3rd Week of Easter
It was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. (John 6:32)
You can imagine Jesus sighing during this dialogue. “What sign can you do?” ask the people. Have they already forgotten how he fed five thousand of them on the hillside? Instead, they hearken back to a romanticized version of their ancestors’ time in the desert, when manna appeared in response to Moses’ prayers. They conveniently forget the pain and frustration of their long wanderings and God’s frustration with their lack of trust and belief.
But Jesus seems to say, “Wake up! Come back to the present! God’s food is being offered to you right now.”
How tempting it can be to romanticize what God has done for us in the past and miss what he is doing today! We remember how God led us to the Church, how he healed someone we prayed for, how he opened the path for a new job for us, how he helped us find our husband or wife—or discern a vocation to the religious life. These are wonderful stories with happy endings.
But what is God doing with you right now? Perhaps he is stretching your comfort zone by bringing you into contact with people who seem very different from yourself. Maybe he is pointing out a tendency to gossip or a need to be in charge. Is he inviting you to dig into a part of Scripture you’ve never understood? Callings like these are much more challenging. It’s hard to be patient with such an incomplete and unfinished work, isn’t it? We’d rather cross items off our list than return to them every day, with mixed results.
Today’s reading tells us that even though Jesus’ work on the cross is finished, it doesn’t remain in the past. Rather, he invites us to come to him today and every day. He asks us to stay with him, to feed on him, and to keep growing in our union with him. There is so much more that he wants to give us!
“Come to me,” he invites. “I am your Bread of Life.”
“Jesus, you are all I need. Open my eyes to your powerful presence in the nitty-gritty of my life today.”
Acts 7:51–8:1; Psalm 31:3-4, 6-8, 17, 21
Daily Marriage Tip for May 6, 2014:
“Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” (1Jn 3:18) Saying “I love you” is good. Being true to your words is better. Showing your love by doing something nice or sacrificing for your beloved is true love. What act of love can you do today?