APRIL 26, 2012 : THURSDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF EASTER

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Lectionary: 276

Reading 1 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.
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.

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."

Meditation: "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever"

God offers his people abundant life, but we can miss it. What is the bread of life which Jesus offers? It is first of all the life of God himself – life which sustains us not only now in this age but also in the age to come. The Rabbis said that the generation in the wilderness have no part in the life to come. In the Book of Numbers it is recorded that the people who refused to brave the dangers of the promised land were condemned to wander in the wilderness until they died. The Rabbis believed that the father who missed the promised land also missed the life to come. God sustained the Israelites in the wilderness with manna from heaven. This bread foreshadowed the true heavenly bread which Jesus would offer his followers.

Jesus makes a claim only God can make: He is the true bread of heaven that can satisfy the deepest hunger we experience. The manna from heaven prefigured the superabundance of the unique bread of the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper which Jesus gave to his disciples on the eve of his sacrifice. The manna in the wilderness sustained the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. It could not produce eternal life for the Israelites. The bread which Jesus offers his disciples sustains us not only on our journey to the heavenly paradise, it gives us the abundant supernatural life of God which sustains us for all eternity. When we receive from the Lord’s table we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, who makes us sharers in his body and blood and partakers of his divine life. Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 A.D.) calls it the "one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever in Jesus Christ" (Ad Eph. 20,2). This supernatural food is healing for both body and soul and strength for our journey heavenward.

Jesus offers us the abundant supernatural life of heaven itself – but we can miss it or even refuse it. To refuse Jesus is to refuse eternal life, unending life with the Heavenly Father. To accept Jesus as the bread of heaven is not only life and spiritual nourishment for this world but glory in the world to come. When you approach the Table of the Lord, what do you expect to receive? Healing, pardon, comfort, and rest for your soul? The Lord has much more for us, more than we can ask or imagine. The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist or Lord's Supper is an intimate union with Christ. As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens us in charity and enables us to break with disordered attachments to creatures and to be more firmly rooted in the love of Christ. Do you hunger for the "bread of life"?

"Lord Jesus, you are the living bread which sustains me in this life. May I always hunger for the bread which comes from heaven and find in it the nourishment and strength I need to love and serve you wholeheartedly. May I always live in the joy, peace, and unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and in the age to come."

(Don Schwager)

For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord

Wrap yourselves in humility to be servants of one another.
Mark is speaking today about the disciples being sent out into the world. They were called beyond words to action. Jesus urges the disciples to ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature’. They are asked to be a presence of love and compassion in the face of evil, illness, and difference. Furthermore, there is the promise of God’s presence with them as with us when they do this. 

Today how can we be a radical face of love and compassion in our world? How do we practise kingdom values in our treatment of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the needy, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned (Matthew 25:31-36)?

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

FAMILY MEALS TOGETHER

A recent report from the United States claims that children who were expected to sit down with the rest of the family at meal times, and who were encouraged to talk at the table, were doing better at school, had higher self-esteem, better social competence, and had better prospects of getting a job.

This report confirms a study conducted 25 years ago in Melbourne, 'Talk Up at the Table'. The author, Don Edgar, foundation director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies (EQ Australia, Issue 1, Autumn 1998) had been looking for the correlates of adolescent competence: which kids with what sorts of parents were most likely to do well. He found that on almost every outcome measure - school results, self esteem, social competence, optimism versus pessimism, good parent-child relationships, an expectation of later success in life - the kids (whether rich or poor) who were allowed to chatter and exchange ideas at meal times scored significantly higher than those who were told to shut up and eat their meals.

At the time, he interpreted the meal talk factor as illustrative of an openness on the part of parents to the free expression of ideas, mutual respect within the family, and warmth and structure combining to give children a sense of place and security in their lives. The new US study renews his faith in the efficacy of eating together and letting the meal talk flow. It may be noisy, argumentative and hard to manage, with parents and young people working different hours, but its outcomes are worth the trouble. Pity the poor family that never cooks its own meals, never sits at the one table, never has to cope with the noisy conflict of everyone wanting to talk at once.

 

From A Canopy of Stars: Some Reflections for the Journey by Fr Christopher Gleeson SJ [David Lovell Publishing 2003]

(Daily Prayer Online)

MINUTE MEDITATIONS 

Christian Charity
You must forgive everyone with Christian charity, remembering the example of the Redeemer, who forgave even those who crucified him.
— from Padre Pio’s Spiritual Direction for Every Day

St. Cletus

Feastday: April 26

St. Cletus Popes, Martyrs April 26 A.D. 91     St. Cletus was the third bishop of Rome, and succeeded St. Linus, which circumstance alone shows his eminent virtue among the first disciples of St. Peter in the West. He sat twelve years, from 76 to 89. The canon of the Roman mass, (which Bossuet and all others agree to be of primitive antiquity,) Bede, and other Martyrologists, style him a martyr. He was buried near St. Linus, on the Vatican, end his relics still remain in that church.