Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
Jesus says to us, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” What blessed assurance from our Resurrected Lord to us today. I pray that each of us takes this truth to heart and lets it permeate our souls. When we receive the Bread of Life, we can know with certainty that his promises are true for us. Let yourself be comforted today by these words of life from Life himself. As we experience comfort, let us not become complacent. Our readings compel me to pray for the lost so that all people might know the Bread of Life, have their hunger and thirst quenched, and receive everlasting life. No one is lost beyond God’s grace, no one is too far gone to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.
I feel deeply convicted by today’s readings to pray for the lost. In Acts we read, “There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem . . . Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.” Pause for a moment and let yourself imagine this situation. Picture the scene. Let it unfold before you like a movie. Saul was trying to destroy the Church. It’s hard to imagine a person more lost than Saul at that point in his life. But later, Saul encounters the Risen Christ on the Road to Damascus and his life, and the story of the Church is forever changed! Saul becomes the Apostle Paul who is arguably one of the greatest and most influential evangelists to ever live. Saul was not so lost as to be beyond the reach of God, beyond the scope of God’s grace and mercy, outside the promises of God.
Back to our Gospel, Jesus says, “I will not reject anyone who comes to me . . . and this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.” Again, this promise is for you, it’s for me. Can this glorious reality impel us to pray for those who do not yet know this promise, to those who have not yet received the Bread of Life? We heard in the news last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have stomach cancer and possibly other illness, as well. My husband said right away, “we need to pray for him.” What a beautiful expression of mercy and compassion! We have all followed the war in Ukraine with shock, horror, and outrage. It would be easy to dismiss President Putin with whatever adjectives we might (wrongly) dare to use and declare him lost beyond hope. But that’s not God’s will. Jesus says, “I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” Today, let us pray for all the lost people in our world. Let us pray that like Saul, they will come to Christ, have a powerful encounter with him, and be forever transformed from lost to found. Even those of us who are found in Christ experience our own forms of lostness. Let us receive the Bread of Life anew today seeking healing and conversion.
We all see people in our personal lives and in the world around us who seem to be lost. We are also a broken people who tend to reject others in many different ways. Sometimes we even reject people simply because we think they’re lost. Jesus will not reject anyone who comes to him. Jesus has been soooo merciful to us, can we pray for the graces to be abundantly merciful toward others? Today, let us be a merciful people of prayer who embrace the lost and love them toward the Bread of Life. Jesus assures us, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” Heavenly Father, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven this day. May all the lost be found in the Bread of Life. Amen! Alleluia!
Elizabeth Wells