26 April 2026 - gatekeeping?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

The Pharisees and other religious leaders were among those who attempted to climb over elsewhere. Whereas Jesus won over the crowds by acting and speaking to them with sincerity and truth, others tried to poach his flocks by insinuating that he was incompetent or evil. They tried trickery and subterfuge to gain his sheep for themselves. But for all of their human cleverness they were lacking the key factor in the success of Jesus. He had the gatekeeper to open the gate, the authenticate his ministry in the minds and the hearts of the crowds. His Father drew those who were willing so that they could come to believe. The gate had in fact been prepared by previous generations of prophets, who promised the eventual coming of the messiah. Those prophecies, and thus the gate itself, corresponded only and exactly to Jesus himself. Not only that, but every human heart was also made so as to desire his coming. Jesus was the key designed to unlock all of those hearts that would otherwise remain closed. That is why people resonated so deeply with his words, and noted in him an authority that others did not possess. Many Pharisees and others were deeply envious of this rapport of Jesus with the crowds. After all, no matter how clever they were or how hard they worked they could never have the connection Jesus had his followers. 

When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.

The sheep of the flock of Jesus are drawn to him by the Father. In his presence they learn to recognize his voice. He knows more about them than any rival claimants to the title of shepherd, knows not only their names, but their deepest identities. His sheep feel seen by him, and in being seen, they feel his overwhelming love for them. They are known, known in their strengths and their weaknesses, warts and all, and yet are loved no less for their imperfections. There is no other gaze like the gaze of the good shepherd. Thus the sheep feel entirely confident to entrust themselves to his care.

I am the gate.

Jesus is both the way and the destination. Others sought the sheep out of short-sighted self-interest. They act beneficently toward them only long enough to get them to lower their guard so that they could begin to exploit them. They basically desired to possess the sheep for the sake of their own pride and self-image. There was no way that such shepherds could lead the sheep to any truly desirable pastures. Contrast this with Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve, not to exploit the sheep, but to save them. Rather than taking their lives to build himself up he laid down his own life for their sakes. To be fair, he had come to do something that only he could do. Only he possessed life in abundance. Only he was capable of sharing it with the flock. 

There are so many thieves in our world that desire to steal our joy and slaughter the life of grace in our souls. Only Jesus gives us life in abundance. But this is not merely a slogan, or a good title for a potential best seller in the genre of Christian literature. The life we are given is not merely a metaphysical reality that, while true, does not impact the experience of our daily existence. Rather, it is meant to transform us entirely. We should be noticeably different because of Jesus, just as Jesus himself was different from all others because of his Father.

For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

As sheep we are prone to stray and to forgot, neglect, or minimize the blessings of the Lord. But sheep are not valued for their indefectability. It is rather docility that is the quality that is valuable. If we have strayed, well, we are sheep, not superheroes. The important thing to do at such times is to allow ourselves to be led back to our shepherd. He never ceases to call and chase after us, no matter how lost we become. He is not doing this job for his own sake and thus he does not hold a grudge against sheep for acting as sheep tend to act. Even if we've forgotten, he still holds the keys to our hearts. His words can once again do for us what they did for the crowd in Acts:

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
"What are we to do, my brothers?"

Most of us have already been baptized. But we may need to reconnect with that baptismal grace through repentence. If we do so there is nothing which cannot be forgiven, no sheep so lost that he cannot return to the fold. We may not have been open to the gift of the Spirit when we first received it. Even if we were, we may well have squandered his fruit. But it is not too late to open ourselves to him once more. What he was not free to do then because of our limited understanding or engagement he still has the power to do now. What may now be embers can be fanned into flames. This is good to remember as we move into the latter part of the Easter season and head toward Pentecost. It is precisely his gift of the Spirit that is the fullest expression of the abundant life he desires for all of his sheep.

Peter Furler - Psalm 23

 

25 April 2026 - mission dynamics

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

We note the way Jesus expressed this command. More specifically, we note what he did not say. He did not say, "Go and use your cleverness and intellect to debate, argue, and persuade". He did not say, "Use your popularity and charm to sway those susceptible to emotional manipulation". He did not propose any of the normal human strategies that would be used to spread a merely human ideology. Of course his followers would also debate at times. The sermons of Peter and that of Stephen in the book of Acts both have intellectual and rhetorical aspects to them. And it is natural that the likability of many of the early disciples was also instrumental in helping them to establish relationships and spread the good news. But none of this was the primary plan as Jesus expressed it. Rather, he said something more along the lines of "Tell them how good it is and show them it works". It was not going to finally come down to how smart, charming, or persuasive they were since God would work with them and confirm the word as they proclaimed it.

