April 22, 2026
Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
Lectionary: 275
Reading
1
There broke out a
severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (1) Let
all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Everyone who believes in the Son has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to the
crowds,
"I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042226.cfm
Commentary on Acts
8:1-8
There is an old saying that “it is an ill wind that blows
nobody any good”. We can see an example of this in today’s reading. The first
half of today’s reading sets the stage for what is going to follow. First, it
is linked to what has just been described in the preceding verses, the
martyrdom of Stephen, followed by widespread persecution of Christians. This,
in turn, will lead up to the unexpected conversion of the chief persecutor,
Saul.
The martyrdom of Stephen was followed immediately by a
savage persecution of the infant Christian community. A Pharisee named Saul was
among the most dedicated attackers (in the name of God, of course), dragging
people from their homes and tossing them into jail. It was the beginning of a
phenomenon that has been the lot of Christians in many parts of the world ever
since, right down to our own day. Even now, there are Christians in jail for no
other reason than that they openly profess faith in Christ.
While the Apostles remained in Jerusalem, many Christians
began to scatter to the countryside of Judea (the province in which Jerusalem
was situated) and the neighbouring province of Samaria, just to the north. This
was to inaugurate the second stage of the Church’s expansion. The third stage
would begin with the establishment of Christian communities in Antioch in
Syria.
The persecution seems to have mainly targeted the Hellenist
Christians, and it was this group, scattered by persecution, which gave the
church its first missionaries. We are immediately introduced to one of
them—Philip. This was the beginning of the great missionary outreach of the
Church which has not yet come to an end in our own time.
The Apostles would have been Aramaic-speaking Jews and, by
staying behind in Jerusalem, they gave encouragement to those in prison, and
would be a centre of appeal to those scattered. The Church in Jerusalem now
effectively went underground—and not by any means for the last time.
However, we can now see that the persecution in Jerusalem
was a blessing in disguise. While the persecution scattered Christians, they
were now bringing their message to new areas. Eventually—often as the result of
persecution—they would carry it to the very ends of the Roman world.
Among the fugitives was the deacon Philip. He was one of the
Seven who, with Stephen, had been chosen for special ‘service’. He is now a
full-blown evangelist, who preached the good news about the Messiah-Christ,
healed the sick and drove out evil spirits. The result was that “there was
great joy in that city”. Probably the reference is not to the town of Samaria,
a Hellenistic city (at this time called Sebaste), but to the whole province.
And those who were being evangelised were ‘Samaritans’ in the Jewish sense of
the word. These were those related by blood and religion to, but cut off from,
Israel’s Jewish community, and deemed to be living in heresy (recall the scene
between Jesus and the Samaritan woman beginning in John 4:9).
Again and again it has been demonstrated that when the
Church is persecuted—when people want to wipe it out—the Church finds new
vitality and the courage to stand up for what it believes. It is when we are
taken for granted and even worse, ignored, that we are in the greatest danger.
It is then that we are in real peril of being marginalised because we are no
longer the “salt of the earth” or a “city on a hill”. Sadly, that is what is
happening in many prosperous parts of the world today. Is it happening to the
society in which we are living?
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Commentary on John
6:35-40
Again in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his listeners very
clearly that he is the Bread of Life. All those who partake of this Bread will
never again be either hungry or thirsty. The whole life of Jesus—his actions
and words and his relationships with those around him—are a rich source on
which we can draw.
In a sense, of course, we will always hunger and thirst for
this full life, but by approaching and imbibing him and his spirit, our hunger
and thirst are ever being satisfied, even while we continue to hunger and
thirst for more. There will never be a time when we will want to stop eating
and drinking from this Source; when we do, we will stop living.
Jesus reproves his listeners for their lack of faith in him.
But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not
believe.
The question is: how much of Jesus did they really see? How
deep was their perception of who he truly was and is?
That may be our problem too. Without a deep trust and total
commitment to Christ and all he stands for, we may find that we do not have
full access to that Bread of Life which we need so much. The search for the
fullness of Christ is one that we will never complete in this life. We only
hope that we never stop searching. There will never be a day on this earth when
we will be able to say: “I know Christ fully.” Not even the whole Church can
make that claim.
Yet Jesus intensely wants to share that Bread, that
nourishment with us.
This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see
the Son and believe in him may have eternal life…
Let us open our hearts today so that Jesus can fill them
with his life-giving love. For he says:
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and
anyone who comes to me I will never drive away…
Jesus has a mission. In a phrase repeated six times in this
chapter, he says:
I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but
the will of him who sent me.
And what is the will of the Father?
…that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me
but raise it up on the last day.
This verse summarises the whole chapter. God wants everyone
to be with him “on the last day”. On our part, we have to learn how to “see the
Son” and “believe in him,” so that one day we can say with St Paul:
…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives
in me.
(Gal 2:20)
When that happens, we will know that we have truly been
filled with the Bread that is Christ.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1034g/
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
God, our Father,
You are our faithful God, even in days of trial for the Church
and for each
of us personally; You stay by our side,
even if we are not aware of Your presence.
Give us an unlimited trust in You and make us ever more aware that Your Son
Jesus is the meaning of our lives and that He nourishes us with Himself,
today and every day, for ever.
