Gospel: May 5, 2025
May 5, 2025 (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:
“Work that God wants”
They run after him because he has satisfied their hunger, and they hope he will do the same again. Jesus says that they are concentrating all their effort on the wrong thing. Yes, we need food to keep us healthy, and so by our efforts and work we pursue that which will fulfill this aim. But Jesus tells the crowd and us that our greater effort should be directed to that which keeps us healthy for eternal life.
We must not neglect our spiritual life, and the spiritual work which Jesus calls us to is to believe in him in such a way that our whole lives are transformed. Saint John Henry Newman made a distinction between two types of faith. One is notional assent, where we accept the idea of God, but only in an abstract way. The other is real assent, a personal relationship with God which has a concrete impact on our lives. That is the “work that God wants.” Believe in the Lord. Follow him with all your heart.
