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If God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble.
- Thomas Watson
(Let God's peace take root in you this day.)
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ACTS 6:8-15; PS 119:23-24, 26-27, 29-30
JN 6:22-29
[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only
his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw
signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
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.”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"Throughout, Stephen's face seemed like that of an angel." —Acts
6:15
As the early Church received grace after grace, it received suffering after suffering. The first people to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost were falsely accused of being drunk (Acts 2:13). They were not stopped by this injustice, and three thousand were baptized that day (Acts 2:41). After Peter and John healed the man born lame, they led thousands more to Christ (Acts 4:4). Then the
Church suffered the arrest of Peter and John (Acts 4:3). After they were released, "through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders occurred among the people" (Acts 5:12). Next, all the apostles suffered by being arrested, threatened, and beaten (Acts 5:40). "As the number of disciples grew," there was a serious disagreement between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians (Acts 6:1ff). The first deacons dealt with that problem. After this series of sufferings, the number of
the disciples "enormously increased" (Acts 6:7). The Church's next suffering was the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:60).
Luke's insight into the attitude of the Church towards all these sufferings may be expressed when he commented: "Throughout, Stephen's face seemed like that of an angel" (Acts 6:15). In other words, "the Church was at peace" (Acts 9:31). The first word the risen Christ said and says is:
"Peace" (Mt 28:9; Jn 20:19, 21).
Prayer: Father, give me the peace "beyond all understanding" (Phil 4:7)
.
Promise: "This is the work of God: have faith in the One Whom He sent." —Jn 6:29 Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence - by Jean-Pierre de Caussade Mary was the
most simple of all creatures, and the most closely united to God. Her answer to the angel when she said: “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum”: contained all the mystic theology of her ancestors to whom everything was reduced, as it is now, to the purest, simplest submission of the soul to the will of God, under whatever form it presents itself. This beautiful and exalted state, which was the basis of the spiritual life of Mary, shines conspicuously in these simple words, “Fiat
mihi” (Luke i, 38).
— Book 1, Chapter 1, Section 1
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