Thursday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April 30, 2026

John 13:16-20

When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it. I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, the one who ate my food has raised his heel against me. From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

“When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet.”  The Lord Jesus, who came to fulfill the prophecies about him, here acts as a prophet himself by engaging in what scholars call a “prophetic action”.  His act of washing of the feet of the Apostles consisted of a humiliation, since only slaves performed such services, and this is in line with similar actions which God commanded the Prophets to do: Jeremiah, who was told not to marry; Hosea, who was told to marry a prostitute; and Ezekiel, who was told not to mourn when his wife died.  These frightening, humiliating actions taught some truth to the Israelites in a visceral way.  The Lord Jesus shows his Apostles more forcefully than with speech, that they must serve not just one another but all people, no matter what the cost.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.”  Jesus compares the Apostles to slaves and messengers in order to teach the enormous distance between himself, the Son of God, and them, his creatures.  If God stoops to humble service of those whom he created and who owe their existence to him, then how much more the creatures ought to serve one another.  “If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.”  This is not so easy to understand in our daily lives.  It means meditating regularly on our lowliness so that we come to instinctively know it, and this means not shying away from the truth, which insults our pride.  The fact is that there is more distance between God and ourselves than between the most powerful person on earth and an insect.  The Son of God dying for us can be compared to a human dying for the sake of a single bacterium.  Yet he did this out of his overwhelming love for us.  “I am not speaking of all of you.”  The Lord Jesus died even for Judas, who rejected his grace and preferred to hang himself.  We see the Lord’s love for Judas in the number of opportunities he gives him to change his mind about betraying him and even repenting after he has followed through with the betrayal.  And he shows his love for his Apostles by warning them that he is to be betrayed.  His telling them that he knows this will happen confirms his divinity for them and will console them when it happens: “I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.”  

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”  It is a continual teaching of the Lord Jesus that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” and that “the Father and I are one”.  Here he teaches that the person who “receives” his messenger “receives” him, the Son, and thus also the Father.  The Greek word translated here as “receive” has many other meanings, including: “to take” or “to grasp” (in the physical sense), “to understand”, and “to keep”.  Substituting these for “receive” in the quotation helps us to gain the full sense of what the Lord meant.  But having explained to the Apostles their position as servants — indeed, their need to render service — the Lord Jesus reminds them of the magnitude of the service they form in spreading the Gospel.  

Sometimes the service we provide as believers in Christ and members of his Body may seem slight: a kind word or gesture delivered in a moment.  But Christ is in our words and gestures when they offer them for his sake and so they can produce an effect out of proportion to the effort we put into them, even that of the conversion of souls.

Personal Note: I am getting my third and final injection in my one working eye today. Overall my sight has improved from where it was a couple of months ago when straight lines looked warped and bent to me. Thank you for your prayers, and please pray that this last injection goes well!

Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April  2026

John 12:44-50

Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”

“Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me.’ ”  The Lord is speaking here during the one of the first days of Holy Week.  People who come to Jerusalem for the Passover flock to him because they have heard of his raising Lazarus from the dead.  The Lord addresses them, telling them that when he is “lifted up” from the earth, he, the Son of Man, will draw all things to himself.  The crowd understood “lifted up” as a common euphemism for crucifixion and so they asked: “We have heard out of the Law that Christ abides for ever. And do you say: The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?” (John 12, 34).  The people believed from texts such as Isaiah 9, 6-7 that when the Messiah came, he would remain forever: “For a Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. His rule shall be great, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever.”  However, the Lord would fulfill this prophecy in heaven for the just at the end of the world.  The words of today’s Gospel reading follow from this point.

“Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.”  The Lord continues to insist that the Son of Man is not the Messiah concerning which the Pharisees taught with their faulty and ultimately unauthorized interpretation of the Scriptures.  He is the Son of God, sent by the Father into the world.  The Son is in such unity with the Father that he who sees him, the Son, sees the Father.  Furthermore, “I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.”  The theme of light and darkness appears in such contemporary texts as in certain Dead Sea Scrolls.  The “light” in this sense meant justice, peace, and the reign of God.  The Lord adapts the term to his purpose.  He comes not as a child of the light or it’s messenger, but as the Light itself.  He himself is the Kingdom of God.  The “darkness” was ignorance and evil: “But the children of the kingdom [of the world] shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8, 12).  We have lived in the darkness of ignorance and evil, but that we might not remain there, the Light has come down from heaven.

