Acts 8:1-8; John 6:35-40
The Gospel reading plunges us today into the heart of the controversy between Jesus and his countrymen. He declares that He is “the bread of life.” Even though they have not understood that He is talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, utterances which will make their anger boil against Him, Jesus makes sure they know that to believe in Him is not just a matter of seeing Him. To believe in Him is to embrace Him as the Source of our life and to live accordingly.
Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Catherine of Siena. The story of her life mentions that she has the “gift of tears.” The experience of her own suffering at the hands of her parents, war among people and the suffering of plague victims, drove her to always share her tears for the salvation of the world. All this was a constant reminder and a call for her to unite with the Suffering Lord. She found in the Eucharistic Jesus, with Whom she entered a “mystical marriage,” the source of strength and courage to express her love through action.
Today’s first reading tells us the story of the first expansion of the Gospel. God who always pulls good even from bad situations makes his message reach the utmost bounds of the earth from the sad event of the persecution of the Church. The amazing thing with this story is that it gives us all the example of the resilient apostles who would let nothing deter them from preaching the Gospel and bearing witness to Christ. Is not it said that “the blood of the martyrs is seed for vocations?” The courage of the apostles in front of persecution and rejection is a call to trust in the Lord in every situation.
This courage to live the Gospel of Jesus amidst adversities and suffering is exactly the grace we receive in the Eucharist. Jesus satisfies our spiritual hunger and gives us a pledge of eternal life. When we receive Him we mean that we are trying to live according to the example of Him who died out of love for our sake. Today, this containment can take the form of imprisonment and could raise the feeling of discouragement and fear. Yet, like the apostles and St. Catherine of Siena we are meant to turn it to an opportunity to strengthen our personal union with Christ. Let us look at it as a time of preparation for the new journey of discipleship, as spiritual retreat during which time we call upon the Lord to abandon any kind of fear of rejection, denial or adversity when we embark on the journey of the life of missionary disciples.
Let us continue to pray for one another, for our parish family and for the world.
Fr. Emery