Gospel: April 15, 2024
(Monday)
3rd Week of Easter
Psalter: Week 3 / (White)
Ps 119: 23-24, 26-27, 29-30
Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.
1st Reading: Acts 6: 8-15
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen. But they could not match the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. As they were unable to face the truth, they bribed some men to say, “We heard him speak against Moses and against God.”
So they stirred up the people, the elders and the teachers of the law; they took him by surprise, seized him and brought him before the Council. Then they produced false witnesses, who said, “This man never stops speaking against our Holy Place and the law. We even heard him say that Jesus, the Nazorean, will destroy our Holy Place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us.” And all who sat in the Council fixed their eyes on him; and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.
Gospel: John 6: 22-29
Next day, the people, who had stayed on the other side, realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples; but rather, the disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias landed near the place where all these people had eaten the bread. When they saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Master, when did you come here?” Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for me, not because of the signs which you have seen, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for he is the one on whom the Father has put his mark.”
Then the Jews asked him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this: that you believe in the One whom God has sent.”
Reflection:“Believe in Jesus Christ”
The purpose of the Gospel of John is clearly indicated in John 20:30-31. It states that Jesus performed signs in order for people to believe, and in believing they may have life in Jesus’ name (cf. Jn. 20:30-31). Jesus came to bring life in its fullness (cf. Jn. 10:10). Today’s Gospel emphasizes the work of God (ton ergon tou theou), which is the profound call to believe in the one sent by God. God sent Jesus Christ, his Son, to save the world. However, the salvation which God offers through Jesus is wholistic. It concerns the people’s material well-being but is not limited to corporeal concerns. Jesus multiplied the barley loaves and fish so that the hungry crowd may be corporeally satisfied. Nevertheless, it also aims that people would see the sign as an invitation to grow in their faith in Jesus. Otherwise, since there is no satiation to human corporeal desire, people might be confined to materiality. The material aspect is merely a fraction of our life. To search for Jesus with such aspect as the sole motivation will surely derail our focus, preventing us to truly partake of the bread that lasts to eternal life.