“And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.”  The Lord comes this first time to redeem the world, but when he comes again it will be to judge the living and the dead, st which judgment the wicked will be condemned.  We note here that the Lord specifies: “If anyone hears my words and does not observe them”.  A person suffers condemnation because he rejects the words of the Lord.  The one who does not know them and so cannot reject them will be judged differently: “That servant, who knew the will of his lord and prepared not himself and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes” (Luke 12, 47-48).

“Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day.”  The Lord teaches the Jews that his coming does not signal the end of the world, but that the end shall take place at some different time.  The judgment will take place then: it is not immediate.

“The Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”  The Lord insists again that to obey his commandments is to obey the Father.  The Lord teaches the commandments rightly and not according to the way of the Pharisees or the other sects.

Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April 28,, 2026

John 10, 22-30

The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

The Feast of the Dedication of the Temple, also known as Hanukkah, usually occurs in early December, but in 2024 will begin on December 25 so that its eight days will run into January.  This is because the Jewish holy days depend on the lunar year.  Our celebration of Easter is determined from the Jewish holy day of Passover, which explains why the date for Easter changes every year.  The Apostle John notes in this reading from his Gospel that the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem on the Feast of the Dedication.  The other three Evangelists tell us mostly what the Lord did in Galilee.  The Gospel of Mark takes place entirely in Galilee until the last week of the Lord’s life.  John makes it clear that Jesus spent considerable time in the Holy City as well — not merely the three Passovers during his ministry but for other holy days as well.  In fact, most of John’s Gospel takes place in and around Jerusalem.  This might indicate that John was writing for the early Church of Judean Christians.  John might also show in this way that the New Covenant of Jesus had superseded the Old of Moses.  

“And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon.”  This was a double-columned porch on the east side of the Temple. It was 23 feet wide and the columns were 40 feet tall.  It was so-called, according to Josephus, because Solomon had built up the ground there since the plateau on which he built the Temple was not large enough for it and the ground around it was uneven.  Because it provided some shelter, it was often used by teachers and their disciples.  Later, St. Peter will teach there (cf. Acts 3, 11-12).

“How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  The Jews are asking Jesus if he is the Messiah promised by the Pharisees — the military leader.  The Lord, for his part was careful in using this term, preferring to call himself “the Son of Man”, of whom Daniel wrote, instead.  But the Lord indeed is the Messiah, “the anointed one”, for he was “anointed” with the Holy Spirit at the time he was baptized by John the Baptist, so he does not reject the title altogether.  “I told you and you do not believe.”  He told them of his true identity, that the Messiah was the Son of God who came to give eternal life to the righteous.  But the Jews had rejected this assertion as either blasphemous or beside the point.  The Lord answers their charge that what he had said of himself was blasphemous: “The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.”  The miraculous works prove that he speaks by God’s authority.  Then he answers their charge that his coming for the forgiveness of sins was beside the point: “But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.”  That is, they have refused God’s grace that they might believe in his Son.  They refuse to be his “sheep”.  If they did accept the grace and believe, they would know that he had not come to free Jerusalem but to save the human race: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”  

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”  For the Jews, this statement was, on the one hand, preposterous, and on the other hand, not an answer to their question: Would he fight the Romans or not?  The Lord Jesus continues to speak of his care for his flock: “No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.”  No one can seize his sheep from him.  The crowd does not want to hear of sheep, which do not fight.  What Jesus says to them makes no sense.  He is speaking a different language than they were prepared for.  And then he says, “The Father and I are one.”  For them, this is blasphemy, and yet they had not heard anything that he had said.

