Breaking the Word

3^rd week in Easter Time, Thursday – 27^th April 2023 – Acts 8,26-40; Jn 6,44-51

Obedient to God’s Direction

Philip is one of the first deacons of the church (Acts 6,5) and the first significant Christian missionary to Samaria (Acts 8,5-25). An angel has directed him to a road that leads down from Jerusalem to Gaza on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Philip was not only a faithful preacher, he was also an obedient personal worker. At the commission of an angel, he was willing to leave the crowds and deal with one lost soul. The Holy Spirit chose him to guide and explain the Scriptures to the Ethiopian; to explain God’s plan – the sending of Jesus as the Messiah who quietly suffered for the salvation of humanity. In fact, Philip realizes that God directs the right person at the right time and at the right place. Every believer needs to walk in the Spirit and pray for God’s direction. It is every believer’s business to share the Gospel with others, and to do it without fear or regret. Once Philip has shared the Good News of Jesus with the Ethiopian and brought him into closer relationship with Jesus through baptism, Philip is taken by the Holy Spirit to another place to continue the ministry of spreading the Gospel.

3^rd week in Easter Time, Wednesday – 26^th April 2023 — Gospel: Jn 6,35-40

Never Failing Fulfillment

Our daily prayer ‘give us our daily bread’ is fulfilled in that fascinating experience of Jesus becoming the bread of life. With his never failing words and with his ever nourishing mystical body he strengthens us. His nourishment is unconditional, never toxic in anyway but ever loving and caring. The experience of this truth brings us closer to him and never takes us away from him. As the life giving bread, Jesus takes us to the higher degree of life, where we will never be hungry and thirsty for the ordinary pleasures of life. Under the Johannine metaphors of bread, water and life, Jesus symbolically refers to the same reality: a reality, which makes human beings see hunger, thirst and death as insignificant. This is nothing but the divine revelation given to human persons by and in Jesus.