Thursday of the Third week of Easter
Acts of the Apostles 8,26-40.
The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, "Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route."
So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship,
and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit said to Philip, "Go and join up with that chariot."
Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
He replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.
This was the scripture passage he was reading: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
In (his) humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth."
Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, "I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?"
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him.
As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?"
Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him.
When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing.
Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Psalms 66(65),8-9.16-17.20.
Bless our God, you peoples,
loudly sound his praise;
He has given life to our souls,
and has not let our feet slip.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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."
COMMENTARY
They are wholly mistaken who reject God's plan for his creation, deny the salvation of the flesh and scoff at the idea of its regeneration, asserting that it cannot put on an imperishable nature. If the flesh is not saved, then the Lord did not redeem us with his blood, the chalice of the eucharist is not a share in his blood, and the bread which we break is not a share in his body (1Cor 10,16). For... the human substance wich the Word of God truly became redeems us with his blood...
Since we are his members (1Cor 6,15) and are nourished by his creation... he declared that the chalice of his creation is his own blood, from which he augments our own blood, and he affirmed that the bread of his creation is his own body from which he gives growth to our being.
So when the mixed chalice and the baked loaf receive the word of God, and when the eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, which bring growth and sustenance to our bodily frame, how can it be maintained that our flesh is incapable of receiving God's gift of eternal life? For our flesh feeds on the Lord's body and blood and is his member. So Saint Paul writes: “We are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones” (Eph 5,30; Gn 2,23). He is not speaking about some spiritual and invisible man...: he is speaking of the anatomy of a real man, consisting of flesh, nerves and bones. It is this that is nourished by his chalice, the chalice of his blood, and gains growth from the bread which is his body... In the same way, our bodies are nourished by the after being buried in the earth and... rise again in due season, when the word of God confers resurrection upon them “for the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2,11).
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