Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter
We are now at Tuesday of our 3rd week celebrating Easter. Our readings for these weeks have caused us to think about what happened after the resurrection – how the early Church lived and how the Church came to understand who Jesus was in light of his crucifixion and resurrection. Today’s gospel passage is an important piece to understanding Jesus. In fact, for the next few days we will hear these texts known as the “Bread of Life” discourse. Sometimes, we may be tempted to think that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, leaving us alone on the earth that had once known his presence.
But Jesus did not simply leave us alone... he left us himself, in the form of the Eucharist – the bread come down from heaven, that was sent by the Father. All who seek Jesus, who is the bread of life, will never hunger. All who believe in Him will never thirst (Jn 6:35). The Eucharist is God’s very self, given to us for spiritual nourishment. It should satisfy us in a way that natural food never can. In other words, God can and should satisfy us beyond any of our earthly desires for comfort, food, shelter, and so on.
The early Church certainly recognized this great gift from God. We have testimony to that in the apostle John, who wrote this gospel and clearly understood that Jesus’ ultimate sign to the world was the gift of himself, body and soul, blood and divinity. His life, death, and resurrection are all contained in the Eucharist we receive. And to receive Jesus into our bodies in this form must be transformative, as it was for those in the early Church who believed in him. Moreover, Jesus did not leave us alone because he sent the Holy Spirit to be with his disciples.
Today in our first reading we hear about Stephen, honored as one of the first martyrs for Christianity. Stephen cannot hide the gospel message; he is “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:55). Regardless of the cost, he knows he must preach the truth, as did his Lord, Jesus. And Stephen dies in imitation of Christ, uttering words that bear a striking resemblance to Jesus’ own dying words on the cross. Stephen asks God not to hold the people’s sins against them, and he prays to God to receive his spirit. It is noteworthy that when Stephen prays to God here, he prays to the Lord Jesus. The early Church recognized that Jesus is God, and they honored him and prayed to him as God, just as we do today.
When we hear about the early Church, we should be inspired by their witness. They received great gifts from God, including the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist. And they used these gifts to strengthen themselves so that they could give their lives as gifts back to God. From God, to God – this is the disciple’s life. We also are called to receive willingly all that God offers us and to return to God all that we do and our very being. We cannot help being touched by this amazing love story. As our attention turns to Paul in these next few days, we will see his transformation from a persecutor of Jesus’ disciples to one of the leaders of the Church.
Though we may never have been the kind of persecutor that Paul was, we all have our own sins. But we can’t let ourselves think that God has no use for us because of our weaknesses. Instead, we accept our own failings and begin again each day to try to live holy lives, receiving the love of God and using it to love others as he loved us. Today, let us begin again – from God, to God.
- Maria Morrow