These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

When the Kingdom breaks through it is as though a whole new dimension of reality has opened. Things that previously seemed impossible become possible. Whether this takes the form of miracles and supernatural signs or the more subtle workings of grace in human hearts it is clearly of a different order from the normal workings of reality elsewhere. People begin to give when there is nothing in it for them, they love even their enemies, they forgive even those who have heart them the most deeply. Apparently intractable addictions are overcome. Longstanding negative patterns of thought, speech, and behavior are transformed. Sorrow that is the natural result of life in a fallen world begins to give way to the joy that results from being connected to a higher one. We do not say this to overly spiritualize the miracles. God definitely did and still does move in power when such revelations actually help to move the will of nonbelievers to faith. He does not do so for entertainment, especially not for the entertainment of Christians who already have faith. But we see in the story of Thomas that there are no lengths to which Jesus will not go to reveal his resurrection to those with otherwise unbridgeable doubts.

Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.

It wasn't as though he left and then left matters to the disciples. No, what he did was to claim the higher vantage point that was his right, his heavenly throne. From that point of view he would direct the Church on earth, and provide whatever support we might need to accomplish the mission entrusted to us.

We might wonder our own experience of trying to share the Gospel frequently seems so different from that described by Mark. We do not often feel as though we have much guidance. We are not often aware of heavenly help as we attempt, often awkwardly and inarticulately, to tell others about Jesus. But even in these instances we can be confident that God is at work, directing things from behind the scenes. He helps us to say things we would not have otherwise thought to say. And he opens the hearts of others to hear us. Yet it works still better if we have a practiced partnership with him. If we are used to listening to his word and conversing with him in prayer we will be more docile to his guidance when we really need it. He will give us the words we need when we need them. But we will be more open to those words if we are already used to listening to him and can more easily recognize his voice.

It is only when we are accustomed to the way God's providential hand directs both the universe and our lives, accustomed to it by repeated practice of cooperation with him, that we will trust him enough to do what Peter suggests in our first reading.

Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

When we begin believe that he cares for us we also start to trust him enough to let him handle our worries. We are still sometimes tempted to try to reclaim them for ourselves and start worrying again. But each time we do, we can remember his love and give them back to him once more. We can know that he will do a better job with them and bring about results that surpass anything we could manage on our own. 

The favors of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.

 

Newsboys - The Mission

 

24 April 2026 - in the Flesh

Today's Readings
(Audio)

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”

Bread and other forms of food were one thing. Food and drink were well known symbols, representing the reception of God's word and his wisdom (for instance in Sirach 15:1-3 and Proverbs 9:4-6). Jesus had deployed a similar metaphor when he said, "I have food to eat that you do not know about" and went on to clarify that "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (see John 4:32-34). The crowds therefore accepted the literal level of Jesus' meaning, which referred to the multiplied loaves. And they understood the context of the spiritual meaning about wisdom. Although the centrality of Jesus himself as bread in this context was still more than the wanted to accept. But when he shifted his metaphor to refer, suddenly, to Flesh, they were lost and disoriented as to what he meant. The purely physical was one thing. And the spiritual at least made sense. But the Sacramental and sacrificial dimension was beyond them. After all, it seemed to be at least superficially repulsive. It seemed inelegant compared to the pure abstraction of spiritual meaning. As far as they were concerned the incarnational element Jesus now raised placed too much emphasis on the carne, on the Flesh. They revealed their subconscious assumption that for them the world was divided into separate spheres of physical and spiritual that could not finally be bridged. The world of physicality seemed too messy God to truly dwell therein. Further, it seemed that consuming Flesh necessitated destruction, an inherently abhorrent concept. It required that the substance first be sacrificed before it could be shared. This was done with lambs and other animals precisely because it was too horrible and graphic to be done to men. We remember the angel that stayed the hand of Abraham when he was about to offer Isaac. All of this pointed to something necessary, but something as yet not accomplished. Isaac had not, in the end, been offered and "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (see Hebrews 10:4). It was impossible to solve the problem from the physical side of things with mere representation. Even actual human life was insufficient to pay the unpayable debt owed by our race. But it seemed that the Spiritual side was too pure for it to somehow supply what was lacking. Until Jesus. Until he suggested that it was precisely him, precisely his Flesh that would do this.

Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.

The Flesh and Blood of Jesus poured out would accomplish something that neither man, nor disembodied divine wisdom could do separately. Taken in the metaphorical sense, the bread of wisdom did point the way to immortality. But it did so because the bread was eventually revealed to be Jesus himself, the wisdom of God incarnate. Thus receiving that bread was receiving his self-sacrifice on the cross. Those who were wise in the ways of God before Jesus came into the world were led by wisdom to look forward to his coming, and to hope in him, as did the prophets. But those of us who have come after are invited to come to Jesus himself, to taste and see the goodness of what he did for us.

Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

Through the Eucharist Jesus gives us access to a higher and divine form of life. The communion that he naturally shares with the Father and the Spirit becomes a gift to those who share in the banquet of the sacrifice of the lamb of God, which reestablishes our own communion with God that had been offline since Eden. His Flesh becomes the source of a new and higher form of life that does not neglect of negate the physical but which will ultimately raise it up and transfigure it in the Resurrection of the Body on the Last Day. It is this food that finally undoes the curse incurred at Eden, and all of the subsequent curses as well. It even reveals that curse to have been a happy fault, since without it we may never have received a gift so great.

Damascus Worship Featuring MarySarah Menkhaus - Body And Blood

 

23 April 2026 - drawn together

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.

On one level, people coming to Jesus was the result of curiosity leading to investigation. The crowds heard he was performing signs and came to see for themselves. But in order to understand the meaning of the signs needed the Father to draw them. In their fallen condition, with their intellects darkened by sin, an objective analysis of the data was only possible in theory, but not in fact. They needed the Father to lead them beyond the enclosed prison walls of their egos so as to become actually open to the truth, to become docile and teachable. Human pride would have preferred to solve such a momentous mystery without assistance. It pushed against the need for revelation. But the questions in view were too transcendent. They required revelation from those with firsthand expertise. Fortunately God had indicated through the prophet Isaiah that he himself would be our teacher.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.

The crowds might have thought that if they were going to be drawn by the Father and taught by God that there was not after all any great need for Jesus himself. But Jesus made it clear that it was not possible to do an end-run around him, to bypass him and go directly to the Father. No, the Father himself was only guiding insofar as he guided the hearts of the people to be open to Jesus. It was his delight that Jesus be the one to reveal him to the world.

We see the same logic in a different form later, with the request of Philip the Apostle (different from the deacon in our reading today from Acts) to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us". Jesus made it clear to Philip that he himself, by his very presence among them, was showing them the Father: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?" (see John 14:8-11).

The Father made Jesus the center of everything, such that it was belief in him that opened the door to eternal life. Believing in him had much greater power than the manna in the desert, since those who ate even that miraculous food ultimately perished. It did not free them from the curse incurred when our first parents chose to submit to the devil in the Garden of Eden. Such a thing could not be overcome by the manna of Moses. But Jesus did what no one else could when he gave his Flesh for the life of the world. He became bread that availed to eternal life when he offered himself as a saving sacrifice for the sins of the world. The truth of this did not stop at the level of the spiritual. At the Last Supper his Flesh was revealed as true food. It promised not merely immortality in some disembodied nonphysical state, but the resurrection of the body on the last day. It was, after all, the risen Flesh of Jesus that he gave to the world. When this risen Flesh was received by the faithful the seeds of their own future resurrection was planted and nourished.

Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.

We said above that the Father delighted to make Jesus the center of his plans for the world, and the focal point of his plan to reveal himself to humanity. An upshot to this is demonstrated by Philip in our first reading. The fact of the matter is that everything is connected to Jesus in some way, and everything can be used as the beginning of a conversation about him. He is the source of creation, the reason that science causes us to experience wonder. He is the ground of truth, the reasonability and rationality that makes knowledge of any kind possible. He is the desire of our hearts, the same desire obliquely expressed by artists and storytellers of various kinds throughout the ages. It has been said that all truth, properly understand, is Christian truth. So too all beauty. So too all goodness. When we understand this we will have a compelling case to make. People will listen not because we are imposing on them, but because we are speaking to something deep within their hearts. Many will respond as rapidly and fully as the Ethiopian eunuch.

the eunuch said, "Look, there is water.
What is to prevent my being baptized?"

Vertical Worship Band - Open Up The Heavens

 

22 April 2026 - second chances

Today's Readings
(Audio)

They had said, "Sir, give us this bread always". But Jesus answered, "I am the bread of life". It was not something they could take and run, nor something that could be had apart from receiving Jesus himself. But although they were interested in what Jesus had to say they were unwilling to embrace a belief deep enough to receive his gift of himself. If he was a prophet, even a great prophet, what sense would it make to consider him bread to be received? Was it not rather the word of God and the wisdom of God that were true bread, and the role of the prophet more to lead people to the feast? They did not realize that Jesus was himself both the word and the wisdom of God, far more than the words contained on the scrolls of the Scriptures. Yet there was definitely a different in order of magnitude of what Jesus promised as a result of receiving him, compared with what was possible through an unassisted reading the Scriptures.

whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

The centrality Jesus claimed for himself in satisfying the desires of the human race was breathtaking. Truly, only God himself could be the one to legitimately make such a claim. The crowds were willing to accept that Jesus might be a prophet, powerful and word and deed. But they would not go so far as to believe in him as their God. They had seen signs attesting to that reality. But they refused to open their hearts to him completely and understand.

