May 7, 2025
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/050725.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,
May 7, 2025
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, forever.
Gospel Reading - John 6: 35-40
Jesus answered them: “I am the bread of life.
No one who comes to me will ever hunger; no one who believes in me will ever
thirst. But, as I have told you, you can see me and still you do not believe.
Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me; I will certainly not reject
anyone who comes to me, because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will,
but to do the will of him who sent me. Now the will of him who sent me is that
I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, but that I should raise
it up on the last day. It is my Father's will that whoever sees the Son and
believes in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise that person
up 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 really 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. In verse
41, begins 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 that a superficial reading of it, may nourish in us
Christians, the sentiment of antiSemitism. 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
of 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 some repercussion 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 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 repercussion in the description 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 few 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
•
Anti-Semitism: look well within yourself and try
to uproot any remain of antiSemitism.
•
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)
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