Wed., April 22, 2026 – Wed in the Third Week of Easter – Year A, Cycle 2
Acts 8:1–8, Psalm 66:1–3, 4–7, John 6:35–40
And this is the will of the one who sent Me. John 6:39
This verse, which we just heard, comes from the Bread of Life Discourse in the Gospel of John, chapter six, the place where Jesus, more explicitly than anywhere else in the Bible, teaches us that the Eucharist truly is His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, not a sign, not a symbol, but Him under the appearance of bread and wine. And if we want to have His life within us, we must eat and drink of His Body and Blood. Thanks be to God that, as Catholics, what Jesus teaches in John six is one of the primary focuses of our faith.
If you have any doubt that the Eucharist is fully Jesus, or if you want to be able to help others who do have doubts, please go and read John chapter six, the whole thing. Don’t worry, it’s pretty short, and it’s a really good read. After you finish, read it again, slowly, focusing on the words or phrases that touch your heart. Then stop and pray over those words or phrases, asking the Holy Spirit what God is trying to teach you through them. That process is called Lectio Divina, or Holy Reading.
While this teaching on the Eucharist is not the focus of today’s Gospel, I mention it to emphasize the importance and context of the words Jesus is speaking to us in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. In fact, this one teaching is so powerful that some of the other fundamental teachings that John six contains are often overlooked. Another critical component of our faith, which today’s Gospel does focus on, is one we sometimes skim over on our way to learning about the Eucharist. However, in it, Jesus gives us the answer to one of the biggest and most often asked questions in life, one that we have all struggled with or may still be struggling with. The question is, “What is God’s Will for my life?”
Here’s the answer. Are you ready? We just heard it. Jesus said, “And this is the will of the one who sent Me, that I should not lose anything of what He gave Me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”
That’s it! That’s God’s will for each of our lives. Of course, the circumstances and details of how that’s lived out will be different for all of us, but that is His will, and that’s the life we should pray for, strive for, and be focused on all the time.
Now, let’s not deceive ourselves or be confused, thinking that this means all we have to do is believe in Jesus, and we are guaranteed eternal life in heaven. That’s what many of our Protestant brothers and sisters believe. It’s called “Sola Fide,” or “faith alone,” and that’s not what Jesus taught or what He said here today. He said that it is the will of the Father that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life. So, it is most certainly the Father’s will that we who believe in His Son have eternal life. But the Scriptures tell us in many places that belief or faith in Jesus alone is not enough.
In fact, James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe, and in John 3:36, Jesus said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” Then again, in Matthew 7:21, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.” And finally, in John 3:5, Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” That’s Baptism. Baptism is how we become children of God and brothers and sisters to Christ.
So, to summarize, we know for sure that it is God’s will that we have eternal life in heaven, and to do this, we must be baptized, we must believe in the Lord, and we must live our life in God, with God, and through God, fully aware that, at times, we will fail, we will sin, but grateful that even when we sin, God is always calling us to repentance and will forgive us of our sins and repair our relationship with Him if only we will humble ourselves, turn from our sinfulness, and ask His forgiveness.
It’s interesting that in life, it’s easy to know the direction God does not want us to go. He doesn’t want us to sin. That’s usually pretty simple to figure out because, through the Scriptures, the Church, and our own conscience, we have a lot of resources at our disposal to help us know what is sinful. However, knowing God’s plan for our lives is not so easy. In a fallen world, it’s difficult to know the direction in which God is calling us to live out our earthly lives. It takes a lot of prayer and discernment to know if we are called to live the single life, married life, or religious life. It takes a lot of prayer and discernment to know who God is calling us to marry or what our careers should be, and the list goes on.
These are all very important parts of life, but none of them is what life’s all about, and none of them is God’s will for our life, because, as Jesus said, God’s will for our life is for us to have eternal life with Him in heaven. Anything short of heaven, no matter how successful from a worldly point of view, is not a life well lived, but a waste of the beautiful gift of life that God has given us. Amen!
