3RD WEEK OF EASTER
Psalter: Week 3 / (White)

Ps 117:1bc, 2
Go out to all the world
and tell the Good News.

1^st Reading: Acts 9:1-20*

Meanwhile, Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorize him to arrest, and bring to Jerusalem, anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

As he traveled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” And he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute. Now, get up, and go into the city; there, you will be told what you are to do.” (…)

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go, at once, to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. (…)

So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you, so that you may receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptized. Then he took food and was strengthened.

For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.

Gospel: Jn 6:52-59

 The Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

“My flesh is really food, and my blood is truly drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me, and I in them. Just as the Father, who is life, sent me, and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats me will have life from me. This is the bread from heaven; not like that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.”

Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum when he taught them in the synagogue.

Reflections

SOMETHING LIKE SCALES FELL FROM HIS EYES

This experience of Saul that transformed him to Paul is a moment of conversion, a moment of revelation, a moment of truth. And having been confronted with the truth a persecutor becomes a disciple. Can we recall a similar experience when our preconceived notions or biases fell like scales from our eyes and gave us a different, a new way of perceiving the world around us? Then we realize that “radicals,” “communists” and “rebels” were people of flesh and blood who have ideals and have a genuine concern for their country. We stopped thinking that nobody will be saved outside the Catholic Church. We saw the gems in other religions and the innate values of our indigenous culture and beliefs. We realize that diversity is something we should not only tolerate but actually celebrate because it adds richness to life and widen one’s horizons. We pray that, if there are still scales covering our eyes, these, too, may fall to give us a clearer vision of life.

Daily Reflection 2018

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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57^th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL

With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

 

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