It is in our human nature that we always want more. We hunger for more, we thirst for more. But this is not true for us who have come to know Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who satisfies our every want and need. For He truly is the bread of life. And through Him alone, we have living water.
He has given us the supreme gift of the Holy Eucharist, His body, blood, soul, and divinity. And when we partake of Him, there is nothing we shall want.
Let us be bold as Saint Stephen was, because filled with Christ, he chose to speak up against evil and sin, so that all who would listen may repent and come to fullness of life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Into your hands I commend my spirit, Lord. Amen.
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First reading
Acts 7:51-8:1a
‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’
In those days: Stephen said to the people and the elders and the scribes, ‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.’
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution.
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Gospel
John 6:30-35
‘It was not Moses but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.’
At that time: The crowd said to Jesus, ‘Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’
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