Friday of the Third Week of Easter
(Acts 9:1-20; John 6:52-59)
At the beginning of John’s gospel, we are told, “…the Word became flesh,
and made his dwelling among us.” We have
access to the Word by means of Baptism.
Through this sacrament we share in the life of the Father and the
Son. In today’s passage Jesus tells his
Jewish deniers that the same flesh nurtures us so that his life may grow within
us. Like an infant cannot develop
without her mother’s milk, we cannot develop without the Eucharist.
We can see the effect of this new life and its growth in the reading
from Acts today. Paul, full of religious
zeal but without Christ in his heart, wants to persecute Christians. Then he has a direct encounter with the Lord
which leads to his Baptism. For the rest
of his life Paul never seeks the persecution of others. Rather he preaches the
love of Christ who gave his life for the salvation of the world.
People will object to our scenario of conversion to Christ and commitment
to love of others because the Church has apparently persecuted non-believers through
the ages. Most often these persecutions
were conducted by the state which had reason to maintain a unified
society. Nevertheless, zealous people
have been found in the Church who have insisted upon if not carried out
persecution. We can only ask forgiveness
for these aberrations and pray they never happen again.
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