Gospel Reading - John 6: 35-40
Jesus said to the crowds, "I
am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will
never hunger, and whoever
believes in me will never
thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives
me will come to me, and I will not
reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what
he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have
eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day."
Reflection
•
John 6: 35-36: I am the bread of life. The people,
enthusiastic with the perspective of having bread from heaven of which Jesus
speaks and which gives life forever (Jn 6:
33), ask: “Lord, give us always
that bread!” (Jn 6:
34). They thought that Jesus was speaking about
some particular kind of bread.
This is why, the people, interested in getting this bread, ask: “Give us always of this
bread!” This petition of the people reminds us of the conversation of Jesus with the
Samaritan woman. Jesus had said that she could have had within her a spring of living water,
welling up to eternal life,
and she, in an interested way, asks: “Lord, give me of that water!”
(Jn 4: 15). The Samaritan woman is not aware that Jesus is not speaking
about material water.
Just as the people
were not aware that Jesus was not speaking of material bread. Because of this, Jesus responds
very clearly: “I am the bread of life! No one who comes to Me
will ever hunger; no one who believes in Me will ever thirst”. To eat the bread of heaven is the same as believing in Jesus. And to believe
that He has come
from heaven as a revelation of the Father.
It is to accept the way which He
has taught. But the people,
in spite of having seen Jesus, do not believe
in Him. Jesus is aware of the lack of faith
and says: “You have seen Me and you
do not believe”.
•
John 6: 37-40:
To do the will of Him who sent me. After the conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus had said
to his disciples: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me!” (Jn 4: 34). Here, in the conversation with the people on
the bread from heaven, Jesus touches on the same theme: “I have come from
heaven not to do My own will,
but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this
is the will of Him who sent Me that I should
lose nothing of all that He has given to me; but that I should raise it up on the last day”. This is the food which people should
look for: to do the
will of the Heavenly Father.
And this is the bread which
nourishes the person in life and gives him/her life. Eternal life begins here, a life which is stronger
than death! If we were ready to do the will of the Father, we would have no difficulty to recognize the Father present
in Jesus.
•
John 6: 41-43: The Jews complained. Tomorrow’s Gospel begins with verse 44 (John 6: 44-51) and skips verses 41 to 43. Verse 41 begins with the conversation with the Jews who criticize Jesus.
Here we will give a brief explanation of the meaning of the word Jews in the Gospel
of John in order to avoid a superficial
reading of it, avoiding the sentiment of anti-Semitism. First of all, it is well to remember that Jesus was a Jew and
continues to be a Jew (Jn 4: 9). His disciples were Jews. The first Christian
communities were all Jewish who accepted Jesus as the Messiah. It was only
later, little by little, that in the communities of the beloved disciple,
Greeks and Christians began to be accepted on the same level as the Jews. They were more open communities. But this openness was not accepted by all. Some Christians
who came from the group of the Pharisees wanted to keep the “separation”
between Jews and Pagans (Acts 15: 5). The situation was critical after the
destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70. The Pharisees became the dominating
religious current in Judaism and began to define the religious directives or
norms for the whole People of God: to suppress
worship in the Greek language; to adopt solely
the biblical text in Hebrew; to define or determine the list of sacred books, and eliminate the books which
existed only in the Greek translation of the
bible: Tobias, Judith,
Esther, Baruch, Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus and the two
Books of the Maccabees: to segregate or separate the
foreigners; not eat
any food suspected to be impure
or which had been offered
to the idols. All these norms assumed by the Pharisees had
repercussions on the communities of the Jews which accepted Jesus as Messiah.
These communities had already journeyed very much.
The openness for
the Pagans was
now irreversible. The Greek bible had already
been used for a long time. Thus, slowly, a reciprocal
separation grew between
Christianity and Judaism.
In the years 85-90 the
Jewish authorities began to discriminate against those who continued to
accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah
(Mt 5: 11-12; 24: 9-13).
Those who continued to remain
in the faith in Jesus were expelled
from the Synagogue (Jn 9: 34). Many Christian
communities feared this expulsion (Jn 9: 22) because
it meant to lose the support of a strong and traditional institution such as the
Synagogue. Those who were expelled lost the legal privileges that the Jews had
conquered and gained throughout the centuries in the Empire. The expelled persons
lost even the possibility of being buried
decently. It was an
enormous risk. This situation of conflict at the end of the first century had reflections of the conflict of Jesus with the Pharisees. When the Gospel of John speaks of the Jews he is not speaking
of the Jewish people as such, but he is thinking much more of those Pharisee
authorities which were expelling the Christians from the Synagogues in the years 85-90, the time when the Gospel
was written. We cannot allow this affirmation about the Jews to make
anti- Semitism grow among Christians.
Personal Questions
•
What do I know about Judaism – the religion of Jesus,
it's history and it's beliefs?
•
What do I know, or what can I learn,
about the various
groups within Judaism at the time of Jesus, such as the Pharisees, Sadduccees, Essenes, and so on?
With that deeper understanding, can I
use it to better understand
the life of Jesus?
•
To eat the bread of heaven means to believe
in Jesus. How does all this help me to live the Eucharist better?
Concluding Prayer
Acclaim God, all the earth, sing psalms to the glory
of His name,
glorify Him with your praises, say to God, “How awesome You are!” (Ps 66: 1-3)
