The Gospel For Monday, the third week of Easter is taken from St. John 6:22, 29th verse. After Jesus had fed the 5,000 men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea. The next day. The crowd that remained across the sea saw that they 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 the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him across the sea, they said to him, rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered him 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 sent 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. This gospel opens our hearts to what the work of God really is. You look at the history of God working with human beings, and one of the things he did to manifest his love was to provide for their needs. But that’s not the work of God to make our life better, easier.

The real work is that he wants you and me to believe. And he promises faith. And faith is belief. It’s a gift. It’s the work of God. Closing prayer Father, we can’t make ourselves believe something, but we can say we’re open to receiving it.

Bless us with that kind of trust and openness in this message that believes that it’s true without understanding how or where or what it really fully is. Give us that kind of faith. Amen.