So often the Lord seeks to speak to us with nudges and signs that could only come from him.  When the matter is of great importance, he makes us so uncomfortable within ourselves that we feel we must take some action, even if it is to run in the opposite direction he would have us go.  We very often ignore these signs or explain them away, or delay until the opportunity to act has passed.  But we must accustom ourselves to listen for him so that, unlike the ancient Jews, we might understand what he wants from us and do his holy will.

Monday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April 27, 2026

John 10, 11–18

Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”

One afternoon during my career at the restaurant, a group of waitresses and I were eating during the break between the lunch and dinner rushes, and the topic of the recent nearby robberies came up.  The restaurant next to ours was robbed the night before and we traded information about it.  We decided that there was not a red cent in our restaurant we were willing to put ourselves at risk for.  If bad guys came in at closing time, we would hold the door for them as they wheeled out the office safe.  It was not that we did not like the restaurant where we worked, or the management, or the company that owned it; we just liked living better.

It is easy to sympathize with the shepherd of whom the Lord Jesus speaks who works for pay and runs off when he sees a wolf coming.  Unless he is a very good shot with his sling, he could be killed along with a number of the sheep.  The person owning the sheep would be very distressed at the loss of his sheep, but he could always hire a new shepherd and he could gather up his remaining animals.  In the event of an emergency, there was no incentive for the shepherd to stay and try to defend the sheep.  

So who is this “good shepherd”, and why would he lay down his life for his sheep?  The Greek word translated as “good” has the meaning of “virtuous”, “noble”, and “moral”, with the implication of “inspiring” through the display of these qualities.  The “good” shepherd, then, sees the good as his duty,and is not motivated by profit.  He sees himself as representing the sheep owner and his interests, and puts this above his own interests, or identifies this as his own interests.  The “good shepherd” sells out for his sheep, holding nothing back.  He makes a continual offering of himself for his sheep.  

“I am the good shepherd.”  The Son of God tells us in these words exactly who he is and what he means to do.  Our salvation is his purpose.  He, the infinite God, does this for his erring, wandering, difficult creatures.  We could never have believed this if it had not been revealed to us.  It simply goes beyond all reason.

It would seem madness for a God or  a human being to act this way and to have this mind, but we see this “throwing away of one’s life” in the crucifix and also in the lives of men and women religious and of priests.  As closely as they can they model their lives of sacrifice after that of the Good Shepherd.  To do this they give up everything that could hold them back, including family and spouses.  They are worthy of our prayers, for they do this for us, to intercede for us.  And we pray for one another as well so that we might be good sheep of this wondrous Shepherd and that he might call our names and lead us into  eternal pastures.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2026

John 10, 1–10

Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.  So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass follows St. John’s record of the Lord’s healing of the man born blind in Jerusalem.  In his account, John does not tell us that the Lord spoke to the Pharisees, but that they spoke to the blind man and even to his parents in order to discredit the miracle.  Immediately after the blind man recognized Jesus and understood that he was the Son of God, he prostrated himself and adored him.  Jesus then said, “For judgment I am come into this world: that they who see not may see; and they who see may become blind” (John 9, 39).  To this, some Pharisees who were nearby, retorted, “Are we also blind?”  To which the Lord replied, “If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remains.”  At this point today’s Reading commences, with Jesus declaring, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.”  He is challenging the Pharisees as “the teachers of Israel” (cf. John 3, 10) who have usurped “the chair of Moses” (cf. Matthew 23, 2) though they were not duly appointed by any legitimate authority.  But the Lord Jesus shows that he does possess such authority through the many signs he has performed that show that he has come from God.  To make this clear, he uses a metaphor drawn from everyday life that all people could agree on: the shepherd goes through the sheep gate but those who would steal sheep would have to go over the fence.  They would not attempt to enter through the gate because the gatekeeper would raise the alarm and the thieves would be beaten off.  The Lord is saying that the shepherd goes to the proper entrance, which is opened for him to enter.  He does not go over the fence.  This is the Lord who comes openly to his people in order to lead them to pasture.  

