Daily Reflection Monday

Our first reading from Acts 6 today begins the famous narrative of the martyrdom of the deacon Stephen, acknowledged as the first of many martyrs in the Church. It will conclude with his actual martyrdom in tomorrow’s passage. In many ways, the martyrdom of Stephen and his very long speech to his persecutors (that takes up virtually all of chapter 7 of Acts and of which we only hear the very end in the liturgy tomorrow) becomes the climax of the first part of the Acts of the Apostles which was about St. Peter and the early Church in Jerusalem. After St. Stephen’s death, we will be introduced to Saul, at whose feet Stephen’s murderers laid their cloaks and who approved of Stephen being stoned to death. From now on, Acts will become more and more focused on this Saul, reborn on the road to Damascus as the Apostle Paul (“my chosen instrument”) until its almost complete focus on Paul comes to bear in chapter 13 to the end.

The martyrdom of Stephen is immediately preceded in Acts by Peter and the Apostles being imprisoned by the high priests, then miraculously escaping, only to be led back whereupon Peter boldly confronts them all and Gamaliel convinces the other high priests to let them go, lest they find themselves, “fighting against God!” This evidently brought a period of peace to the Jerusalem church that came to a violent end after Stephen’s death. During that time the early Church institutes the order of deacon, and it is Stephen who proves to be the greatest among them. But what is most fascinating here is that the Greek Christians in Jerusalem (the Hellenists), who were not Jewish converts, are the ones who get the Apostles to give them their Hellenist deacons, one of whom becomes the first martyr but also becomes somehow pivotally involved with the Church’s decision in Acts 13 to begin moving away from Jerusalem. It is precisely these same “Hellenists” to whom St. Paul and Barnabus will soon be commissioned to go to and who, finally, the entire Church has to thank for leading the Church out of Jerusalem, where, as something of a sect of Judaism, it could be argued, if it had remained only there would probably have been lost and buried in the total destruction of that city in 70 A.D. by Rome. It is a wonderful example of how God so mysteriously works in the world.

Our gospel passage today begins what may be seen as the second and more consequential part of the great and unique Eucharistic chapter of John 6 after the initial miracle of the loaves and fish. Here, the crowd confronts Jesus on the other side of the lake and wonders how he got there (he did not take the boat with his disciples but came to them later walking on the water). Jesus then confronts them, that they seek him in hopes of more food, and he tells them, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Of course, this directly implies the food of the eucharist which Jesus will continue to elaborate more and more deeply until in Jn 6:53 where he will finally proclaim bluntly, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in me.”

But Jesus’ reply to the crowds’ question of what they must do, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent,” where the passage ends today, will also end our focus. It is interesting that Jesus does not begin his testimony on the eucharist with “the food that endures for eternal life,” but rather with faith. We must first truly believe in Jesus, the one sent by God (the Word who was from the beginning with God and was God and became flesh), before we can truly receive him in the Eucharist, which is ultimately an entirely spiritual experience that the bread and wine signify (“The flesh is useless. The Spirit alone gives life.”). We must have that faith in him that ultimately stops asking questions and just believes. When we receive we say, “Amen.” We do not give our understanding or explanation of what we are doing because we don’t really have any! All we bring is our faith and our trust in God, the only thing we really have and the only thing that matters, for they are the source of all love that fully resides in the person of Jesus Christ.