16 April, 2024 | Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter

 Reading 1 Acts 7:51—8:1a

Gospel Jn 6:30-35

The crowd said to Jesus:

"What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?

What can you do?

Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

He gave them bread from heaven to eat."

So Jesus said to them,

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;

my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven

and gives life to the world."

So they said to Jesus,

"Sir, give us this bread always."

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life;

whoever comes to me will never hunger,

and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

Reflections:

The text continues from yesterday's Gospel. The bread of the past, the manna in the wilderness, satisfied the physical needs of the Israelites and sustained them on their journey to the Promised Land. Now the new bread,  the only Son of God is in their midst, and he has promised so much more than manna. He has come to satisfy every hunger the human heart could ever know. Moses gave the people the food that perished every night, and he led them to an earthly promised land. Jesus, on the other hand, gives himself as the bread of eternal life. He leads his people out of slavery to sin and into the kingdom of heaven, the land of all God's promises. Jesus always offers us his own life, the living bread that comes down from heaven.

Action: 

Make it your daily prayer: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.