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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Friday of the Third Week of Easter
View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (Acts 9:1-20): Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, «Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?». He said, «Who are you, sir?». The reply came, «I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do». The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.

For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank. There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, «Ananias». He answered, «Here I am, Lord». The Lord said to him, «Get up and go to the street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is there praying, and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, that he may regain his sight». But Ananias replied, «Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name». But the Lord said to him, «Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name».

So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he said, «Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit». Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength. He stayed some days with the disciples in Damascus, and he began at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
Responsorial Psalm: 116
R/. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Praise the Lord, all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples!

For steadfast is his kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the Lord endures forever.
Versicle before the Gospel (Jn 5:56): Alleluia. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood, remains in me and I in him, says the Lord. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Jn 6:52-59): The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.”

Fr. Àngel CALDAS i Bosch (Salt, Girona, Spain)

Today Jesus makes three fundamental statements: that one must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood; that without communion one cannot have life; and that this life is eternal life and is the condition for the resurrection (cf. Jn 6:53, 58). There is nothing in the Gospel as clear, as resounding, and as definitive as these statements of Jesus.

We Catholics do not always live up to the merits of the Eucharist: sometimes we try to "live" without the conditions of life outlined by Jesus, and yet, as John Paul II wrote, "the Eucharist is too great a gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation."

"Eat in order to live": eat the flesh of the Son of Man in order to live like the Son of Man. This eating is called "communion." It is an "eating," and we say "eat" to make clear the need for assimilation, for identification with Jesus. We receive Communion to maintain unity: to think like Him, to speak like Him, to love like Him. We Christians needed John Paul II's Eucharistic encyclical, The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. It is a passionate encyclical: it is “fire” because the Eucharist is ardent.

“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15), Jesus said on the evening of Holy Thursday. We must recover Eucharistic fervor. No other religion has a similar initiative. It is God who descends into the heart of man to establish there a mysterious relationship of love. And from there the Church is built and takes part in the apostolic and ecclesial dynamism of the Eucharist.

We are touching the very heart of the mystery, like Thomas, who touched the wounds of the risen Christ. We Christians will have to reexamine our fidelity to the Eucharistic truth, as Christ has revealed it, and the Church proposes it to us. And we must return to experiencing "tenderness" toward the Eucharist: slow and well-executed genuflections, an increase in the number of spiritual communions... And, from the Eucharist, people will appear sacred to us, just as they are. And we will serve them with renewed tenderness.

Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “Creator and Lord of all things, whatever their nature, he brought forth bread from the earth and changed it into his own body. Not only had he the power to do this, but he had promised it; and, as he had changed water into wine, he also changed wine into his own blood. It is the Lord’s Passover.” (Saint Gaudentius of Brescia)

  • “The Eucharist remains a ‘sign of contradiction’ and can only be so because a God who makes himself flesh and sacrifices himself for the life of the world throws human wisdom into crisis.” (Benedict XVI)

  • “The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’ (Jn 6:53).” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 1384)

May 18th
Fifth Sunday of Easter (C)

Gospel and commentary video

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Habemus papam!

United in prayer with
Pope Leo XIV

We give thanks to God!