A take-home theme for today’s readings (Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51) is to listen to and to learn from to be on an apostolic mission, as Philip, as well as Peter and John and Stephen, were, and to appreciate and receive the Bread of Life to be raised up by Jesus and to attain eternal life. To listen and to learn, we must be humble and be open to what God has for us. However, we have the potential to reject or refuse what God teaches and offers, if it does not make sense in our limited minds.
In today’s First Reading (Acts 8:26-40), it is not
Philip, a deacon, who does amazing pastoral works but the Holy Spirit, who
directs and enables and empowers him to do.
Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading (John 6:44-51)
reminds us that we are drawn to Jesus, who is the Bread of Life, as the Father
in heaven wills, so that we will be raised up at the eschaton (6:44). It means that we must be taught by God and learn
what God teaches us (6:45). If not – if we do not listen to and learn from God,
we would be chasing Jesus in vein, as the crowd, who were fed by Jesus, did.
To seek Jesus to be fed with the Bread of Life as
our spiritual food for eternal life and to do works of Jesus on mission, we
must be obedient enough to listen to and learn from God. As a result of
listening to and learning from God, the Holy Spirit will be poured out by the
Father in Jesus’ name to empower and drive us to engage in our apostolic missions
to teach what God teaches – what Jesus has taught.
Transitioning from yesterday’s Gospel Reading (John
6:35-40) to today’s (John 6:44-51), we skip vv. 41-43 and pick up with v. 44 to
v. 51.
In John 6:41, Jesus repeated what he said in 6:35
that he is the Bread of Life, but added that he, the Bread of Life, came from
heaven. To this, the Galilean crowd
said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of
Joseph? Do we know his father and mother? Then, how can he say, ‘I have come
down from heaven?’”(John 6:42).
The crowd recognized that the man, whom they were
chasing and talking to is Jesus the Nazarene, the son of Mary and Joseph. So,
they were at loss about why Jesus was saying that he has come from heaven. And
it sounds like they lost their interest in listening to Jesus at that moment.
It was like saying, “Why do we listen to Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph? He
is no prophet with mighty power to perform a sign” – though they witnessed and
were benefitted by his fourth sign. Their minds were shifted to the assumption:
There is no way the son of Mary and Joseph could do such a thing, thinking that
Jesus was a mere human.
This is a symptom that the crowd was operated by
what flesh dictates – not open to be directed by God, who is the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
So, Jesus replied:
Stop
murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: “They
shall all be taught by God”. Everyone who listens to my Father and learnes from
Him comes to me (John 6:43-45).
The great sign that Jesus performed to feed them out
of mere five loaves and two fish did not open the hearts and minds of the crowd
to believe in Jesus. They did not
believe that Jesus was the Bread of Life from heaven, because it made no sense to
them that Jesus, whom they knew as the son of Mary and Joseph, would have come
from heaven.
Because what dictated the crowd was flesh, their
original motive to seek out Jesus was to be fed again (John 6:26). That was all
they cared. They were not interested in what made it possible for Jesus to
perform such a great sign to fee all of them out of only five loaves of bread
and two fish. And now, they were about reject him and the Christological truth in him as the
Bread of Life, just because the see him as the son of Mary and Joseph. They
began losing their interest in what Jesus teaches – what God teaches.
Nevertheless, Jesus continued to teach his
Christological truth further that he will raise those who are drawn to him as
they listen to and learn from God on the last day – eschaton (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:29-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
(John 6:44-45).
To listen to and learn from God to be drawn to
Jesus, the Bread of Life, to be raised on the last day for eternal life, we
must be obedient. Because of obedience, we listen to and learn from God, and
therefore, are drawn to Jesus, submitting ourselves to the one, to whom God
draws us (John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:33-34). This also means that God
draws those who are obedient to Him and His teaching to His Son, Jesus, who is
the Bread of Life from heaven, He put His Law in their obedient hearts. Those
who are drawn by God to Jesus are also coming to him for a new covenant, and
they shall know God.
In the biblical Greek, to learn means to be disciple:
μαθητής – mathetes. This Greek word is related to μανθάνω
- manthano, which means “to learn”. And, this word is also an
etymological background for “mathematics”.
But the crowd’s minds were distracted by worldly
matter, because they were dictated by flesh, which seeks perishable food,
rather than food that endures for eternal life. That is why they failed to
listen but shift to Jesus being the son of Mary and Joseph. It means that they
did not know God because they did not listen to and learn from Him, even though
Jesus, who came from heaven, meaning that being sent by God the Father in
heaven and being God himself in the human flesh of Jesus.
The crowd could not keep up with Jesus though he was
letting them know who he really is.
