Archive for April 16, 2018

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: April 16, 2018 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections

Are you filled with the joy of the Risen Lord? Are you still celebrating Easter with your loved ones and others? Is Jesus present in your celebrations?

For many have gone back to the routine of their daily lives, some have even had challenges and trials overwhelm them. And if they do decide to attend an Easter party it is for the party sake not the reason behind the celebration.

If we truly one want to live the new life Christ offers to us then we must live in His light! To truly celebrate the peace and joy that we have found in Him is to rejoice with others and share our own faith stories of encountering the Risen Lord. To be filled with Holy spirit and to boldly proclaim His love for one and all. And by our faith all will see the light of Christ in us.

Jesus You are our bread of life. Amen

First reading

Acts 6:8-15
They could not get the better of Stephen because the Spirit prompted what he said

Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people. But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen, and others from Cilicia and Asia. They found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said. So they procured some men to say, ‘We heard him using blasphemous language against Moses and against God.’ Having in this way turned the people against him as well as the elders and scribes, they took Stephen by surprise, and arrested him and brought him before the Sanhedrin. There they put up false witnesses to say, ‘This man is always making speeches against this Holy Place and the Law. We have heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene is going to destroy this Place and alter the traditions that Moses handed down to us.’ The members of the Sanhedrin all looked intently at Stephen, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.

Gospel

John 6:22-29
Do not work for food that cannot last, but for food that endures to eternal life

After Jesus had fed the five thousand, his disciples saw him walking on the water. Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves. Other boats, however, had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten. When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’
Jesus answered:

‘I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Do not work for food that cannot last,but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’

Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’