Faith Daily | 19 April 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - EASTER THREE

Gracious Father,

who in your great mercy made glad the disciples

with the sight of the risen Lord:

give us such awareness of his presence with us

that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life,

and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: John 6: 22-29

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the lake saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.* 24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ 28Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ 29Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by Carol Streatfield

It seems to me that in reflecting on this reading, if we are to “perform the works of God” and if we are to do this through “belief in him whom he [God] has sent.” then we must know how it is that we are ‘to believe’. There seems to be several ways ‘to believe’: one is a simple cognitive, perhaps verbal, statement of ‘I believe.’; another perhaps takes that a little deeper into one’s passion and framework of understanding, a fervently held statement of faith upon which one’s life journey is based; and perhaps another may arises through a personal meeting with the risen Christ, which generates such a profound knowing of Christ that there is no other life possible but one through which Christ flows.

It seems to me that these are all part of the same journey: one leads to the next step, and repeats themselves during the ups and downs of anyone’s life. But the deeper our ‘belief’ goes, and therefore the more tangible is the relationship with the living Christ, then the more the love of God swirls round within and bursts forth, and the more our lives become crucibles of the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. I guess they can be a measure of how much harder we have to work at our ‘belief’, i.e. our relationship with Christ, and thereby be able to “perform the works of God.”

FINAL PRAYER: St Francis de Sales

I offer you the silence of this night.

Out of empty pockets and empty hands,

I offer you the riches

of a soul struggling

to do the best I can

to honour you

in every way I can

with the little that I have.

I leave the rest to you.

Amen