The Catholic Calendar for Friday, April 23, 2004
Friday of the Second Week of Easter
St. George, martyr
St. Adalbert, bishop, martyr

Scripture from Friday’s Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 5:34-42
Psalm 27:1,4,13-14
John 6:1-15

A reflection on today’s Sacred Scripture:

In today’s first reading, Gamaliel, the wisest of the Pharisees, persuades his fellow-religious leaders not to oppose the teaching of Peter and the other apostles, but to let them go. Even though their teaching is contrary to the current interpretation of the Pharisees, he reasons, it may be from God as they claim. If so, we must not oppose it.

Do I really know what the living voice of Christ, our Holy Father, is teaching? Do I have a copy of the New Catechism of the Catholic Church? Do I check this authentic source to see if they conform to my own statements about Church teaching? Do I have the mind of Christ, the mind of the Church?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks a little boy for all the food he had for the day. The boy could have said ‘no’, but he gave up his own will. Is Jesus asking us to give him something today that perhaps we’re reluctant to part with--a sinful habit, a stubborn grip on our own comfort, a lazy neglect of deeper prayer, or hanging on to a prejudice or narrow thinking that impedes charity?

Jesus can do such wonders if only we cooperate.

- Msgr. Paul Whitmore
(smartins at twcny dot rr dot com)

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posted by joachim at 4:30 AM