＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Acts 6:8-15

 Stephen, full of grace and power,

Did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia.

 They argued with Stephen but they could not match the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. As they were unable to face the truth, they bribed some men to say, “We heard him speak against Moses and against God.”

 So they stirred up the people, the elders and the teachers of the Law; they took him by surprise, seized him and brought him before the Council. Then they produced false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against our Holy Place and the Law. 

We even heard him say that Jesus the Nazarean will destroy our Holy Place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us.” And all who sat in the Council fixed their eyes on him, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.

 

Ps 119:23-24, 26-27, 29-30

Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

John 6:22-29

 Next day the people who had stayed on the other side realized that only one boat had been there and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples; rather, the disciples had gone away alone.

Bigger boats from Tiberias came near the place where all these peo­ple had eaten the bread. When they saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Master, when did you come here?”  Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for me, not because you have seen through the signs, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life.

The Son of Man will give it to you, for he is the one the Father has marked.” Then the Jews asked him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this: that you believe in the One whom God has sent.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

The people whose hunger is sated by the miracle of the multiplication of the bread cannot have enough of Jesus. Driven by physical desire to be fed again by the Lord, they come looking for Him. And having found Him, they rejoice in knowing that they will be fed again.

But Jesus uplifts their otherwise superficial understanding of their need. He invites them to come to know better their deeper hunger for the food of life. For responding to their physical needs is nothing but an avenue for the Lord to point out to them that there is more to life than just physical needs.

They must look for the bread that provides not only physical benefits but that which gives life.