Gospel: May 8, 2025
May 8, 2025 (Thursday)
3rd Week of Easter
Psalter: Week 3 / (White)
Ps 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
1st Reading: Acts 8:26-40
Gospel: John 6:44-51
No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise him up on the last day. It has been written in the Prophets: They shall all be taught by God. So whoever listens and learns from the Father comes to me. For no one has seen the Father except the One who comes from God; he has seen the Father.
Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Though your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, they died. But here you have the bread from heaven, so that you may eat of it, and not die. I am the living bread from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread I shall give is my flesh, and I will give it for the life of the world.”
Reflection:
“He draws us to him.”
“Whoever comes to me, I shall not turn away.” That initial urge to go to Christ does not come from us, from our own reasoning. It comes, rather, from God the Father himself, as “no one can come to [the Son] unless he is drawn by the Father.” Just like the lifesaving manna in the desert, the sending of the Son is God’s initiative.
God places his Son before us that we might come to him. God moves our hearts to hear his call—he draws us to him, gently, so that we might freely choose to follow the Lord. This is what we find in the encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian official. He is probably a God-fearer or a Jewish convert, as he reads the Hebrew Scriptures.
As he sits in his carriage, something has prompted him to read the Prophet Isaiah. Now, Philip acts as God’s instrument to explain the prophecy and lead the Ethiopian to recognize Jesus Christ in what he is reading. The official’s response is immediate, just like the first disciples, and he asks to be baptized. The power of God has drawn him to seek Jesus. May that same power draw us, too.