“The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”  Sheep as well as other farm animals become excited when they see, hear, or smell the one who customarily feeds them coming towards them, and they even know the times when he comes so that they become agitated if he does not.  They run toward him and cry out in their excitement.  These are the believers who rejoice to go to Holy Mass, to read the Scriptures, to learn about the Faith, and to pray.  “When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.”  “Driven out” should be “brought forth”, according to the Greek, a very different meaning: “When he has brought out all his own, etc.”  The shepherd walks ahead to lead the sheep to the pasture where he wants them to eat that day, and the sheep know from experience that they will eat well if they follow him.  They do not go out grudgingly or have to be “driven out”, but follow after him gladly.  “But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”  If two shepherds mix their flocks together in the same pasture, as sometimes happens, and one shepherd calls to his sheep, his own sheep will leave the rest behind and follow him.  The other sheep do not even look up when the shepherd calls.  Each shepherd, of course, has his own voice, but he also uses a certain whistle or grunt or other sound which belongs to him alone and his sheep know it very well.  We might think here of how Mary Magdalene recognized the risen Jesus when he called her name.  She did not recognize his form or his voice, but she did know the way he spoke her name.  Only he ever spoke her name the way he did, and when she heard it, she knew the “gardener” could only be Jesus.  We will thus be called by name when we leave this life if we persevere in the Faith.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.”  The Lord did not often explain his parables and metaphors unless he was asked, but he wanted the Pharisees to understand exactly what he meant.  The phrase “before me” is not found in the Greek but is understood.  A literal translation of this verse is: “All others, as many as came, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not.”  We might wonder about these “others”.  These would have been false messiahs and rebels.  The Lord could also be alluding to the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, who were widely distrusted by the people for their corruption.  By contrast, he himself had drawn such crowds as threatened to crush him with their numbers.  When word of his approach spread in any area, people dropped what they were doing and hurried to him.  The jealousy of the Pharisees, the chief priests, and Sanhedrin of his widespread following had much to do with their eagerness to kill him.  If a thief is going to steal a flock, he will have to kill the shepherd.

“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”  The Lord has identified himself as the shepherd who leads the sheep to pasture, and he now identifies himself as the gate through which the sheep must pass.  That is, he is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14, 6).  He is the only way to the pasture where the sheep will graze.  (And he is the Food that they will eat, as well).  

“A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”  The Lord draws up the distinction between himself and any other who would claim his prerogatives as the Son of God who has come down from heaven to save his people.  These thieves include not only the flock’s enemies from the outside, but those among the Shepherd’s assistants who scheme to seize the flock and exploit them for their own purposes: to “slaughter and destroy” them.  These include heretics and any in the Church who contest the Church’s teachers and propose false teachings in their stead, and attempt to lead the faithful astray.  But those who know the Church’s teachings are like the sheep who know their shepherd’s voice and do not follow strangers.

The Lord teaches the Pharisees in this way not in order to antagonize them but in order to convince them to look hard at themselves and at what they were doing so that they might repent and be saved.  Several Pharisees, including Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, did.  

