Friday of the 3rd week of Eastertide
First Reading — Acts 9:1-20
This man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before the pagans
Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He had gone to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he could find.
Suddenly, while he was travelling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all round him. He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” he asked, and the voice answered, “I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do.” The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but even with his eyes wide open he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand. For three days he was without his sight, and took neither food nor drink.
A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a vision in which he heard the Lord say to him, “Ananias!” When he replied, “Here I am, Lord”, the Lord said, “You must go to Straight Street and ask at the house of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying, having had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his sight.”
When he heard that, Ananias said, “Lord, several people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.” The Lord replied, “You must go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.” Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and at once laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately it was as though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. So he was baptised there and then, and after taking some food he regained his strength.
He began preaching in the synagogues, “Jesus is the Son of God.”
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 116(117)
O praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples!
Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful for ever.
Gospel Acclamation — John 6:56
Alleluia, alleluia!
All who eat my flesh and drink my blood
live in me and I in them, says the Lord.
Alleluia!
Gospel — John 6:52-59
My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink
The Jews started arguing with one another: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they said. Jesus replied:
“I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.”
He taught this doctrine at Capernaum, in the synagogue.
Reflection
Today’s readings bring together two overwhelming gifts of grace: conversion and communion. In the First Reading, Saul is on the road to Damascus not as a seeker, but as a persecutor. He is “breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples.” His energy is not neutral. It is violent, determined, and directed against the Church. Yet Christ intervenes. This is one of the great reminders in all Scripture that grace is not limited by human resistance. The Lord can break into a life at the very point where sin appears strongest.
The words Jesus speaks are deeply revealing: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He does not say merely, “Why are you persecuting my followers?” but “me”. The risen Christ so identifies with his Body, the Church, that persecution of Christians is persecution of Christ himself. This is a profound ecclesial truth. The Church is not an optional religious association loosely linked to Jesus. She is his Body. The Catechism teaches that the Church is the Body of Christ, united to him as head and animated by his life (CCC 787, 789, 795). Saul learns, in a single devastating encounter, that Jesus is alive, glorious, and inseparably united with those who belong to him.
Saul’s conversion also shows that grace humbles before it heals. He is struck blind and must be led by the hand. The man who came with authority arrives in weakness. The persecutor becomes dependent. There is a kind of death here already: the death of self-certainty, self-direction, and spiritual pride. Before Saul can preach Christ, he must be undone by Christ. This is not cruelty. It is mercy. God strips away what blocks true sight. Often conversion begins not with feeling strong, but with discovering how blind we really are.
Then Ananias enters the scene, and his role matters greatly. The Lord could have restored Saul’s sight directly, but instead he sends a disciple. Ananias is understandably afraid. He knows Saul’s reputation. Yet he obeys. In doing so, he becomes an instrument of reconciliation and grace. He addresses him as “Brother Saul” before Saul has done anything to deserve such a word. That is the language of the Church receiving a convert through mercy, not suspicion. Baptism, the laying on of hands, recovery of sight, and reception of the Holy Spirit all come together here. The Catechism teaches that Baptism is the gateway to life in the Spirit, incorporation into Christ, and entry into the Church (CCC 1213, 1267). Saul is not merely morally improved. He is sacramentally reborn.
The Lord also declares Saul’s mission: he is a chosen instrument to bring Christ’s name before pagans, kings, and Israel. Grace does not only forgive the past; it commissions for the future. Yet that mission comes with suffering. Saul is not converted into comfort, but into costly discipleship. This too is part of authentic Christian calling. To belong to Christ is to share not only in his life, but in his cross. The Catechism reminds us that discipleship means taking up the cross and following Jesus, participating in his Paschal Mystery (CCC 618).
Then the Gospel brings us to the heart of Eucharistic revelation. The crowd struggles with Jesus’ words, asking, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Instead of softening the teaching, Jesus intensifies it. He insists that unless they eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, they will not have life in them. This is one of the strongest sacramental texts in the New Testament. Jesus does not speak here as though his flesh were merely a metaphor for ideas or inspiration. He speaks of real food, real drink, real life, and real abiding.
The Church has always received this teaching with full seriousness. The Catechism teaches that in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ are truly, really, and substantially contained (CCC 1374). The Eucharist is not a symbol emptied of reality. It is Christ himself given to his Church. When Jesus says, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him,” he is speaking of a communion so deep that it participates in the very life he receives from the Father.
This is why today’s readings belong together so beautifully. In Acts, the risen Christ seizes Saul and transforms his life. In John, that same Christ gives himself as food for the life of the world. Conversion is not the end. Communion is the goal. Christ does not merely stop Saul from doing evil; he draws him into union with himself and into the life of the Church. The same is true for us. Christianity is not only about moral change, though moral change is real. It is about being united to Christ, fed by Christ, and living from Christ.
There is also a profound connection between Saul’s blindness and the Gospel’s Eucharistic realism. Human beings often resist what they cannot control or categorise. Saul could not see Christ until Christ revealed himself. The crowd could not accept Eucharistic teaching because it exceeded ordinary categories. In both cases, faith requires surrender. We do not master divine mystery; we receive it. The Father leads us beyond what seems manageable into what is true.
The Eucharist also reveals the intensity of divine love. Jesus does not simply instruct from afar. He gives his flesh “for the life of the world”. This anticipates the cross and continues sacramentally in the life of the Church. The Catechism teaches that the Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, making present the one sacrifice of Christ and applying its fruit to us (CCC 1362, 1366). So the one who met Saul in glory is the same one who gives himself in sacrificial love. Resurrection and Eucharist belong together. The living Christ is the self-giving Christ.
For us, today’s readings ask several searching questions. Where do I still resist the Lord’s claim over my life? Where do I still need the scales to fall from my eyes? Do I truly believe that Christ can transform even a deeply disordered past? And do I approach the Eucharist as the real gift of Christ himself, or only as a religious routine? Saul’s story tells us no one is beyond grace. John 6 tells us no one is meant to live on grace at a distance. We are called not only to be converted by Christ, but to abide in him.
This is the great promise: the risen Lord who changes lives is also the Lord who feeds the lives he has changed. He calls, heals, baptises, fills, and nourishes. He does not begin a work only to leave it incomplete. He gives himself so that those who belong to him may have life, and have it for ever.
One line to carry today:
The risen Christ can completely change a life, and he gives himself to sustain the life he has changed.
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