But Jesus further unfolded the Christological truth
of him and implicated his relationship with the Father with these words:
Not
that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the
Father (John 6:46).
Nobody but Jesus, who was sent by God the Father in
heaven, has seen the Father. This speaks of Jesus’ very unique relationship
with the Father, which is also addressed in John 1:18.
According to John 1:1-18, Jesus, the Theos-Logos (God-Word), was with God and
is God himself, was incarnated to dwell among us and to give us grace through
his fullness and to reveal God the Father through him, as he is the only one to
have seen God and seated at His right hand. And this background on Jesus is
necessary to appreciate John 6:46 so that we know that the Bread of Life is
grace given to us through the fullness of Jesus.
Jesus really wants the crowd to open their eyes and
hearts to believe – to accept the Christological truth of Jesus by submitting
themselves to God – to be obedient enough to listen to and learn from God to
have eternal life. So, he said:
Amen,
amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life
(John 6:47).
And, in the same breath, Jesus identified himself as
the Bread of Life, again (John 6:48), just as he did in John 6:35).
Then, Jesus further explained how he, the Bread of
Life is different from manna, as both of these are from heaven and sent by God
the Father:
Your
ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that
comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die
(John 6:49-50; cf. John 6:32)
The manna (Exodus 16:1-35) was not food that endures
for eternal life but that perishes (John 6:27). That is why those who ate the
manna died and did not have eternal life. However, the Bread of Life, the body
of Jesus, is the food – the bread that endures for eternal life, a special
grace out of his fullness, to those who are drawn to him by God upon obediently
listening to and learning from Him.
Because Jesus, through his body, is the Bread of
Life, for us to have eternal life, Jesus summed up his discourse so far with
these words:
I
am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will
live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the
world (John 6:51).
First, Jesus rebuked the crowd who chased Jesus for
food that would make them hungry and would not lead to eternal life and
encouraged them to seek food that endures for eternal life (John 6:27). And,
Jesus revealed this food that endures for eternal life is the true bread from heaven
given by the Father in heaven, different from the manna from heaven given by
Him (John 6:32). And it is Jesus himself, who identified himself as the Bread
of Life, which will keep those who come to him and believe from hunger and
thirst (John 6:35). Then, he said that he carries what the Father gives (John
6:37) and was sent from heaven by the will of God the Father in heaven (John
6:38). Thus, Jesus is the Bread of Life from heaven (John 6:41), the Bread of
Life (6:48), the Living Bread of Life from heaven (John 6:51).
But, to appreciate this Living Bread of Life from
heaven for eternal life, we first need to be obediently listen to and learn
from God to be drawn by Him to His Son, through whose fullness, grace is given
to us, and the Living Bread of Life from heaven, namely, the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist, is given.
In today’s First Reading (Acts 8:26-40), deacon Philip
was sent by the Holy Spirit to assist Ethiopian eunuch, who came to Jerusalem
to worship and was reading the Book of Prophet Isaiah on his way back in the chariot.
Philip was one of the seven deacons ordained, in
response to the complaints. Not to be confused with Philipp, who had been with
Jesus. And deacon Philip had a great success in evangelizing Samaria as read in
yesterday’s First Reading (Acts 8:26-40).
Though the eunuch was devoted enough to come all the
way to Jerusalem to worship and read the Scripture, he did not comprehend the
Word in his reading. He needed some help, and he desired to learn the Word.
Then, God through the Holy Spirit sent Philip, who was filled and driven by the
Holy Spirit.
Thus began the eunuch’s Bible study with Philip.
The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53:7-8, a portion of
the fourth servant song, and asked Philip to tell him who really is the
suffering servant in this text. Through the Holy Spirit in Philip’s teaching,
the eunuch understood that it is Jesus. Then, the eunuch’s heart must have been
on fire to desire to be baptized as soon as possible – not to wait until he
would return to Ethiopia. Thus, he was baptized as soon as he came across the
water on his way. And, Philip vanished from the eunuch’s sight, as his mission
to him was completed.
What is important to note here is that it was not really Philip himself but it was, indeed, the works of the Holy Spirit. Philip served the Holy Spirit so obediently as he let the Holy Spirit direct to where the need is and enabled him to accomplish necessary work of Jesus.
What Philip was to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)
is like what risen Jesus was to Cleopas and another disciple on the way to
Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). No, Philip was not in per with Jesus. However, as Jesus
was sent by the Father to teach and heal, Philip was sent by the Holy Spirit to
do Jesus’ work.
As we complete celebrating the Resurrection through
Paschaltide, we shall be like Philip, as well as Stephen, Peter, John, and the
rest of the Apostles, filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. But, we must be
obedient to listen to and learn from God first as disciples, drawn to Jesus and
eat the Living Bread of Life from heaven.
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