for the Life of the world

Reflection on the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary suggests a method of inspired growth which operates within people and communities as they seize opportunities to grow in their experience of the Divine Presence. The psalmist suggests that we pause to become aware of the blessings which have given life to our soul and have prevented our feet from slipping in our journey to date. This thanksgiving is cause for joy. In the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, Friar Jude Winkler comments that Luke has showed how the Holy Spirit moves the growth of the Church in the response of Philip to being rejected by the Jewish authorities. The message of the Gospel was first announced to the Jewish people in the centre of Jewish tradition, Jerusalem. The Greek speaking Jews who received the revelation of Jesus were forced to leave Jerusalem and the Word was brought to welcome ears among the half Jews of Samaria. The Ethiopian Eunuch to whom Philip explains Jesus, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, was known as a “God-fearer” in Jesus time. Friar Jude notes that they were interested in the faith of the Jews but they remained Gentiles. The powerful movements of the Bread of Life Discourse in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John take us from a personification of Jesus as Wisdom Incarnate, through the basic need of humanity to be fed what Joe Simmons, S.J remarks is very ordinary fare and pauses today as Jesus proclaims that His flesh is given through the action of the Holy Spirit, in communion with the Father, to Whom the psalmist gives thanks, as bread for the life of the world.