of the first exodus, we are invited
to eat the new manna and the new paschal
lamb that was sacrificed on the cross for the life of all.
•
The new Exodus. The multiplication of
the loaves takes place close to the Passover
(Jn 6: 4). The feast
of the Passover was the prodigious remembrance
of the Exodus,
the liberation of the people from the clutches of Pharaoh. The whole episode which is narrated in
chapter 6 of the Gospel of John has a parallel in the episodes related to the
feast of the Passover, whether as liberation
from Egypt or with the
journey of the
people in the desert in search
of the promised land. The discourse of the Bread of Life,
in the Synagogue of Capernaum,
is related to chapter 16 of the Book of Exodus which speaks about the Manna. It is worthwhile
to read all of chapter 16 of Exodus. In perceiving the difficulties of the people in the desert we can better
understand the teaching of Jesus here in chapter 6 of the
Gospel of John. For example, when Jesus speaks
of a “food which does not perish,
which endures for eternal life” (Jn 6: 27)
He is recalling the manna which produced
worms and became
rotten (Ex 16: 20). As when the
Jews “complained” (Jn
6: 41), they
do the same
thing as the Israelites in the desert,
when they doubted
of the presence of God in their
midst during their journey across the desert (Ex 16: 2; 17: 3; Nb 11: 1).
The lack of food made the people
doubt about God and they began
to complain against Moses and against
God. Here too, the Jews doubt God’s presence in Jesus of Nazareth and begin to complain (Jn 6: 41-42).
Personal Questions
•
Does the Eucharist help me to live in a permanent
state of Exodus? Am I succeeding?
•
Anyone who is open to truth finds
the response in Jesus. Today,
many people withdraw and do not find any response. Whose fault is it? Is it of the persons who know how to listen? Or is it the fault of us, Christians, who do not know
how to present the Gospel as a message of life?
•
How is one “drawn by the Father”?
In what way is this
part of evangelization?
•
The Pharisees were acting out the norms of their
times, as well as being keepers of tradition. Not all were eye-witnesses of Jesus' miracles.
What was their culpability? What is the
balance between discerning God in our presence
and avoiding being swayed by every
new belief to come along? This is even more
important in the age of “Internet information”.
Concluding Prayer
Come and listen, all who fear God, while
I tell what He has
done for me. To Him I cried aloud, high praise was on my tongue. (Ps 66: 16-17)