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

Jesus did not mention the Father's plan in order to indict the crowds as among those not chosen by God, who would therefore be incapable of salvation. Rather, he wanted the crowds to let the Father work in their hearts so that he himself could draw them to Jesus. This was, after a fashion, a plea for them to open their hearts so that he could accept them, because he desired to do so. They probably had a hard time coming to one who appeared to be as human as any one of them. Humans typically expressed favoritism for one person over another. Even the very generous were not entirely equitable when they distributed blessings to others. They will often accept those who were similar and reject those who are too different or who seem to be in competition with them somehow. But Jesus held no such vested self-interest. There were in him none of the human failings that made people so reluctant to trust any normal person so completely. That very fact itself was further evidence that he was not merely a man like any other.

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.

Jesus was entirely committed to his Father's plan that all people be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. Where as normally people would take a failure to respond to the generous offer  personally, Jesus' ego was not bruised by the response he received from the crowds. It was as though he said that he would not give up on them even if they seemed to have rejected him. His message was like a plea, but it was also like a challenge. It was like a plea in the sense that he tried to clear the deck of their preconceptions and invite them to consider him with fresh eyes. It was like a challenge, inviting them to consider that they might have had deeper semiconscious reasons for rejecting him of which only the Father could heal them. They no doubt liked to imagine themselves as savvy rational actors. But the spiritual forces fighting for their destiny were bigger than any of them on their own.

and I will not reject anyone who comes to me

After Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden they were cast out. But Jesus, who was himself the new fruit of the new Tree of Life, would not reject or cast out anyone who came to him. People were all living in various states of having been cast out and rejected by God from the initial state of paradise and immortality in Eden. But in Jesus they could have a second chance to choose to eat from the correct tree. The result, as he said, would indeed be life.

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.

Much of the crowd who heard the discourse about the bread of life initially rejected Jesus. But this did not mean the Gospel had failed. Rather, initial rejection often yielded unexpected opportunities in the future. This was what happened in Acts after a severe persecution of the Church, which was itself now the mystical body of the one who was himself the bread of life.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

We ourselves have a role in bringing the bread of life to the world. We who have experienced the peace that only Jesus can give are meant to help bring that peace to the world who still does not know it. And on this journey we will experience rejection, as both Jesus and his disciples did before us. But we must learn to have the commitment of Jesus to the plan of the Father, enough so to extract our personal predilections and vested interests from the process. We must learn to be unfazed by rejection, as Jesus was, and as he also trained his disciples to be. Rejection, is, after all, never final, as long as this life shall last.

With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

There are many things that characterize our modern cities. But great joy is not often one that comes to mind. But it can be. It is meant to be. And it will be if we take Jesus at his word.

There was great joy in that city.

 

Kutless - All Who Are Thirsty

 

21 April 2026 - bread weak?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Jesus had tried to tell them that they had not understood the signs that he had already done. Now they seemed to be provoking him by suggesting that he needed to do a still greater sign that they could not ignore. Rather than merely feeding the crowd with loaves and wish he should do something even more obviously supernatural, similar to the manna that God gave to Israelites in the desert through Moses. Never mind how that generation quickly tired of the manna and grumbled against God longing for meat. They tried to refer to a related but apparently more supernatural miracle involving food in order to force Jesus to escalate what he himself was doing, if he could. But they did not even understand the context of their reference. They wanted to see if he was one greater than Moses, as though Moses had been the source of the heavenly bread. Was Jesus therefore a prophet with a capacity to feed the people more effectively than Moses? Clearly he was at least that. But he was so much more that the comparison was not altogether helpful.

“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

Jesus was more than a prophet and his mission was more than temporarily satisfying the bodily appetites of the people of his generation. He wasn't competing with Moses to see who could ask the Father for more and greater favors. He himself was the great blessing the Father desired to give to the world, a blessing which was only foreshadowed in all that had gone before. What God had given the people through Moses availed for a while as they journeyed through the desert. But it did not satisfy their longings at the deepest levels. It satisfied their physical hunger. But by their grumbling they proved that merely to eat and be satisfied was not their goal. They longed for more. And that more, though they didn't realize it, was Jesus himself.

