Overview:

Monday of the Third Week of Easter

A Reflection for Monday of the Third Week of Easter

“So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.’”

Find today’s readings here.

I’ve always found living a life of faith at this point in the Easter season to be somewhat tricky. The Lenten fast is over, the “Three Great Days” have passed and the festivities of Easter Sunday and the octave that follows have concluded. 

If you’re like me, you find yourself asking, “So… what now? What should my life of faith look like at this point?” 

It seems the crowd in our Gospel today feels the same. Just a few verses prior to this, Jesus feeds the 5,000 miraculously with only five loaves and two fish. In this moment in John’s Gospel, Jesus is continuing to reveal to the people gathered exactly who he is as the Christ. Full of the joy from that encounter (and literally full with the loaves and the fish), the people wish to see more and ask, “Now what, Jesus?” 

Yet Jesus calls them to something deeper. He does this for us, too, by encouraging us not to just work for those things which are passing, but “for the food that endures for eternal life,” believing in “the one he sent.” 

Here, Jesus calls us not to simply be amazed by the great things he has done (though they are indeed amazing), but to believe in the one who has done those things and let that impact how we live and move in the world. 

For me, it’s a call to let all of my life be a reflection of the reality of what it means to believe in the resurrection from the dead. 

Resurrection is hard work. With all that’s going on in the world, it’s hard to continuously let joy win. Yet Jesus promises through his resurrection that even in the face of death, love triumphs. 

So if I make it to daily Mass or reflect on the daily lectionary readings, I try to let the Easter joy be a daily reminder of joy for me. As summer begins to come around the corner and plans with friends and family start to appear, I try to take time each day to look for God in every moment. More importantly, as I find myself experiencing grief or anger at the seeming absence of joy in the world, I try to remind myself that God is in fact love and that the resurrection promises that love always wins.  

This work of faith is hard. Jesus, too, knows this, and I think it’s fitting that just a few verses later, Jesus begins to share about how he himself is the “Bread of Life” and is present in the Eucharist as the eternal food and drink that assures us of everlasting life with him. As we continue our Easter journey, the 50-day party for which we prepared during the 40 days of Lent, let us constantly turn to Jesus, encounter him in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist and accomplish this great work of God. Let us believe in the one whom he sent by letting the joy of Easter show forth in our lives.

John Consolie is the assistant director of Outreach.