Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Alessandra RoseApril 12, 2024
Photo from Unsplash.

A Reflection for Monday of the Third Week of Easter

Find today's readings here.

A little more than a year ago, I had the privilege of joining a group on one of America’s pilgrimages in the Holy Land. It was an extraordinary experience for a host of reasons and one that feels even more precious, given the catastrophic suffering and unrest in the area right now.

To be in the physical places where Jesus and his disciples lived, worked and taught was powerful because it helped bring the wonder of the Gospels to life. As I stood on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, I thought about how Jesus had been on those very same shores, looking over the calm waters and watching the mustard seed plants sway in the breeze. It was deeply humbling and quite overwhelming as I could simultaneously feel both Christ’s humanity and his divinity.

Today’s Gospel reading brought me right back to those places and that sentiment. In the Scripture, Jesus comments that his followers seem to be attracted to the tangible, human aspects of Christ’s gifts,“loaves,” or “food that perishes”, but they should actually seek his divine gifts,“the food that endures for eternal life”. That is quite a charge because it is so much harder, with our mortal hearts and heads, to consider beyond the very human aspects of Jesus’s life so that we can fully embrace his divinity and what it means for us.

Several weeks ago, at our Easter celebration, we recognized that while Christ’s humanity and divinity are so very connected, it is his holiness that provides the salvation and grace that are gifts to each of us. For me, these Easter sentiments are reiterated in today’s Gospel and leave me inspired to seek, trust, accept and believe in the full Glory of God. I hope the same for you.

More: Scripture

The latest from america

Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist who helped expose the abuse committed by leaders of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, gives Pope Leo XIV a stole made of alpaca wool, during the pope's meeting with members of the media May 12, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo offered a heartening message for a global media that has endured a pretty awful year.
Kevin ClarkeMay 23, 2025
If you think our enthusiasm for our basketball team was intense, just wait until you see our support for Pope Leo XIV.
Jack DoolinMay 23, 2025
“I don’t think he’s the kind of man who sends coded messages,” Cardinal Michael Czerny says in this exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.
Gerard O’ConnellMay 23, 2025
First-grade students finish an assignment at St. Ambrose Catholic School in Tucson, Ariz., in this 2014 photo. Arizona has one of the nation’s strongest school choice programs, with vouchers available to every child in the state. (CNS file photo/Nancy Wiechec)
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying state funds to a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma. What should American Catholics be asking about public funding for school choice?
Beth BlaufussMay 23, 2025