Saturday in the Third Week of Easter, April 25, 2026

The Feast of St. Mark

Mark 16:15-20

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

It is said that St. Mark was the son of a woman named Mary, who owned a large house in Jerusalem.  He was evidently named “John” at his birth, and as was customary, had a Graeco-Roman name as well, “Mark”, anglicized from “Marcus”.  He had a cousin named Barnabas, who either was born on the island of Cyprus or spent a good part of his life there.  Mark’s mother’s house served as an important base for the Lord Jesus and his Apostles.  It was there that the Last Supper was eaten, and this was the house to which the Apostles fled at the time of the crucifixion.  Jesus appeared there on the days of his Resurrection and subsequently.  At this house the Apostles and a large number of other disciples (presumably including Mark and his mother) were meeting when the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost.  It is speculated that Mark wrote of himself in his own Gospel as the young man in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Mark 14, 51-52).  He and Barnabas were early companions and fellow missionaries of St. Paul.  At some point, though, Mark felt compelled to leave Paul and departed.  He may have returned to Jerusalem on family business or simply because he was exhausted from the incessant work.  He later became an assistant to St. Peter, who calls him his “son” in 1 Peter 5, 13, a letter written from Rome.  We learn from the Fathers that Mark acted as Peter’s interpreter and secretary, hinting that Peter’s Greek or Latin may have needed a little help as he preached to the Romans.  According to St. Clement of Alexandria, writing before the year 200, “And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds of Peter’s hearers that they were not satisfied with hearing once only, and were not content with the unwritten teaching of the divine Gospel, but with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark, a follower of Peter, and the one whose Gospel is extant, that he would leave them a written monument of the doctrine which had been orally communicated to them. Nor did they cease until they had prevailed with the man, and had thus become the occasion of the written Gospel which bears the name of Mark.  And they say that Peter, when he had learned, through a revelation of the Spirit, of that which had been done, was pleased with the zeal of the man, and that the work obtained the sanction of his authority for the purpose of being used in the churches.”  According to Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, Mark left Rome during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, which would date his Gospel, written in Rome, to the 40’s.  He made his way to Alexandria, Egypt, where he introduced the Faith.  The Coptic Christians in that city regard him as their founder.  The original rite of the Mass, called the “Liturgy of St. Mark” and going back to his time if not to him, was celebrated in the Greek language.  As the use of Greek faded over time, it was succeeded by a Coptic translation called the “Liturgy of St. Cyril”, established under Cyril of Alexandria in the fourth century.  The time, place, and manner of St. Mark’s death remains uncertain. An ancient tradition depicts him as being dragged to death through the streets of Alexandria.  His relics are kept in St. Mark’s inVenice.

By his own preaching and even more so through his Gospel, St. Mark fulfilled the Lord’s commandment: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

Friday in the Third Week of Easter, April 24,, 2026

John 6:52-59

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”  The Jews felt amazement and disgust at the Lord’s insistence that those who sought eternal life must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood.  They felt this way because they failed to reckon who it was who was speaking to them.  The Lord Jesus had prefaced his teaching with two substantial and undeniable miracles.  The people to who he was speaking, or most of them, had witnessed the multiplication of the loaves and fish, and had understood that the Lord had transported himself miraculously across the sea to Capernaum during the night.  This was no ordinary man.  The people should have asked the Lord to explain to them further what he meant, but they preferred only to “quarrel among themselves”.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.”  Jesus repeats himself so as to emphasize their need to do this.  He also makes it clear that he is not speaking metaphorically.  At the same time, his reiteration was meant to provoke the people to ask him, How will you give us your Flesh to eat?  “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”  Jesus says “has eternal life”, not “will have”.  The one who eats his Flesh and drinks his Blood already possesses eternal life.  Death is no more the end of that person, but a passageway.  You and I already possess eternal life.  “For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.”  The Greek word translated as “food” here could also be translated as “a meal”.  The Lord is clearly stating that his very Flesh is for us to eat and his Blood to drink.  

“Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.”  The Greek word translated here as “remain” also means “to abide”, “to stay at or with”, and “to stop” at a place.  We see it used in the Gospel of St. John when Andrew and John, having heard John the Baptist declare that Jesus was the Lamb of God, asked him, “Lord, where are you staying?” (John 1, 38).  Thus, the one who eats the Flesh of the Lord will abide or remain in him, and he in that one.  We will abide in him as a member of his Body, and he will abide in us as our Head.  While this signals a close connection, Jesus is speaking of personal intimacy.  The Song of Songs describes in beautiful, poetic terms the nature of this intimacy: Jesus is the Bridegroom of our souls.

“Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”  The Father is the Source of all life, human and divine.  He has begotten the Son from all eternity, and the Holy Spirit processes from both Father and Son.  The Son has life because the Father begot him.  Now, the one who “feeds on” Jesus shares in the life the Lord has received from the Father: he shares in the divine life.

“This is the bread that came down from heaven.”  While the English translation makes this phrase its own sentence, in the Greek text it is clearly   a clause.  The sentence should read: This is the bread that came down from heaven, which your ancestors ate and then died.  Or, This is the bread that came down from heaven: your ancestors ate it and died.  The Lord is setting up a contrast with his own Flesh as the Bread of Life: “Whoever eats this Bread will live forever.”  As great as a miracle as was the manna, the Lord says, the miracle of my giving you my Flesh to eat is far greater.

