Wednesday of the 3rd week of Eastertide
First Reading — Acts 8:1-8
They went from place to place, preaching the Good News
That day a bitter persecution started against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles fled to the country districts of Judaea and Samaria.
There were some devout people, however, who buried Stephen and made great mourning for him.
Saul then worked for the total destruction of the Church; he went from house to house arresting both men and women and sending them to prison.
Those who had escaped went from place to place preaching the Good News. One of them was Philip who went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The people united in welcoming the message Philip preached, either because they had heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for themselves. There were, for example, unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured. As a result there was great rejoicing in that town.
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 65(66):1-7
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or
Alleluia.
Cry out with joy to God all the earth,
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise.
Say to God: “How tremendous your deeds!”
Because of the greatness of your strength
your enemies cringe before you.
Before you all the earth shall bow;
shall sing to you, sing to your name!
Come and see the works of God,
tremendous his deeds among men.
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the river dry-shod.
Let our joy then be in him;
he rules for ever by his might.
His eyes keep watch over the nations:
let rebels not rise against him.
Gospel Acclamation — cf. John 6:40
Alleluia, alleluia!
All who believe in the Son have eternal life,
and I will raise them up on the last day, says the Lord.
Alleluia!
Gospel — John 6:35-40
It is my Father’s will that whoever sees the Son should have eternal life
Jesus said to the crowd:
“I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me will never be hungry;
he who believes in me will never thirst.
But, as I have told you,
you can see me and still you do not believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me,
and whoever comes to me I shall not turn him away;
because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will,
but to do the will of the one who sent me.
Now the will of him who sent me
is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me,
and that I should raise it up on the last day.
Yes, it is my Father’s will
that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life,
and that I shall raise him up on the last day.”
Reflection
Today’s First Reading opens in grief, violence, and apparent collapse. Stephen has just been killed, and now a bitter persecution falls upon the Church in Jerusalem. Believers are driven from their homes, Saul is ravaging the Church, and sorrow hangs over everything. On the surface, it looks as though the enemies of the Gospel are winning. Yet Luke shows us something astonishing: the scattered believers do not cease to bear witness. They go from place to place preaching the Good News. What was meant to crush the Church becomes the very means by which the Gospel spreads.
This is one of the great paradoxes of Christian history. The Church is often wounded, but never finally silenced. God does not delight in suffering or persecution, yet he is able to draw fruit from what human beings intend for destruction. The blood of Stephen is still fresh, yet already the mission is widening. Samaria, a place long marked by tension and division in salvation history, now becomes a place of proclamation, healing, and joy. Philip preaches Christ there, and the people welcome the message. Unclean spirits are cast out, the sick are healed, and there is great rejoicing in that town.
That final line matters: “there was great rejoicing in that town.” The Gospel does not merely inform; it liberates. It does not only correct ideas; it restores lives. Easter faith is not a private sentiment but the power of the risen Christ at work in the world. The Catechism teaches that Christ’s Resurrection is the source of our future resurrection and of new life already at work in us now. It confirms all Christ’s works and teachings and fulfils the promises of God for our salvation (CCC 651, 654). That is what we see in Samaria: resurrection power moving outward through the preaching of the Church.
The passage also highlights something beautiful about mission. It is not only apostles in formal positions who carry the Gospel. Ordinary believers, driven from one place to another, become witnesses. This reveals a deeply Catholic truth: by Baptism, the faithful share in Christ’s mission and are called to confess the faith they have received (CCC 1213, 1270, 1303). The Church grows not only by official preaching, but through believers who carry Christ into homes, towns, trials, and unfamiliar territory.
The Psalm responds with a cry of universal praise: “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.” This is fitting, because the Gospel is already moving outward beyond old boundaries. The saving deeds of God are not for a narrow circle only. His mighty acts call forth worship from all the earth. The Psalm recalls the Exodus, when God made a path through the sea. That memory helps us interpret Acts. Once again God is making a way where there seemed to be none. Once again he is leading his people through danger into life. The God who opened the sea is the God who now opens the nations to the risen Christ.
Then the Gospel takes us deeper into John 6, where Jesus speaks one of the most consoling and profound revelations in all Scripture. “I am the bread of life.” This is not merely metaphorical comfort. It is a declaration about who Jesus is and what he gives. Human beings hunger at many levels: physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. But beneath every lesser hunger lies the deepest hunger of all, the need for communion with God. Jesus does not merely offer an idea, a teaching programme, or a moral improvement plan. He offers himself.
He says, “Whoever comes to me I shall not turn him away.” That sentence alone can sustain a soul. Christ is not reluctant, conditional, or cold towards those who seek him. He is the one sent from heaven to do the Father’s will, and the Father’s will is saving, gathering, preserving love. Jesus states that he has come not to do his own will but the will of the One who sent him, and that this will is that he should lose nothing of what the Father has given him. This is the language of security, covenant, and eternal faithfulness.
The Catechism teaches that faith is first a personal adherence to God and at the same time assent to the truth he reveals (CCC 150). In this Gospel, faith is not an abstract belief system. It is coming to the Son, seeing the Son, believing in the Son. Eternal life is not merely a future prize detached from Christ; it is bound up with relationship to him. He is both the path and the gift. The promise of resurrection on the last day shows that salvation is not partial. Christ does not only nourish the soul in the present; he will raise the whole person in glory.
There is also a strong Eucharistic current here. Jesus as the Bread of Life prepares us to understand the Eucharist more fully. The Church teaches that in the Eucharist the whole spiritual good of the Church is contained, namely Christ himself, our Pasch (CCC 1324). The one who says “I am the bread of life” will give himself sacramentally for the life of the world. The hunger and thirst of the believer are answered most profoundly in communion with Christ, especially in the Eucharistic mystery, where the faithful are fed with the very life of the risen Lord.
Taken together, today’s readings are full of hope. In Acts, persecution cannot extinguish the Gospel. In John, unbelief cannot cancel the faithfulness of Christ. The Church is scattered, yet the mission advances. The crowd may hesitate, yet Jesus continues to invite. Hardship does not stop grace, and weakness does not nullify the Father’s will. The risen Christ remains at work, gathering, feeding, healing, and preserving his people.
For us, this means that no season of disruption is wasted if it is entrusted to God. Times of scattering, uncertainty, or grief may still become moments of unexpected fruitfulness. And no honest hunger needs to be hidden from Christ. He already knows the deepest need of the human heart, and he alone can answer it. He does not turn away the one who comes. He does not lose the one who belongs to him. He does not fail to accomplish the Father’s will.
One line to carry today:
Christ does not lose those who come to him, and even hardship can become a path for the Gospel to spread.
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