May 5, 2025
Monday of the Third Week of Easter
Lectionary: 273
Reading 1
Stephen, filled with grace and power,
was working great wonders and signs among the people.
Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen,
Cyreneans, and Alexandrians,
and people from Cilicia and Asia,
came forward and debated with Stephen,
but they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.
Then they instigated some men to say,
"We have heard him speaking blasphemous words
against Moses and God."
They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes,
accosted him, seized him,
and brought him before the Sanhedrin.
They presented false witnesses who testified,
"This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law.
For we have heard him claim
that this Jesus the Nazorean will destroy this place
and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."
All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him
and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1ab) Blessed are they who follow the law of the
Lord!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Though princes meet and talk against me,
your servant meditates on your statutes.
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
or:
R. Alleluia.
I declared my ways, and you answered me;
teach me your statutes.
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Remove from me the way of falsehood,
and favor me with your law.
The way of truth I have chosen;
I have set your ordinances before me.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples
saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
"Rabbi, when did you get here?"
Jesus answered them and said,
"Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal."
So they said to him,
"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050525.cfm
Commentary on Acts
6:8-15
Today we begin the story of Stephen, who will be the first
person to give his life for Christ. He is the first martyr, the first true
witness to the Gospel. Because of this, his feast is celebrated on the day
after Christmas. Today’s passage follows the reading on the appointment of the
‘deacons’, of whom Stephen was one, and also following the conversion of some
of the Temple’s priests.
We are told at the beginning that:
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and
signs among the people.
Until now, we only heard of the Apostles, especially Peter
and John, working miracles. Now, after the laying on of hands, Stephen is given
the same gifts and the same power. Soon, we will see the deacon Philip doing
the same.
However, Stephen’s words and action aroused the displeasure
of other Greek-speaking Jews. We are told that there were people from the
Synagogue of Freedmen, who were probably descendants of Jews who had been
carried off to Rome by Pompey when he attacked Jerusalem in 63 BC. They would
have been sold into slavery, but later released—hence their name. The Cyrenians
came from Cyrene, which was the chief city in Libya and North Africa, half way
between Alexandria and Carthage. It had a Jewish community (we remember too
that it was a Simon from Cyrene who was forced to help Jesus carry his cross;
see Matt 27:32). Alexandrians came from the city of Alexandria (named after the
famous Macedonian emperor). It was the capital of Egypt and the second city of
the Roman Empire. It also had a Jewish community.
Cilicia was a Roman province in the southeast corner of Asia
Minor, close to Syria. Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, was one of its principal
towns. Asia, at that time, referred to just a single Roman province in what is
now western Turkey. Its capital was Ephesus, which would feature prominently in
Paul’s ministry.
These ‘Freedmen’ began debating with Stephen. It is an
interesting theory that, since Paul was from Tarsus in Cilicia, he might have
attended this synagogue and have been among those who were arguing with
Stephen. He certainly was prominent in the stoning of Stephen.
The parallels between Stephen’s experience and that of his
Lord are striking. Like Jesus, and because of Jesus, he is “full of grace and
power” and he “did great wonders and signs among the people”. He arouses the
displeasure especially of his fellow Hellenist Jews who cannot deal with the
Spirit-inspired power of his words.
As they could not better Stephen in debate, they began
circulating distorted versions of what he was saying. They accused him of
saying that the worship of God was no longer to be restricted to the Temple.
The charges, that Stephen depreciated the importance of the Temple and the
Mosaic Law and elevated Jesus to a stature above Moses, were in fact true. And,
as far as the Sanhedrin was concerned, no defence against them was possible.
But the false witnesses that some Hellenists were bringing forward were
actually distorting what Stephen was saying.
So they begin to throw false accusations against him,
leading to his incurring the hostility both of the people and the Jewish
religious leaders. In the presence of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the
Jews, they distort his words by asserting that Stephen claimed Jesus was going
to destroy the Temple and change the traditions of Moses.
As already mentioned, in a sense, it was true. The coming of
Jesus made the Temple irrelevant, and the teaching of Jesus would not abolish,
but would transcend and go far beyond the traditions of Moses.
