The BreadCast

(Acts 15:22-31;   Ps.57:8-12;   Jn.15:12-17)   “There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”   Do not Judas and Silas fulfill the Lord’s command to “love one another”; do not they lay down their lives for the Lord when they bring word “to the brothers of Gentile origin in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia” of the apostles’ decision regarding those who have “upset [them]...

(Acts 15:7-21;   Ps.96:1-3,10;   Jn.15:9-11)   “We are saved by the favor of the Lord Jesus.”   We are told of the Council of Jerusalem, convened to determine if the Gentiles need be subject to circumcision and the Mosaic Law, “After much discussion, Peter took the floor,” and that after he had finished speaking, “the whole assembly fell silent.”  What is there to say after the Rock of the Church...

(Acts 15:1-6;   Ps.122:1-5;   Jn.15:1-8)   “I am the vine, you are the branches.”   And within Him we must remain; nurtured by the Church He has planted we must always be.  We must have His blood flowing in our veins and His Word inspiring our souls.  There can be no separation from Him and from His teaching if we are to bear fruit abundantly, as is the Father’s desire. Paul and Barnabas bear frui...

(Acts 14:19-28;   Ps.145:10-13,21;   Jn.14:27-31)   “We must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God.”   “With this instruction” Paul and Barnabas “gave their disciples reassurances, and encouraged them to persevere in the faith.”  Their apostolic journey has been a witness that the road to the Lord is wrought with difficulties, but that it bears great fruit.  These apostles a...

(Acts 14:5-18;   Ps.115:1-4,15-16;   Jn.14:21-26)   “May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”   “Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him.”  Thus are we blessed, by keeping the word of the Lord.  Thus we know His love, for thus we accept the love He offers by His instruction and by His pres...

(Acts 13:44-52;   Ps.98:1-4;   Jn.14:7-14)   “I have made you a light to the nations, a means of salvation to the ends of the earth.”   In the preaching of Paul today is fulfilled the words of our psalm, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God.”  Rejected by the Jews to whom he comes, he “now turn[s] to the Gentiles,” and – fulfilling the words of our psalm which read, “Sing...

(Acts 13:26-33;   Ps.2:6-11;   Jn.14:1-6)   “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.”   This same verse appearing in both our first reading and our psalm is spoken also by Jesus in our gospel when He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me,” for such is the Son begotten of the Father. How comforting are Jesus’ words in our gospel, and how e...

(Acts 13:13-35;   Ps.89:2-3,21-22,25,27;   Jn.13:16-20)   “He who accepts anyone I send accepts me, and in accepting me accepts Him who sent me.”   And who is this Jesus who sends apostles like Paul forth traveling from Syria to Cyprus to Asia Minor?  Who is He of whom Paul rises to speak in this distant synagogue?  Two quotes I offer for your consideration.  First is the Baptist’s declaration, “I...

(Acts 12:24-13:5;   Ps.67:2-6,8;   Jn.12:44-50)   “Set apart Barnabas and Saul for me, to do the work for which I have called them.”   These words came to the Church at Antioch “while they were engaged in the liturgy of the Lord and fasting”; spoken by the Holy Spirit, they show how intimately the Church and her apostles are connected to the Lord Jesus and His Father. In John’s gospel, Jesus procl...

(Acts 11:19-26;   Ps.87:1-7,117:1;   Jn.10:22-30)   “Of Zion they shall say: ‘One and all were born in her.’”   “I tell of Egypt and Babylon among those that know the Lord; of Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia,” sings our psalmist today.  Yes, “when the peoples are enrolled” in the kingdom of heaven, when it is noted: “This man was born there,” it shall not be to the soil of Jerusalem to which the angels...

(Acts 11:1-18;   Ps.41:3,42:2-3,43:3-4;   Jn.10:1-10 or Jn.10:11-18)   “God has granted life-giving repentance even to the Gentiles.”   In his vision Peter sees “an object like a big canvas… lowered down to [him] from the sky by its four corners.”  Upon it he discerns “four-legged creatures of the earth, wild beasts and reptiles, and birds of the sky.”  Like Noah’s ark it seems to contain all the...

(Acts 9:1-20;   Ps.117:1-2,Mk.16:15;   Jn.6:52-59)   “My flesh is real food and my blood real drink.”   And “the man who feeds on this bread shall live forever.” The truth is simply stated to those who wonder at His words today in our gospel.  As the Israelites in the desert asked, “What is this?” when presented with manna as their food, so now the Jews say, “How can this man give us His flesh to...

