Tuesday

3rd Week of Easter, Tuesday

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Readings: Acts 7:51–8:1a; Psalm 31:3c–4, 6, 7b, 8a, 17, 21ab; John 6:30–35.

Whenever we receive Communion we hear “the Body of Christ” and respond “Amen” without thinking much about how incredible it is that we are receiving God into our hearts under the appearance of bread. Whenever we genuflect in front of a tabernacle and that little red lamp is glowing nearby we acknowledge our faith that Our Lord is sacramentally present in the Eucharist.

Imagine the crowds hearing the teaching of the Eucharist for the first time and trying to understand it before believing in it. In today’s Gospel Jesus, like in yesterday’s Gospel, is trying to move them from thinking of ordinary bread in their stomachs to thinking of the bread of life. They’re still asking for signs as proof. They want evidence, and when we consider the teaching of the Eucharist evidence does not get us very far.

Our Lord today is asking them to go from what they understand of bread and the thought of endless bread to what they are really looking for: eternal life, not just as living forever, but as living content forever. When we consider our needs and our expectations for God to help fulfill them we can never lose sight of our ultimate need, God, and the means God has given us to fulfill it: believing in his son and receiving him as the Bread of Life. Let’s try believing today even when understanding something God teaches us is challenging, knowing he seeks our ultimate well being.

 

Second Week of Easter,Tuesday

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Readings: Acts 4:32–37; Psalm 93:1–2, 5; Gospel John 3:7b–15.

If you don’t trust a witness you’re not going to trust his testimony. Nicodemus seems to be doing a little cross-examination because he doesn’t understand and therefore doesn’t trust. Our Lord in today’s Gospel is inviting Nicodemus to have a greater faith. When Jesus speaks about the difference between earthly things and heavenly things he is also speaking about how a greater faith opens us to a deeper understanding of the mysteries of God, even though in this life we’ll never complete fathom the mystery.

Our Lord has come down from Heaven and, therefore, is an eyewitness to the things of Heaven. He’s inviting Nicodemus to trust in his testimony, and this is a trust that is born of faith. The sign of Moses lifting up the serpent in the desert (Num 21:4-9) is a story of God asking his people to show their faith in him by believing that looking upon a lifeless bronze serpent will result in something that obviously a bronze image cannot do: save them from death. This story from Numbers was only a foreshadowing of looking up at Jesus crucified upon the Cross and believing that instead of a simple execution he is giving witness to the depth of God’s love and mercy as well as the true horror of sin.

Let’s contemplate Our Lord upon the cross today and ask him to help us to trust more in his testimony and the testimony of his disciples so that we can pass from an understanding of earthly things to an understanding of heavenly ones as well.

Holy Week, Tuesday

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Readings: Isaiah 49:1–6; Psalm 71:1–4a, 5a–6b, 15, 17; John 13:21–33, 36–38

Trust means that you confide in someone. Toward the beginning of the Last Supper (which we’ll commemorate liturgically on Thursday evening) Judas’ lack of trust in Our Lord has become complete. Appearance and reality snap into focus: Jesus offers a morsel to Judas as a sign of friendship, but also knows it will be the sign to Peter and John of the friend who would betray him. Judas accepts the morsel while his heart rejects Jesus definitively: to the observer it seems two friends have just exchanged gestures of trust, when really it is a case of one friend extending one last gesture to another before a separation becomes complete.

If Judas had any doubt about whether Jesus really knew his heart, Jesus’ words to him were crystal clear in a language they both understood. Friends sometimes in a social setting speak in subtle hints and with apparently harmless phrases that communicate something only they know. Jesus shows to Judas in this moment that he knows him very well. When Judas chooses to go out into the darkness, literally and figuratively, Jesus begins to confide even more in those who remain, because he knows his time is short and he wants to acknowledge their trust in him.

Jesus trusts me completely. Do I confide in him? Trust and confidence are something that grow over time or wither. On Tuesday of Holy Week let’s confide in Our Lord knowing that his trust in us is limitless. He knows us better than we know our very selves, and, like a good friend, wants to help us see the things in our lives to which we may be blind.