April 17, 2026 Friday of the Second Week of Easter Gospel: John 6:1-15
Today is Friday of the Second Week of Easter. The narrative taken from the Gospel of Saint John tells us the story of Jesus’ first multiplication of the loaves.
A dialogue between Jesus and Philip holds profound and lasting significance. Jesus said to Philip: “Where can we buy bread for all these people to eat?”Philip replied: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to get even a little”(cf. Jn 6:5-7). This reminds us that in our daily lives, we should not, in certain matters, focus only on our own feelings without considering the common good, or even seek to solve difficulties arising from insufficient foresight through money.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Jesus: “Here is a boy with five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many?”(cf. Jn 6:8). Andrew spoke according to his fleshly nature, for he longed only for what belongs to this world and did not yearn for the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The merciful Jesus generously accepted the mere five loaves and two fish, blessed them, and distributed them to the crowd through His disciples. He graciously accepts our inadequacies and limitations, filling us with His abundance and infinity. Moreover, this multiplication of the loaves prefigures the Holy Eucharist, when, on the eve of His Passion, He would take bread as His Body for the nourishment of our souls, and wine as His Blood for the drink of our souls.
Every time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated, when the priest offers bread and wine on the altar, it reenacts the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. When He consecrates the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ on the altar, it reenacts the gift of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the Last Supper out of love for us. Whenever we receive the Body and Blood of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine from the hands of the priest, Our Lord Jesus Christ comes to dwell in our hearts, uniting Himself with our mortal flesh, perfectly uniting our mortal bodies with the immortal Mystical Body of Christ. If, after receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, we completely surrender ourselves to God and fulfil His holy will in all things, we shall never hunger or thirst, for we have received from the fountain of Christ’s grace the heavenly Bread of Life, which nourishes our souls to fullness, and thus we remain forever with Christ.
O God, hope and light of the sincere, we humbly entreat you to dispose our hearts to offer you worthy prayer and ever to extol you by dutiful proclamation of your praise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,God, for ever and ever
April 16, 2026 Thursday of the Second Week of Easter Gospel: John 3:31-36
Today is Thursday of the Second Week of Easter. The Gospel for the Mass is taken from the Gospel of St. John, where St. John reflects on the testimony given by St. John the Baptist about Jesus. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections.
That which comes from heaven is the Word of God. As St. John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God”(cf. Jn 1:1-2). His knowledge and experience are all that the Father has revealed to Him. As Jesus Himself said: “The Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing”(cf. Jn 5:19-20).
Those who do not accept His testimony are the Jews of Jesus’ time. The Jews of that era longed not for a religious Messiah, but for a political Messiah who would deliver them from Roman rule and restore their nation. When we judge the words of Jesus by worldly standards, we become like those who do not accept His testimony.
Those who accept His testimony are those born from above, born of water and the Holy Spirit—those who worship God in spirit and truth. As Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above”(cf. Jn 3:3) and “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit”(cf. Jn 3:5). Also, as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth… God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”(cf. Jn 4:23-24).
Today, let us follow the example of St. John, courageously accepting the Word of God and bearing witness to it.
O God, who for the salvation of the world brought about the paschal sacrifice, be favourable to the supplications of your people, so that Christ our High Priest, interceding on our behalf, may by his likeness to ourselves bring us reconciliation, and by his equality with you free us from our sins. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever
April 15, 2026 Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter Gospel: John 3:16-21
Today is Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter. The Gospel for Mass is taken from the reflections of John in the Gospel of Saint John, following the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus about rebirth and new life.
The world we live in today is filled with various emotions that flow from the depths of the human heart. Among these complex and changeable emotions, some are aspirations for a better future, some are longings for the heavenly homeland, but more often, they are evil thoughts: unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness (see: Mark 7:21-22). In our view, as people living in this world, we are inevitably influenced by all that belongs to it, and this becomes an excuse for us to make arbitrary judgments of others. So much so that we may even think: the God spoken of by Jesus is a just God, who came into the world to condemn each of us, rejoicing in passing judgment.
John testifies: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17). By the grace granted by Christ, we are freed from sin and death through receiving the Baptism of Christ, no longer living in the death that sin brings to our souls. Since we are united with Him through receiving the Baptism of Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, let us have the same courage to accept the light of Christ—no longer acting as children of darkness, but as children of light.
As we recall year by year the mysteries by which, through the restoration of its original dignity, human nature has received the hope of rising again, we earnestly beseech your mercy, Lord, that what we celebrate in faith we may possess in unending love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever
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