All of this is very similar to the experience that Jesus
went through. All through these encounters, Stephen’s enemies glared at him
with hostility, while his own face seemed “like the face of an angel”. The face
of an angel produces a feeling of awe. There are echoes here of the face of
Moses as he came down from the mountain after being face to face with God, and
of the appearance of Jesus at the Transfiguration. The Sanhedrin members are
also witnessing a transfiguration, as Stephen has a vision of Jesus in glory
(this will occur in tomorrow’s reading). And, whatever their feelings towards
him, Stephen had no hostile feelings towards them. This is the spirit of Jesus:
“Love your enemies.”
With Stephen, who thus perceived the fuller implications of
the teachings of Jesus, the difference between Judaism and Christianity began
to appear. Luke’s account of Stephen’s martyrdom and its aftermath shows how
the major impetus behind the Christian movement passed from Jerusalem, where
the Temple and law prevailed, to Antioch in Syria, where these influences were
less pressing.
As Christians, we too can expect, and should not be
surprised to experience, hostility and misunderstandings even from our
fellow-Christians at times. We too are called to return love for hatred and
peace for anger. This attitude is a real stumbling block to some and utter
nonsense to others.
The rest of Stephen’s story, his martyrdom, is told in the
subsequent verses of Acts.
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Commentary on John
6:22-29
Following on the feeding of the 5,000 and the walking on the
water, we begin the long discourse of Jesus as the Bread of Life. This ‘Bread’
is presented as a replacement of the manna with which God fed his people during
their long trek through the desert in the Old Testament. What we read today is
really an introduction. The proper discourse will begin tomorrow. The last part
of the discourse is about the mixed reaction of Jesus’ disciples and about
Peter’s profession.
The day following the feeding, the people go in search of
Jesus. First, they realise he did not cross the lake with his disciples, but
when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either.
Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples in the vicinity of Capernaum,
Jesus’ principal base in Galilee.
They ask him:
Rabbi, when did you come here?
In typically Johannine fashion, the question is loaded with
deeper meanings, of which those asking it are quite unaware. Jesus’ origin
(where he comes from) is a constant source of misunderstanding both on the part
of the crowds and of the Jewish leadership.
Jesus begins by telling the crowds that they are coming in
search of him not because of the ‘signs’ that he is doing, but because of the
bread that they had been given to eat. They have missed the point of what Jesus
was doing. They have seen the things that Jesus has been doing, but have missed
the ‘sign’, the deeper meaning behind them. The food they are looking for is
not the food that counts. The real food brings a life that never ends, and that
is the food that Jesus is offering. It parallels the “spring of water gushing
up to eternal life” which Jesus promised the Samaritan woman (John 4:14).
The source of this ‘bread’ is the Son on whom the Father has
set his seal. This ‘seal’ was given at his baptism. It is the Spirit of the
Father, who is the power of God working in and through Jesus. The people ask
him:
What must we do to perform the works of God?”
Jesus tells them:
This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he
has sent.
For ‘work’ in the Jewish sense, external fulfilment of the
Law’s requirements, Jesus substitutes faith in himself as the delegate of the
Father. And Jesus asks us not just to ‘believe’, but to ‘believe in’.
It is not just a question of accepting certain statements about Jesus and who
he really is. ‘Believing in’ involves a total and unconditional commitment of
the whole self to Jesus, to the Gospel and the vision of life that he proposes,
and making it part of one’s own self. This is where the real bread is to be
found.
And we may add that Jesus is not just speaking of the
Eucharistic bread, but the deep-down nourishment of which the Eucharist is the
sign and sacrament—nourishment which also comes from the Word of God in
Scripture and the whole Christian community experience. It is important in
reading this whole chapter that we do not limit the truth of Jesus as the Bread
or Food of our life simply to the Eucharist, which is the sacramental sign of
something much larger—all that we receive through Christ and the whole
Christian way of life.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1032g/
Monday,
May 5, 2025
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Our living God, we hunger for
lasting life and happiness and the fulfillment of all our hopes.
Satisfy all our hungers through your Son
Jesus Christ, who is our bread of life. And when he has filled us with himself,
may he lead and strengthen us to bring to a waiting world the food of
reconciliation and joy, which you alone can give to the full.
