15 April 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:51
Philip has just seen a whole city rejoice. Now an angel sends him somewhere very different: “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” Luke adds: “This is a wilderness road.” God sends the evangelist away from the crowd to one man. On the road is an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her whole treasury. In the Bible “Ethiopia” means the ancient kingdom of Kush, south of Egypt, in today's Sudan; for the people of Jerusalem it was the edge of the known world. This powerful man has travelled well over a thousand kilometres to worship in Jerusalem, and now, seated in his chariot, he is reading the prophet Isaiah aloud, as people did in the ancient world. The Spirit says: “Go over to this chariot and join it.” Philip runs, hears the words, and asks the simple question that begins so many conversions: “Do you understand what you are reading?” The answer is humble and honest: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” The passage is Isaiah's song of the Servant: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer.” “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this?” And Philip, “starting with this scripture,” proclaims to him the good news of Jesus. They come to water, and the man cries out: “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” By the old law a eunuch could not enter the assembly of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:1), but Isaiah had promised that God would give faithful eunuchs “a name better than sons and daughters” (Isaiah 56:3–5). On a desert road that promise is kept. Philip baptizes him, the Spirit snatches Philip away, and the Ethiopian “went on his way rejoicing.” Ancient tradition, cherished in Ethiopia, honours him as one of the first to carry the Gospel to Africa, and the whole Church sees in this story the pattern of Christian initiation: the Scriptures opened, Christ proclaimed, faith, Baptism, and joy.
In the Gospel Jesus says something that should make us humble: “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.” Faith is never simply our achievement. St Augustine says, in substance, that the Father draws us not by force but by delight, as a branch held out draws a sheep, or as a child is drawn by the sight of what it loves. The Father drew the Ethiopian through his love of the Scriptures; he draws us too, often through someone who sits beside us and explains. Jesus quotes Isaiah: “And they shall all be taught by God.” Then he speaks in the present tense: “whoever believes has eternal life.” Eternal life begins now. And then the discourse turns a corner. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The word “flesh” is the same word St John used for the Incarnation: “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). The bread Jesus will give is not a symbol of his flesh; it is his flesh, given “for the life of the world,” that is, offered on the cross. The Eucharist makes present that one sacrifice of Calvary (Catechism 1366–1367). The Ethiopian was reading of a lamb led to the slaughter; at every Mass we receive that Lamb, the living bread who was slain and lives for ever.
Theme: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”
A desert road, a seeker who needed a guide, water for Baptism, and the flesh of Christ given for the life of the world.
“So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” Nehemiah 8:8
“So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.” Acts 8:30–31
Apply: Choose one person this week with whom you will read and talk over a passage of the Gospel.
“Do not let the foreigner joined to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.”” Isaiah 56:3
“As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”” Acts 8:36
Apply: Ask yourself honestly whom you would rather keep outside the Church, and pray for them by name.
“He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Deuteronomy 8:3
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:51
Apply: Make a spiritual communion each day this week, especially on days you cannot go to Mass.
God goes out of his way for a single seeker and opens the Scriptures through those who walk beside him.
The Lamb of whom Isaiah spoke is the living bread, his flesh given for the life of the world.
Take-home resolution: Read one Gospel passage this week with someone younger in the faith, and pray for the person who first taught you.
Dear friends, Philip was busy with a great mission in Samaria, and God sent him to a desert road for one man. The Lord does not only care for crowds. He will send an evangelist across a desert for a single seeking heart.
That man was reading Isaiah and could not understand it. When Philip asked: do you understand what you are reading?, he answered: how can I, unless someone guides me? (Acts 8:31). Many people today are like him: they have a Bible, or a memory of the faith, but no one to sit beside them. You could be that Philip for someone.
Philip started from the passage about the Lamb led to the slaughter and told him about Jesus. Then they came to water, and the man said: look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized? (Acts 8:36). The man the old law had kept outside was welcomed into God's family. He went on his way rejoicing.
In the Gospel Jesus says: I am the living bread that came down from heaven; the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:51). The Lamb the Ethiopian read about is the Bread we receive. Let us come to him with faith, and then go out like that man from Africa, on our way rejoicing. Alleluia. Amen.
Children, a man was reading the Bible in his chariot, but he did not understand it. God sent Philip to help him. Philip told him about Jesus, and the man was baptized and was so happy! Whenever you do not understand something about Jesus, ask your parents, your teacher or Father. God loves it when we ask!
Father, you sent Philip down the desert road to one seeking heart, and you draw us to your Son by the delight of your love. Open the Scriptures to us, renew in us the joy of our Baptism, and feed us with the living bread, the flesh of Christ given for the life of the world, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.