Friday of the Third Week of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

Our Gospel readings this week are framed by two pivotal questions. The first question comes from the conclusion of Monday’s Gospel: “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” It is asked by the crowds upon finding Jesus, and it shows a certain receptivity within them and a desire to do God’s will. But after listening to Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse, which we have followed throughout the week, they raise a new question at the beginning of today’s Gospel, a question grounded in resistance and unbelief: “How can this man give us His Flesh to eat?”

It is through the presentation of difficult teachings that Jesus tests the faith of those who seek Him. As the discourse progresses, it becomes clear that what appeared to be genuine receptivity in the crowd was actually mere surface-level fascination. They relied on their own understanding and withheld belief in Jesus until they could grasp how His words would come to be. This is not the relationship that Jesus is seeking from His disciples. He says as much in His response to their initial question: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one He sent.” He desires true belief, which requires trust and an abandonment to the ways of God, even when they are hidden from our understanding.

It is for this reason, in part, that Jesus gives Himself to the Church in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a stumbling block and foolishness to those without belief. But Jesus wants to draw from the faithful a resolute trust in Him. In the same way that He asks us to believe that God became man and dwelt among us, Jesus asks us to believe that God comes to dwell among us today under the signs of bread and wine. Let us not be resistant and unbelieving like the crowds in today’s Gospel, who turn away from Jesus. Rather, let us renew our belief in Jesus and in His Eucharistic presence, and say with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Reflection by Nathan, seminarian