Jesus will go on to speak about the need to eat his flesh and drink his blood, which has even clearer Eucharistic overtones. It was only after listening carefully to the two disciples that the stranger spoke. Mark is often unsparing in his portrayal of the failure of the disciples to imbibe this vision of Jesus and to live by it. This is the bread come down from heaven; Thomas, like the other disciples, saw and believed. Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries He wants to reveal his Father to us, to share the love of the Father with us. We are all called to be spiritual people in that sense. In the evening the disciples went down to the shore of the lake and got into a boat to make for Capernaum on the other side of the lake. Yet, is spite of this resistance, the Lord insisted all the more on the need, not only to eat his flesh, but to drink his blood also. The Ethiopian was not reading silently to himself; he was reading aloud. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. We begin with an Ethiopian, who was clearly drawn to Judaism in some way. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.. In different ways we too can abandon the Lord; we may deny and even betray him by something we say or do. Homily Helps - Society of Mary To enter through Jesus the gate is to respond to his call, the very personal call that he addresses to each one of us. He only gradually came to believe in Jesus as Gods Son given to the world out of love. All the Lord asks is that we are generous with what we have, little as that may be, and he will work through us in ways that will surprise us. Yet, the risen Lord always stands among us empowering us to be an Easter people. The Celtic Carmelite integration is unique and expresses a distinctive vision of a way to seek and give thanks to the God-among-us, in prayer and in the challenges and blessings of daily life. The risen Lord stood among them to replace that mood with the mood of Easter. In todays gospel reading two followers of Jesus are walking in the opposite direction to pilgrims, away from Jerusalem. It is as a mystic that John is known as a 'Doctor of the Church'. However, there will always be a reserve in our receiving. When it comes to faith, not all move to the same rhythm. My hosanna has come forth from the crucible of doubt. He will breathe new life into us; he will give us strength in our weakness. This is what we find Barnabas doing in todays first reading. We may not be physically present at the Eucharist these days, but we are spiritually present and we continue to recognize the Lord in the breaking of bread. There are other places which have been the destination of pilgrims for a much longer period of time, such as Santiago de Compostella. The questions and doubts of our reason are an inevitable part of seeing dimly. The Lord calls us to a fullness of life now, and hereafter. Perhaps, therefore, we find it easy to identify with Thomas in todays gospel reading. The Eucharist was very much at the heart of the life of Sister Gonzaga. This was what Paul came to realize when the risen Lord appeared to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Yet, the Lord had great plans for this persecutor of the church, but first he had to endure a period of blindness, during which this proud man was completely dependent on others, they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand. We can make the mistake of thinking that how we talk about something is all that there is to it. The Father loves the Son He was attracted by Jesus, and he allowed himself to be drawn to Jesus, even though it meant going against the prevailing current. Not that anybody has seen the Father, Perhaps, therefore, we will find it easy to identify with Thomas in todays gospel reading. Then there are other kinds of losses that we experience in the course of our lives, such as the loss of a job, or the loss of full health, or the loss of our good name. He fed the hungry, healed the sick; he called on the rich to share with the poor. The risen Lord can transform our lives too, making us more hopeful people. We hear that bigger story, Gods story, in the Scriptures. He invites us to tell him our story, and he listens carefully to it, even though it is often not the full story. If Jesus is the gate that leads to abundant life, we have to pass through that gate. Nothing we do or fail to do will prevent the light of the gospel of Gods love from shining upon us, but we can chose to turn away from the light, to block it out, just as Judas left the presence of Jesus at the last supper and went out into the night. Indeed, according to the gospel reading, Jesus goes on to satisfy the hunger of the crowd with the five loaves and two fish of this small boy. The basis physical needs of people were very important for him. They fail to understand who Jesus is and what he says; eventually, they all desert him and Peter denies him. If we are to come into that abundant life that Jesus came to give us, we must do so by passing through him. Gods love revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus had triumphed over human wickedness. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. As the search for God leads to the hearing of the word and as the hearing of the word leads to baptism, so baptism leads us to the Eucharist. When it comes to our relationship with the wind, it is the wind, not us, that has the upper hand. The Ethiopian eunuch was journeying away from Jerusalem when Philip, one of the missionaries of the early church, joined them and opened up the Scriptures for him. When we allow the Spirit of the Lord to shape our lives, others can see something of the life of God in and through our lives. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. Easter 3rd Week : Wednesday 26th April, 2023 Jesus said to the crowd: 'I am the bread of life. Ananias heard the Lord speak to him, directing him to where Saul lived. He doesnt get behind us and drive us in this direction. click to accept all cookiesAccept %CC% cookies. Heavenly things can be viewed through earthly things. JANUARY DEC 26th to JAN 29th Click here FEBRUARY JAN 30th to FEB 26th Click here MARCH FEB 27th to MAR 26th Click here APRIL When he seeks to give an understanding of the kingdom of God, he tells parables, stories that are deeply rooted in everyday life. Eight days later, Jesus came again and stood among them. And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. In this mornings gospel reading, the Jews ask the question, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Far from pulling back in response to that dismissive question, Jesus goes on to speak of the need not only to eat his flesh but to drink his blood as well. From this communion of love we are sent out, as Paul was sent, to proclaim the love of the Lord by our lives, to allow the love of Christ to urge us on and flow through us. they are forgiven; He who comes from heaven No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. Once the risen Lord spoke to the disciples, they seem to have reached the shore they were making for immediately. The real answer to the question addressed to Jesus, Where do you come from? is that Jesus comes from heaven or from God. There are two ways of looking at gates. This sharing in Gods life begins here and now for those who turn to Jesus in faith, and comes to fullness in the life beyond death. He said to them, Peace be with you, and showed them his hands and his side. The Acts of the Apostles suggests that as soon as the gospel began to be preached after Pentecost efforts were made by people in authority to suppress it. Todays gospel reading gives us an insight into the prayer of Jesus, I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth Below are links to various resources to inspire you on a daily basis. He calls out to all of us to come to him, to come to know and love him as he knows and loves us. Many different kinds of people meet with Jesus in the course of Johns gospel. In that sense, we all find ourselves in the situation of Nicodemus. We reflect deeply on all that Jesus said and did, on the whole of his life, on his death, resurrection and ascension, because we know that God has spoken the most powerful and clearest word he could ever speak through Jesus. He is speaking here as the good Shepherd who is prepared to lay down his life so that the members of his flock can have life and have it to the full. He wanted them to know that he was at peace with them, in spite of the fact that they had abandoned him in the hour of his passion and death. ACVB Today's Readings My wife, Elise, is a throw back. The general call of baptism to be the Lords disciple, which is addressed to us all, is then lived out in particular ways in response to the Lords very personal, daily call to each one of us. The Lords presence to us and our awareness of his presence always makes the journey to the other side, the far shore, seem that bit shorter. As a Pharisee, Paul could never have envisaged the way he would spend the last thirty years of his life, but the Lord was able to envisage it. It only compounded their grief. Passing through Jesus the gate is always a response to his call; it involves allowing ourselves to be drawn by a love which knows us through and through and loves us without limit. In this fourth gospel, the words I am on the lips of Jesus suggest the name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. The Jewish Sanhedrin were worried about the growing popularity of the disciples of Jesus. Yet, we ourselves need to take our own steps towards the Lord, the kind of steps the Ethiopian took, if the drawing of the Father is to bear fruit in our lives. Jesus goes on to state that he gives himself to us as food and drink so that we might draw life from him. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. Catherine stood out as a beacon of light in a dark time in Europe and in the church. As the Lord said to Ananias, this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. Even when we fail to respond to his coming, he remains for us the bread of life and he continues to promise that if we come to him we will never hunger and if we believe in him we will never thirst. everybody who believes has eternal life. He goes on to say of Jesus, in the words of our gospel reading, that he comes from heaven, that the Father gives Jesus the Spirit without reserve, that the Father has entrusted everything to the Son. We never arrive at our destination, in this earthly life. It is often the way that our interpretation of some experience does not do justice to the richness of that experience. The Lord meets us where we are, in all our fears and doubts, and he does so to draw us into a sharing in his risen life. Yet, the gospel reading we have just heard acknowledges another reality. As Jesus says in the gospel reading, whoever eats me will draw life from me. The Lord will do the rest. In this mornings gospel reading Jesus speaks as the shepherd who looks after each member of his flock and keeps them all united to himself. and no one will ever steal them from me. There are different ways of telling the story of the troubles in the North of Ireland over the past thirty five years or more. We feel the need to lock ourselves in and lock others out. What is important is that we allow the particular story that we tell to be filled out and to be enriched by the very different story about the same events that people who are strangers to us have to tell. They were astonished and said, Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? At the meal that followed they recognised the strangers true identity in the breaking of bread. Jerusalem, the city that had held out so much promise and hope when Jesus entered it in triumph, was now a city they couldnt wait to leave. The Bible is the Word of God which is always alive and active, always new. There is a need for different groups of people to take responsibility for different ministries. Scepticism and deep faith can often be found in one and the same person. It leads him to ask questions which eventually results in his receiving baptism into the church at the hands of Philip. He journeys with us as a shepherd and a guardian to bring life out of our various experiences of death, to heal our brokenness, and, in the words of todays Responsorial Psalm, to revive my drooping spirit. Here and now the Lord wants us to know something of that life to the full which is our ultimate destiny. It is only those who deliberately reject Gods offer of merciful love whose sins will be retained. He blesses God his Father, as one who knows the Father in a way no one else does, just as his Father knows him as no one else does. In response to their prayer, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to proclaim the word of God boldly. God was moving in a way that was taking everyone by surprise. Our communion with the Lord in the Eucharist calls us to this ongoing form of communion.
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