Thursday of the 3rd week of Eastertide
First Reading — Acts 8:26-40
Philip baptizes a eunuch
The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Be ready to set out at noon along the road that goes from Jerusalem down to Gaza, the desert road.” So he set off on his journey. Now it happened that an Ethiopian had been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; he was a eunuch and an officer at the court of the kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia, and was in fact her chief treasurer. He was now on his way home; and as he sat in his chariot he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and meet that chariot.” When Philip ran up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” “How can I” he replied “unless I have someone to guide me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit by his side. Now the passage of scripture he was reading was this:
Like a sheep that is led to the slaughter-house,
like a lamb that is dumb in front of its shearers,
like these he never opens his mouth.
He has been humiliated and has no one to defend him.
Who will ever talk about his descendants,
since his life on earth has been cut short!
The eunuch turned to Philip and said, “Tell me, is the prophet referring to himself or someone else?” Starting, therefore, with this text of scripture Philip proceeded to explain the Good News of Jesus to him.
Further along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is some water here; is there anything to stop me being baptised?” He ordered the chariot to stop, then Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water and Philip baptised him. But after they had come up out of the water again Philip was taken away by the Spirit of the Lord, and the eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Philip found that he had reached Azotus and continued his journey proclaiming the Good News in every town as far as Caesarea.
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 65(66):8-9,16-17,20
O bless our God, you peoples,
and make the voice of his praise to be heard,
of the God who gave life to our souls
and kept our feet from stumbling.
Come and hear, all who fear God.
I will tell what he did for my soul:
to him I cried aloud,
with high praise ready on my tongue.
Blessed be God
who did not reject my prayer
nor withhold his love from me.
Gospel Acclamation — John 6:51-52
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the living bread from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live for ever.
Alleluia!
Gospel — John 6:44-51
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven
Jesus said to the crowd:
“No one can come to me
unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me,
and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They will all be taught by God,
and to hear the teaching of the Father,
and learn from it,
is to come to me.
Not that anybody has seen the Father,
except the one who comes from God:
he has seen the Father.
I tell you most solemnly,
everybody who believes has eternal life.
“I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the desert
and they are dead;
but this is the bread that comes down from heaven,
so that a man may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.”
Reflection
Today’s readings bring together three powerful themes: divine guidance, the opening of Scripture, and the gift of life in Christ. In Acts, Philip is led first by the angel of the Lord and then by the Holy Spirit. He is sent to a desert road without first being given the full explanation. This is often how grace works. God asks for obedience before he reveals the outcome. Philip’s readiness is part of the beauty of this passage. He does not delay, negotiate, or demand full clarity. He goes.
That obedience leads him to a man already searching. The Ethiopian eunuch has been to Jerusalem, is reading Isaiah, and is open enough to admit that he needs guidance. There is something deeply moving here. The man is sincere, intelligent, and spiritually hungry, yet he still needs the Scriptures to be opened to him in the light of Christ. This is a vital Catholic principle. Scripture is not self-contained in a merely private sense. It is given within the life of God’s people and rightly understood in the light of Christ and through the witness of the Church. The Catechism teaches that Scripture must be read within the living Tradition of the whole Church and with attention to the unity of the whole of Scripture, for all divine revelation culminates in Christ (CCC 111, 112, 134).
Philip begins exactly where the man is reading and proclaims Jesus from there. This is true evangelisation. He does not bypass the man’s question; he fulfils it. He does not speak abstractly; he interprets the text christologically. Isaiah’s suffering servant reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ, the one who was humiliated, handed over, and yet through that humiliation brought salvation to the world. What began as a question about a passage becomes the proclamation of the Good News. This is the pattern of apostolic preaching: all Scripture finds its centre and fulfilment in Christ.
The eunuch’s response is just as important. When they come upon water, he asks to be baptised. The movement is immediate: from hearing to believing, from believing to sacramental incorporation. He does not treat faith as mere private inspiration. He enters the visible life of grace through Baptism. The Catechism calls Baptism the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments (CCC 1213). The joy of the eunuch is not accidental. It is the joy of one who has moved from searching to finding, from reading to understanding, from longing to belonging.
The passage also quietly displays the universality of the Gospel. This Ethiopian official, a foreigner and eunuch, is drawn into the saving life of Christ. The Good News is already reaching beyond familiar Jewish boundaries to the nations. What was announced in Jerusalem is now travelling down desert roads and into distant lands. This is the missionary heartbeat of Acts. Christ is for all peoples, and the Church is sent to all peoples. The Gospel is never tribal, closed, or restricted to those who fit neatly into human expectations.
The Psalm fits the reading perfectly: “Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer nor withhold his love from me.” That could almost be the eunuch’s own testimony. God has heard the searching of his heart and answered it with more than information. He has answered with grace. The Psalm also speaks of a God who gives life to our souls and keeps our feet from stumbling. That too is visible in both readings. God is not passive. He leads, sustains, teaches, and preserves.
The Gospel takes us deeper still. Jesus says that no one can come to him unless drawn by the Father. This makes clear that faith begins in grace. The human person does not climb to God by effort alone. The Father draws. He teaches. He gives. Yet grace does not erase freedom; it awakens and enables it. The one drawn by the Father comes to the Son, believes in him, and receives eternal life. Faith is not the achievement of religious technique. It is a response to the Father’s initiative in Christ. The Catechism teaches that faith is both a gift of God and a genuinely human act, made possible by grace and freely given in response (CCC 153, 154).
Then Jesus speaks one of the most profound revelations in John’s Gospel: “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.” He is not only bread in the sense of teaching or comfort. He is the living bread whose flesh will be given for the life of the world. This is a decisive Eucharistic horizon. The discourse is moving towards the sacramental mystery in which Christ will give himself as true food. The Catechism teaches that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, because in it Christ himself is contained and offered to us (CCC 1324, 1374). What manna prefigured, Christ fulfils. What earthly food cannot do, Christ does: he gives eternal life.
Jesus also says that the manna in the desert did not prevent death. It sustained earthly life for a time, but it did not conquer death itself. Christ does. He is the bread from heaven in a wholly definitive sense. To believe in him is already to receive eternal life, and to partake of him is to be drawn into the life of the age to come. This is why the Eucharistic mystery is never merely devotional or symbolic in a thin sense. It belongs to the very heart of salvation. Christ gives himself “for the life of the world.”
Placed together, the readings form a beautiful movement. In Acts, a man reads Scripture and is led to Baptism. In John, believers are taught by the Father and drawn to the Son, the living bread. Word leads to sacrament. Grace leads to faith. Faith leads to rejoicing. This is the pattern of Christian initiation and, in many ways, the pattern of the whole Christian life. We are continually drawn, continually taught, continually fed.
For us today, the question is whether we remain open to that drawing. Are we still teachable? Are we willing to be led like Philip, or humble enough to ask for guidance like the eunuch? Do we seek Christ as the one who truly gives life, or do we remain content with lesser hungers and smaller consolations? The Father is still drawing hearts to the Son. The Scriptures are still being opened. The living bread is still being given.
One line to carry today:
Stay open to the Father’s drawing, because Christ the living bread is the joy and life of every seeking heart.
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