(Acts 8:26-40;   Ps.66:1,8-9,16-17,20;   Jn.6:44-51)   “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”   How evident it is in our first reading that the Father draws all believers unto Himself.  For though it is clear that the Ethiopian eunuch is in search of God, has a desire for God, and welcomes God – He is coming from pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is reading Holy Scripture, and “in...

(Acts 8:1-8;   Ps.66:1-7;   Jn.6:35-40)   “Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you, sing praise to your name!”   And why should there be such exultant joy among all the peoples of the earth?  What should cause all men to “shout joyfully to God”?  It is Jesus’ profession that “everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.”  Nothing but life everlasting can bri...

(Acts 7:51-8:1;   Ps.31:3-4,6-8,17,21;   Jn.6:30-35)   “No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall thirst again.”   “I myself am the bread of life,” Jesus declares, and it is in this Bread we take refuge.  It is by this Bread we are fed. Do you think that Stephen is at all hungry as he lives again the trial, way of the cross, and crucifixion of the Lord in our fir...

(Acts 6:8-15;   Ps.119:1,23-24,26-27,29-30;   Jn.6:22-29)   “This is the work of God: have faith in the One whom He sent.”   It is this faith that moves Stephen; it is this work upon which he sets his heart.  And so he was unmoved when “the people, the elders, and the scribes… confronted him, seized him, and led him off to the Sanhedrin” and “brought in false witnesses” against him.  Surely the wo...

(Acts 6:1-7;   Ps.33:1-2,4-5,18-19,22;   Jn.6:16-21) “The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him, upon those who hope for His kindness.” Alleluia. As the apostles set out to cross the lake, “it was dark, and Jesus had still not joined them; moreover, with a strong wind blowing, the sea was becoming rough.”  As they struggled to row and keep afloat, “they sighted Jesus approaching the boat, w...

(Acts 5:34-42;   Ps.27:1,4,13-14;   Jn.6:1-15) “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.” Seeing the vast crowd following Him up the mountain as He seeks to sit with His disciples, Jesus asks the one without guile, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat.”  In honesty Philip answers, essentially, “It is impossible.”  Ah, but nothing is impossible with...

(Acts 5:27-33;   Ps.34:2,7,9,17-20;   Jn.3:31-36) “The One whom God has sent speaks the words of God; He does not ration His gift of the Spirit.” And thus it is that Peter and the apostles, sent by the Lord to speak His words, can boldly proclaim to the Sanhedrin’s chastisement for continuing “to teach about that name”: “Better for us to obey God than men!”  In no way do they ration the Spirit as...

(Acts 5:17-26;   Ps.34:2-9;   Jn.3:16-21) “He who acts in truth comes into the light, to make clear that his deeds are done in God.” Jesus is “the light [that] came into the world,” and “happy the man who takes refuge in Him.”  None shall fear anymore who love the Lord, for He shall answer all his cries.  And newness of life shall be ours. The Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection of t...

(Acts 4:32-37;   Ps.93:1-2,5;   Jn.3:7-15) “The community of believers were of one heart and one mind.” This oneness is itself of heaven, is itself the sign that they are “begotten of the Spirit.”  And this oneness is reflected in a very real manner in the fact that “none of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common.”  This sharing of goods, of “lay[ing] them at...

(Acts 4:23-31;   Ps.2:1-9;   Jn.3:1-8)  “No one can see the rule of God unless he is begotten from above.” “Princes conspire together against the Lord and against His anointed,” we are told in our psalm as well as our first reading.  But their rule shall be shattered “like an earthen dish” by the power of the Spirit and God’s anointed One, to whom He gives “the nations as an inheritance.”  And in...

(Acts 4:13-21;   Ps.118:1,14-21;   Mk.16:9-15)   “Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation.”   How faithfully Peter and John accomplish the Lord’s command, and with what strength, so much so that our first reading tells us, “The priests and elders were amazed as they observed [their] self-assurance” – for these “were uneducated men of no standing.”  “How can this be?” the...

(Acts 4:1-12;   Ps.118:1-2,4,22-27;   Jn.21:1-14)   “Jesus is ‘the stone rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone.’”   What Peter has proclaimed to the people, he now proclaims even more boldly to their leaders: “There is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved.”  Jesus, whom they crucified, is the Messiah.  And the same quote Jesus offered th...

(Acts 3:11-26;   Ps.8:2,5-9;   Lk.24:35-48)   “In His name, penance for the remission of sins is to be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”   And so Peter begins the preaching at the temple: “When God raised up His servant, He sent Him to you first to bless you by turning you from your evil ways,” he announces clearly to the Jews, those first to hear of the Savior, Jesus.  And again h...