One Minute Reflection – 7 May – Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter, C, Gospel: John 6:30–35 and the Memorial of St Agostino Roscelli
“…My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”...John 6:32b
REFLECTION – ““Sing a new song to the Lord!” (Ps 96[95]:1). It is a new song to match a new situation. As Paul wrote: “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2Cor 5:17). Those who were Israelites according to the flesh were set free from the tyranny of the Egyptians thanks to their mediator at that time, all-wise Moses, they were set free from their levy of brickmaking, the useless sweat of their earthly toil…, the cruelty of their overseers, the inhuman harshness of Pharaoh. They passed through the sea, ate manna in the wilderness, drank water that gushed forth from the rock, crossed dry-footed over the Jordan and entered into the Land of promise.
Now all of this has been renewed for our sakes and this new world is incomparably better than the old. We have been set free, not from an earthly slavery but from a spiritual one, we have no longer been delivered from this world’s tasks but from the stains of carnal pleasure. We have escaped, not from Egyptian foremen or an impious and pitiless tyrant, a man like ourselves but from cunning, immoral demons inciting us to sin and from Satan, the leader of their mob.
We have passed over the waves of this present life like a sea, with its commotion and insane bustle. We have eaten spiritual manna, the bread that came down from heaven giving life to the world. When we put our delight in the living waters of Christ, we drank from water that gushed from the rock. We have passed over Jordan thanks to the grace of the holy baptism we were deemed worthy to receive. We entered the Land promised to the saints and made ready for them, that land, which the Lord called to mind when he said: “Blessed the gentle for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt 5:4)….St Cyril of Alexandria (380-444) Father & Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Almighty Father, to whom this world, with all it’s goodness and beauty belongs, give us grace joyfully to begin this day in Your name and to fill it with the active love for You and our neighbour. By the food You give us, to sustain us on this journey, we are brought to holiness in Your Son, our Lord Jesus the Christ, whom You gave to us as our food. May the Mother of Your Son and our mother, lead us to You and may the prayers of St Agostino Roscelli, be a succour on our way. Through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God now and forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 