“These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”  John carefully notes for us the time (near Passover) and place where the Lord spoke these words, underlining their historicity and also noting their importance.  We also see here that while Jerusalem was hostile towards Jesus and Judea generally much more favorable in their opinion, it is in Judea that the people turn away from him in large numbers: “After this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him” (John 6, 67).   

Thursday in the Third Week of Easter, April 23, 2026

John 6, 44-51

Jesus said to the crowds: “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 learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. 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. 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.”

The Lord continues his teaching on himself as the Bread of Life.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.”  Having taught that all those who come to him are given to him by the Father, the Lord Jesus teaches that only those drawn by the Father may come to him.  The Father draws certain ones to his Son.  Another way to put it is that the Father’s will is that people might come to the Son, but only certain people respond to his grace — are “drawn” by his grace.  Each human receives sufficient grace to be drawn to the Son, but many refuse it.  Those who are drawn by the Father and so come to the Son will be raised up on the last day by him.  “They shall all be taught by God.”  The full passage the Lord quotes is, “All your children shall be taught of the Lord: and great shall be the peace of your children” (Isaiah 54, 13).  Using the verse, Jesus affirms that all people shall receive sufficient grace to be saved: all people will be offered the Father’s grace, but just like teaching, it can be rejected, no matter how profitable and attractive it is.

“Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.”  Here, the Lord Jesus speaks of those who follow the Jewish Law, but also those who follow the natural law written on our hearts.  Those who live righteously and seek the good shall be drawn to Jesus.  “Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.”  That is, no matter how good a student a human is of the Father’s words, the Son has a unique relationship with the Father that cannot be approached.  Conversely, because of this relationship and the Son’s perfect alignment with the Father’s will, we can see the Father in him, as the Lord will explain to St. Philip at the last Supper when Philip asks Jesus to show the Apostles the Father: “He who sees me sees the Father also” (John 14, 9).

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”  The use of “amen” signifies the presentation of a solemn teaching.  The doubling of the “amen” emphasizes the solemnity of the teaching.  Normally this Hebrew word means something like, “let it be done”, but in this context it could be understand by the word “truly”.  “Whoever believes”, that is, whoever believes in me has eternal life.  We should pause and consider what the members of the crowd were looking at: a man very much like themselves, dressed in ordinary clothes and who had not washed or slept in a few days, speaking to them with his ordinary voice, was telling them that if they believed in him, they would possess eternal life.  Perhaps they were not thinking of the miracles he had performed at this point.  It would seem that he, a plain man, as he appeared, was asking them to render the same belief in him as in Almighty God.

“I am the Bread of Life. 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.”  He repeats that he is the Bread of Life, and in order to teach what that meant compares the Bread of Life to the manna in the Sinai desert.  Their ancestors had been fed miraculously, wondrously, with the manna that came down from heaven.  They were sustained by this manna for forty years when otherwise they would have perished from hunger.  But the Bread of Life would feed them, those present, and so convey eternal life to them.  “I am the living Bread that came down from heaven.”  Not only is he the Bread of Life, but this Bread is alive, which could not be said even of the manna.  Living Bread would surely nourish in greater ways than bread made of dead wheat.  This living Bread came down from heaven, from the Father.  The Father sent this Bread down to the people and was drawing people to it in order to eat it.  And, “whoever eats this Bread will live forever.”

“And the Bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”  The Lord now speaks of his Flesh: the “bread” that he will give them to eat is in fact his own Flesh, but under the appearance of bread, “for the life of the world”.  In other words, he means to offer his Flesh in sacrifice for the salvation of the world.  In no way had the Pharisees prepared the people for a Savior of the world.  The Messiah, they taught, would save Israel and destroy its enemies, that is, the nations of the world.  Further, their teaching concerning the Messiah did not have him sacrificing his Flesh for anyone.  He was to come, overthrow the Romans, and rule.  The Lord Jesus is here teaching the crowd which had lately sought to make him king and March with him to Jerusalem, that he, the Messiah, was very different — vastly greater — than what they had been told.