So they said to Jesus,
“Sir, give us this bread always.” 
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Jesus himself was the gift of the Father that could sate the deepest spiritual longings of those who received him. More than merely filling the stomach for a day he could so satisfy those who received him that they no longer felt the need to grumble for new and different stimulation. He himself was the sign greater than which no sign was necessary or indeed possible. 

It is true that one taste of Jesus does not fulfill us all at once and forever after. But with him it is not a cycle of emptiness and feeding that never ends. Rather, it is constant upward growth to ever deeper levels of rest in him. Or it can be. We can still forget the magnitude of the gift we have been given and grumble for something else, we know not what. But when we bring our careful attention to even a taste of this true bread from heaven we recognize that there is nothing else like it, nor could there be.

The fullness of Spirit we experience when we consume the bread from heaven is what makes it possible for us to forsake even the good things of this world for the sake of Jesus, since we know that, however good they may be, he is far better. Rather than looking all around us at what we have lost and are in the process of losing we, like Stephen, look to heaven, and are drawn inexorable hence, as though by a powerful magnetic pull.

But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

This experience is not something that the world will or can understand on the surface. But at our core it is that for which everyone yearns. Remembering this helps us to be kind even in the face of overwhelming hostility. Again, Stephen is an excellent example.

Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”;
and when he said this, he fell asleep.

Vineyard Worship Featuring Kathryn Scott - Hungry (Falling On My Knees)

 

20 April 2026 - i saw the sign

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

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.

They had seen the signs enough to recognize that extraordinary and possibly supernatural things were happening around the person of Jesus. But although this motivated them to pursue Jesus it did not sufficiently motivate them to pursue truth. The signs were meant to point to a greater reality. But the crowds were content to have signs endlessly multiplied to supply their wants, or at least to supply some interesting entertainment. And there is sometimes a similar challenge for modern disciples of Jesus. We too often content ourselves with stopping at the surface, or of only having interest in what we can get from God in order to fill the contours of a life we have otherwise planned without reference to him. We may treat Scriptures as mere historical curiosities with occasionally interesting anecdotes rather than a power before which our very souls and open and accountable. We may treat the Eucharistic gathering more like a social club, the songs of praise as designed to boost our mood rather than lift God up in exultation. We are all too able to receive miraculous blessings like healings and then get right back to business as usual, forgetting the giver of all good gifts until the next time we are in need.

Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.

A good way to interrupt our tendency to focus narrowly within the horizon of temporary existence is to ask ourselves whether what we are seeking can truly last. We may sometimes be overly invested in things that come with an eventual expiration date. It is true that most things in this mortal life will come to an end. And that does not mean that we are not permitted to find some enjoyment in suchlike. We are. But we are meant to invest our energy in this world with reference to heaven. We are meant to recognize that whatever good we find here exists in full and lasting measure only in God himself. When we know this we can receive the good things of earth with thanksgiving as they come to us. We can let them go without too much disappointment when they are taken. Like Job we learn to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (see Job 1:21). Then even the goodness of temporary things becomes signs that actually point us ever closer to God, rather than becoming a distraction and a hindrance.

How does the food that endures for eternal life differ from mere earthly loaves? It is something that can be built up indefinitely, without the normal fear of loss due to corruption, disintegration, and entropy that marks all created things. It is something with which ever increasing growth is possible, as with our ability to give and receive love. And as we receive bread of this kind we become more rooted in that which is eternal and transcendent. It is like the heavenly treasure that is impervious to rust and inaccessible to thieves. And by desiring such treasure and seeking it our hearts come even now to abide in heaven, where alone such treasure is found.

"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."

The crowd assumed that to seek such treasure they must expend effort in many different directions, in an effort to complete all of the good works of God that might be expecting of them. But what they were could  do and what there own efforts could accomplish was not the correct place to begin. It is true that alone and unaided one could never do enough. But joined to Christ in faith we in some sense receive the same "seal" of approval as the Son himself, and actually "become the righteousness of God" (see Second Corinthians 5:21). It is on the basis of what Jesus does within us by faith that we hope to accomplish all the myriad of good works to which we are called. It is his power at work in us that makes them possible. As members of his body we need not be overwhelmed by the multitude of options, since we are a small part of a larger whole, connected through the nervous system of the Church to the guidance of the head, Jesus himself. How else could there ever have been a single martyr? If they felt like they had to do everything themselves they could never let themselves be killed with work still remaining. But as we see in our first reading, Stephen was able to do his part and entrust the rest to God, his face all the while "like the face of an angel", his heart at peace.

John Michael Talbot - I Am The Bread Of Life