Water and Bread

Greetings on this the Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Readings: Acts 8:26-40; PS 66:8-9, 16-17, 20; Jn 6:44-51

In the first reading of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch it is a very heartwarming story. Philip now, in imitation of Jesus, opened the scriptures for the Ethiopian starting with the passage he was reading to proclaim the way of salvation. The outcome was his baptism.

You rarely see such enthusiasm for baptism these days. The shift in emphasis to other theological virtues and focuses has not been a positive development for the most critical of the Sacraments.

We are all a bit lax in asserting the primary importance of baptism.

Being in relationship with Jesus in the normative form begins with Baptism and is sustained in the Eucharist.

This means, setting aside extreme circumstances, a person who professes Jesus needs the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. Water and Bread.

The water baptism revealing a mysterious change of body and spirit into the body of Christ and the forgiveness of sin. The transubstantiation revealing a mysterious change of the basic elements into the very presence of the Christ to be taken within us.

Water and Bread. Physicality is not lost in favor of an abstracted spirituality. Rather, the redemption of the physical elements is a part of the salvific plan for us.

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Gospel
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.

I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

Don’t deny yourself the intimacy that comes by way of and in the Sacraments.

Water and Bread.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry