23 April 2026 -- Thursday of the 3rd week of Easter
H O M I L Y
We continue our reading of Chapter 6 of Saint John. In the sections read over the last few days, Jesus was telling us once again that He is the Bread of Life, and that whoever comes to Him in faith will have eternal life. Today he establishes the link between faith and the sacrament of the Eucharist. The bread that he will give to those who come to Him is His flesh, already given up for the life of the world. In these few words, the link is established not only between faith and the sacramental act, but also between faith, the sacrament and the event of the Cross.
The same link is established in the first reading, which continues to recount the progress of evangelisation beyond the borders of Israel, following the first persecution. The blood of the first martyr is already the source of Christians. And this time, there is, moreover, the link between the two elements of the sacrament: the word and the gesture.
Every year many Jews came from the diaspora to celebrate the Feast of Passover in Jerusalem. Some of them were Jews by birth, living in exile; others were pagans who had converted to Judaism. One of the major diasporas at that time was in eastern Africa — what is now Egypt and Ethiopia. It was from there that the Ethiopian, an official of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia, mentioned in our reading, came. He was reading a passage from the Old Testament, taken from the prophet Isaiah. The deacon Philip instructed him and explained that this text foretells the sufferings of Jesus, the Messiah. The Ethiopian received the gift of faith and believed in this message. He expressed his faith sacramentally by receiving baptism. Here we have all the aspects of the sacramental life of the Church.
This Ethiopian was among those who came to Jerusalem and returned to their own country, bringing back the Gospel message, which explains the presence of the Church in this part of Africa from the very first generation of Christians. The end of the account shows us the complementary aspect of evangelization: the deacon Philip continuing on his way to bring the Gospel himself to Caesarea, beyond the borders of Judea, Galilee and Samaria.
Armand Veilleux