+(Intro) Iin our prayer this morning we ask that we may live as Christ lived so let us take a moment to reflect on how we may fail to live like Christ in our world of today.
(After the gospel) Living as Christ in our world today is bound to cause conflict as it did for St Stephen of whom we just heard in our first reading. This should not at all surprise us for this conflict also goes on within our own hearts, in our struggle to prefer nothing whatever to the love of Christ.
Our gospel also presents us with a call to an honest discernment about what goes on in our everyday lives. Jesus questions the motivation of the crowd that came in search of him, whether it was because of the loaves and fish with which they were filled or because of who he is as their Savior, the long awaited one?
It is only a deep and an abiding faith that opens our eyes to who Jesus truly is and what he is asking of us if we are to be truly his followers. And so, we pray for this kind of faith and love.
Acts 6:8-15; John 6:22-29