GOD’S WORD
Tuesday - April 16, 2013 3rd Week of Easter Psalter: Week 3 Ps 31:3cd–4, 6 and 7b and 8a, 17 and 21ab
Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. 1st Reading: Acts 7:51—8:1a
Stephen said, “But you are a stubborn people, you hardened your hearts and closed your ears. You have always resisted the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did. Was there a prophet whom your ancestors did not persecute? They killed those who announced the coming of the Just One whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the Law through the angels but did not fulfill it.”
When they heard this reproach, they were enraged and they gnashed their teeth against Stephen. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, so he declared: “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”
But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed saying: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and said in a loud voice: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he died. Saul was there, approving his murder. This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem. Gospel: Jn 6:30–35
The people said to Jesus, “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe you. What sign do you perform? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert; as Scripture says: They were given bread from heaven to eat.”
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread God gives is the One who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” And they said to him, “Give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in me shall never be thirsty.”
Reflection: “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe you.” It wasn’t that Jesus performed no miracles or signs that would help them believe in him. Rather, people were more interested in signs that would merely confirm their existing beliefs and biases, convenient truths that would not disturb their comfortable ways of living. They would rather have the bread that would feed the habitual ways of their comatose souls. They would conveniently sidestep truths that challenge them. They would close their eyes, cover their ears, and gnash their teeth at signs that question their set beliefs and practices, as is evident in the crowd’s reaction to Stephen’s preaching. Jesus challenges his audience with a statement that would jolt them out of their comfort zones: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in me shall never be thirsty.”
How open am I to the revelations of Truth, which may shatter my beliefs and practices?