We ask this thorough Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading - John 6: 22-29
The next day, the crowd that remained across
the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not
gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his
disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum
looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I
say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you
ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the
food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on
him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to
accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the
work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
Reflection
In today’s Gospel we begin the discourse on
the Bread of Life (Jn 6:22-71), which is extended during the next six days,
until the end of the week. After the multiplication of the loaves, the people
follow Jesus. They had seen the miracle; they had eaten and were satiated and
wanted more! They were not concerned about looking for the sign or the call of
God that was contained in all of this.
When the people found Jesus in the synagogue
at Capernaum, He had a long conversation with them, called the Discourse of the
Bread of Life. It is not really a discourse, but it is a series of seven brief
dialogues which explain the meaning of the multiplication of the bread, symbol
of the new Exodus and of the Eucharistic Supper.
•
It is good to keep in mind the division of the
chapter in order to understand better its significance:
•
6:1-15: the great multiplication of the loaves
•
6:16-21: the crossing of the lake, and Jesus who
walks on the water
•
6:22-71: the dialogue of Jesus with the people,
with the Jews and with the disciples
•
1st dialogue: 6:22-27 with the people: the
people seek Jesus and find Him in Capernaum
•
2nd dialogue: 6:28-34 with the people: faith as
the work of God and the manna of the desert
•
3rd dialogue: 6:35-40 with the people: the true
bread is to do God’s will.
•
4th dialogue: 6:41-51 with the Jews: the
complaining of the Jews
•
5th dialogue: 6:52-58 with the Jews: Jesus and
the Jews.
•
6th dialogue: 6:59-66 with the disciples: reaction
of the disciples
•
7th dialogue: 6:67-71 with the disciples:
confession of Peter
•
The conversation of Jesus with the people, with
the Jews, and with the disciples is a beautiful dialogue, but a demanding one.
Jesus tries to open the eyes of the people in a way that they will learn to
read the events and discover in them the turning point that life should take.
It is not enough to follow behind miraculous signs which multiply the bread for
the body. Man does not live by bread alone. The struggle for life without
mysticism does not reach the roots. The people, while speaking with Jesus,
always remain more annoyed or upset by his words. But Jesus does not give in,
neither does He change the exigencies. The discourse seems to be a funnel. In
the measure in which the conversation advances, fewer people remain with Jesus.
At the end only the twelve remain there, but Jesus cannot trust them either!
Today the same thing happens. When the Gospel begins to demand commitment, many
people withdraw and go away.
•
John 6:22-27: People look for Jesus because they
want more bread. The people follow Jesus. They see that He did not go into the
boat with the disciples and, because of this, they do not understand what He
had done to reach Capernaum. They did not even understand the miracle of the
multiplication of the loaves. People see what has happened, but they cannot
understand all this as a sign of something more profound. They stop only on the
surface; in being satisfied with the food. They look for bread and life, but only
for the body. According to the people, Jesus does what Moses had done in the
past: to feed all the people in the desert. According to Jesus, they wanted the
past to be repeated. But Jesus asks the people to take a step more and advance.
Besides working for the bread that perishes, they should work for the
imperishable food. This new food will be given by the Son of Man, indicated by
God Himself. He brings life which lasts forever. He opens for us a new horizon
on the sense of life and on God.
•
John 6:28-29: Which is God’s work? The people
ask: what should we do to carry out this work of God? Jesus answers that the
great work of God asks us to “believe in the one sent by God”. That is, to
believe in Jesus!
Personal Questions
•
The people were hungry, they eat the bread, and
they look for more bread. They seek the miracle and do not seek the sign of God
which was hidden in that. What do I seek more in my life: a miracle or a sign
or the meaning?
•
Keep silence within you for a moment and ask
yourself: “To believe in Jesus: What does this mean for me specifically in my
daily life?”
•
What do I really work for in my life? Food that
perishes or food that endures?
Am I not committed and do a little of both, “just in
case”?
Concluding Prayer
Lord, I tell You my ways and
You answer me; teach me Your wishes.
Show me the way of Your precepts, that I may reflect on Your
wonders. (Ps 119:26-27)
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