A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Jesus said to the crowds: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.”
As Jesus speaks to the crowds, he makes clear that no one can come to him unless God draws the soul to him. Modeling his relationship with the Father, Jesus expresses that being taught by God means listening to the Father and learning from him. Since no one has seen the Father but Jesus, belief is the means to eternal life through eating the living bread that Jesus gives through his sacrifice in the Eucharist. “And the bread that I will give,” Jesus tells the crowds, “is my Flesh for the life of the world.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus powerfully declares his unity with the Father and that belief in him as the Son of God is the source of eternal life.
God, knowing that Jesus your Son speaks to me through today’s Gospel reading, how do I respond to the words “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him”? In the darkness of sin, there is a clear powerlessness in seeking you that must first be accepted before being drawn by the light of your love. Give me the grace to recognize the action of the Holy Spirit in accomplishing this, that the love between you and your Son draws me to you. In the first reading, just as Philip instructed the eunuch who was reading Isaiah, teach me to see Jesus through the scriptures and in the living bread of the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ.
Lord, be with me today; help me desire to be drawn to you. With the words from an ancient Eucharistic liturgy, I pray: “We give you thanks, O Christ, our God, because you have deigned to share with us your Body and your Blood, O Savior; you have drawn to yourself our hearts.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.