#thelivingbread

April 22, 2021, Thursday Thursday of the Third Week of Easter (White) CYCLE B - YEAR I Lectionary: 276

Reading I Acts 8:26-40

The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, “Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.”  So he got up and set out.  Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, “Go and join up with that chariot.”  Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  He replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?”  So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.  This was the Scripture passage he was reading: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,         and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,             so he opened not his mouth.     In his humiliation justice was denied him.         Who will tell of his posterity?             For his life is taken from the earth. Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, “I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?”  Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him. As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water.  What is to prevent my being baptized?”  Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him.  When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing.  Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Responsorial Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20

R.    (1)  Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

or:

R.    Alleluia.

Bless our God, you peoples,     loudly sound his praise; He has given life to our souls,     and has not let our feet slip.

R.    Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

or:

R.    Alleluia.

Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare     what he has done for me. When I appealed to him in words,     praise was on the tip of my tongue.

R.    Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

or:

R.    Alleluia.

Blessed be God who refused me not     my prayer or his kindness!

R.    Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

or:

R.    Alleluia.

Alleluia Jn 6:51

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL Jn 6:44-51

Jesus said to the crowds: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets:     They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.  Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  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.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

REFLECTION:

We live two lives - the flesh and the spirit, earthly and eternal. Faith in God is life-giving. It gives energy to every day, to the commonplace. The struggle to do good and to live a gospel-centered life is nourished by our faith. Prayer is a time to be aware of the life that is eternal. Moments of prayer bring us in touch with the eternal within us, and the eternal around us, the atmosphere of the risen Christ.

Jesus lives in the shadow of eternity and calls on our faith that we will live forever. The call of love and the experience of love in life hints at something more than human, of a mystery totally linked to God. The bread of life is the gift of God's life on earth. In opening ourselves to the word of God and the bread of God we are gifted and graced with the love that lasts forever.

PRAYER:

We need to see the Word of God for how powerful it really is. It is JESUS! It changes your life.

If you want changes to be seen in your life, maybe you have to change yourself. Be transformed for the renewing of your mind. A lot of time you see things in your life that needs changing, but maybe the reason that they do not come straight away is because you need to change. God wants to change you. A lot of our problems are caused by ourselves.

 A few people out of a crowd of 1000, can honestly say they take the care of themselves. Do you give up your sleep to watch movies at  1 am in the morning? Whilst we do need to trust God, we also need to ask God if there is anything He wants us to do. 

The story of King Canute- King Canute was born in 990 AD and during his reign, because he was prosperous and successful in battles, maintaining the kingdom, relations with people, the normal civilians began to worship him. He hated this and told his men to put his thrown down at the sea. This was to prove that he could not walk on water like his Father could (Jesus). So when the tides started getting heavy and the waters were rising passed his knee caps, his helpers took him in. Many people witnessed this and for this reason Canute exclaimed....

(Note:  the information below is taken from a source.)

“Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings. For there is none worthy of the name but God, whom heaven, earth and sea obey”.

So spoke King Canute the Great, the legend says, seated on his throne on the seashore, waves lapping round his feet. Canute had learned that his flattering courtiers claimed he was “So great, he could command the tides of the sea to go back”. Now Canute was not only a believer in Christ, but also a clever politician. He knew his limitations – even if his courtiers did not – so he had his throne carried to the seashore and sat on it as the tide came in, commanding the waves to advance no further. When they didn’t, he had made his point that, though the deeds of kings might appear ‘great’ in the minds of men, they were as nothing in the face of God’s power.

Back to me:

If we look at Isaiah 53:5, the scripture speaks about Jesus saying “...He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by his wounds we are healed.” By the pain and affliction Jesus suffered, we are healed because He nailed all of our sins to the cross.

 So how can 2 Corinthians say that the sinless Jesus was “made...to be sin for us.”... Is the Bible saying that Jesus committed a sin? Or is it saying that because of us Jesus sinned? No! Regardless of what you believe, Christ took our sins with Him to death so that we can be presented as “holy in His sight...without blemish and free from accusation.” (Colossians 1:22). Jesus did not sin, He was righteous and holy; never will we be capable of matching up to His perfection. But thank the Lord we are saved by His Grace. Thank the Lord that He is Grace. Thank God that He sent His only begotten Son into the world to save us from the land of perishable agony and the gnashing of teeth.(John 3:16).

God came down from heaven by taking the form of Jesus. In the Bible it talks about how Jesus came for the sinners not for the righteous. So by coming into the earth and dying for humanity, Jesus laid all of our sins upon himself. That's why in 1 Corinthians 15:45 it says, "The last Adam, Jesus, became a life giving spirit. “Initially I looked passed that phrase, but when I saw it again I thought, how can Jesus be possibly be referred to as Adam… . Jesus was righteous and humanity had a fallen nature but, because Jesus took our sins to the cross and nailed them, He was made to be sin for us. It is by that actions we are able to receive eternal life when we believed into Him. Thank you Lord that we are saved by your Grace. God is Grace!