Loading today's devotional...
No devotional available for this date.
Drawn by the Father to the Living Bread
Where We Are
Alleluia! Thursday of the Third Week of Easter continues the Bread of Life discourse with Jesus's most explicit claim yet: "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." The crowd's murmuring grows louder. In Acts, Philip encounters an Ethiopian eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah on a desert road and explains the good news of Jesus starting from the very passage the man is reading. Both readings show us how God draws people to himself: through Scripture, through encounter, through the bread of his own body.
The Word
In Acts, an angel directs Philip to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. There he encounters an Ethiopian eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter." Philip asks, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man replies, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" Philip tells him the good news about Jesus. When they come to water, the eunuch asks to be baptized. The Spirit carries Philip away, and the eunuch goes on his way rejoicing. In John's Gospel, Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." Quoting the prophets, Jesus declares that he is the living bread that came down from heaven. "The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
Continue Reading
Sign in to read the full devotional and receive it in your inbox each morning - a quiet moment of reflection to start your day.
By signing in, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Reflect
The Ethiopian eunuch is one of the most compelling figures in Acts. He is a foreigner, a court official, and according to the law of Deuteronomy, excluded from the assembly of Israel. Yet here he is, reading Isaiah, hungry for God, open to being taught. God sends Philip to meet him exactly where he is, on a desert road, in the middle of a passage he does not understand.
This is how the Father draws people. Not through coercion or spectacle, but through a quiet arrangement of circumstances: a road, a chariot, a scroll, a question. "Do you understand what you are reading?" "How can I, unless someone guides me?" The simplicity of the exchange is breathtaking. The greatest mysteries of salvation are unlocked by one person willing to sit beside another and explain.
Jesus's words in John 6 parallel this perfectly. "No one can come to me unless the Father draws him." The Father draws the Ethiopian through Philip, through Isaiah, through water by the side of the road. The Father draws us through Scripture, through the community of believers, through the Eucharist where Jesus gives his flesh for the life of the world.
The claim that "the bread I will give is my flesh" will scandalize the crowd. It scandalizes many still. Jesus is speaking of something more than metaphor. The early Church understood this, and the Eucharistic tradition flows directly from this discourse. What Jesus promises in John 6, he fulfills at the Last Supper and renews in every Mass.
The eunuch goes on his way rejoicing. That is the mark of someone who has been drawn by the Father and fed by the Son. Joy, deep and irrepressible.
Living It
Be a Philip today. Look for someone on a "desert road," someone who is searching, questioning, reading, but not yet understanding. It may be a coworker, a friend, a family member. You do not need to have all the answers. Philip simply began where the man already was and told him about Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you one person who needs a guide today. Start with a question, not a lecture. Listen before you explain. Also, if you are the one on the desert road, searching but not understanding, ask for a Philip. God will send one. He always does.
Prayer
Father, you draw us to your Son through Scripture, through community, and through the bread of his own body. Send us, like Philip, to meet the seekers on desert roads. Give us courage to ask, "Do you understand?" and humility to explain. Draw us ever deeper into the mystery of the living bread, the flesh of Christ given for the life of the world. And send us on our way rejoicing, like the Ethiopian, baptized and transformed. Alleluia. Amen.
Signed in as ·
