Homily: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: 2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15

As some of you know, Diane and I are pretty heavily involved with the Wildwood Soup Kitchen. And if there’s one thing that involvement has taught us it’s that God takes care of His people. It’s really remarkable, you know. Well, I suppose it’s really not all that remarkable because we should expect God to take care of His people. After all, He’s promised to do so again and again. And the history of salvation we encounter in Scripture is all about God fulfilling those promises.

Anyway, last year we served over 75,000 meals and this year we’ll serve even more, and do you know what? We always have enough. We never run out. Just like the crowd on the mountainside, everyone gets fed. Whenever we need something – whether it’s a few hundred pounds of frozen chicken, or money for a walk-in freezer, I don’t care what it is -- we don’t have to ask people for it. Someone just shows up on our doorstep with exactly what we need. Or a large check arrives in the mail. It just appears. And I’m not exaggerating. I don’t have to, because God takes care of his people.

And this is certainly one message that comes across loud and clear in today's readings. Not only does He feed them with food for the body, He also provides food for the soul, and everything else they need to live fully human lives in close union with God, the Source and Goal of all life.

So far this liturgical year we’ve been listening to Mark’s Gospel, but today, instead of hearing Mark tell us of the feeding of the 5,000, we hear John’s version, a Eucharistic version, an introduction to Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life. Indeed, we’ll stay with the 6th chapter of John's Gospel for the next five Sundays.

John begins by telling us that Jesus and His disciples crossed over to the opposite shore of the Sea of Galilee. And as we heard in Mark, the crowds had gone before them on foot. What made people walk nine miles to see Jesus? Well, John tells us…because "they saw the signs that Jesus was doing for the sick". Like people everywhere, like us, they had a deep hunger and longing for healing and wholeness in their lives. Of course, some were simply curious, and wanted to see this Jesus perform one of the miracles they’d heard about.

You and I won’t be any better than these if we see this story only as a miraculous multiplication of a bread and fish. All gospel stories are steeped in symbolism and this is especially true of John.

We’re told first that Jesus "went up the mountain" – a reference to Moses on the mountain bringing God's Law to the people. But there’s a significant difference: Jesus is no mere intermediary; He speaks with the same authority as His Father. Unlike Mark, who has Jesus teaching the people first, in John the teaching, as we’ll see in the coming weeks, flows out of the multiplication experience. And, while Moses went up the mountain alone, Jesus brought His disciples with Him. They would be partners in His work, continuing that work after His resurrection. And just as Moses gave the Jewish people God's teaching in the form of the Law and later fed them with manna, so Jesus, the new Moses, will feed the bodies and souls of those who come to Him.

John also mentions that "now the Passover festival was near". Passover, the great feast of the Jews, celebrates their liberation from slavery in Egypt when God led them into freedom as his chosen people. At the Last Supper, just before his death, Jesus gave His disciples -- and the Church -- the great ongoing sign of a new Passover, the Eucharist.

And in today’s miracle, Jesus anticipates that Last Supper scene where He "took the bread, gave thanks, and distributed it to them all…" For in this new Passover Jesus is the central figure, and His suffering, death and resurrection will liberate us from sin and death.

But let’s step back a moment and look first at what leads up to today’s miracle. There is the dialogue with Philip, who always comes as across as rather naive and simple; the guy who takes things literally; who says the things the rest of us think of but are too embarrassed to say. Jesus sets the stage by asking Philip, “Where will we get food for all these people?" Philip looks at the crowd and says, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.”

A little like our first reading, isn’t it? Elisha asks God, "How can I serve this to a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," is the simple answer. How does the Gospel promise it? "Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.” [Lk 6:38] Then Andrew breaks in to tell of a gift: "There is a small boy here with five loaves and two fish." And echoing the words of Elisha adds, "But what use is that among so many?" The next thing we know Jesus has taken those few loaves and fish, and, after blessing them, begins to distribute them.

Note that Jesus didn’t feed the people with nothing. He started with something that was already available. This miracle was made possible because a young boy was willing to share what he had with others, including thousands of strangers around him. You see, God gives life through what is already available to us. But someone has to be the little boy and start the ball rolling.

People are dying of hunger and malnutrition in our world, and it’s not because there isn’t enough food. In some instances they’re being intentionally starved because of hatred. They practice the wrong religion, or come from the wrong tribe or ethnic group. Others are starving because their governments are unbelievably corrupt…still others simply because of inefficiencies and selfishness on the part of others.

You and I can’t do much about some of these things, but we are called to do something, because just like the miracle on the mountainside, the Eucharist we celebrate today is also about giving and about loving. Jesus gave His life on the cross for our salvation, and in the face of such love, we are almost overcome. But He does even more. For the God of the universe makes Himself our food. He gives everything to us, even Himself.  And He does so day after day…and He does so miraculously.

For the bread and wine we offer here today will be consecrated, miraculously changed into Jesus’ Body and Blood, broken, divided, given out to many. But to benefit from this miracle, to receive the Eucharist worthily, we must reflect it in our lives. St. Paul has some harsh words for Christians who want to celebrate the Eucharist but refuse to help the needy members of their community.

There’s another detail worth noting here. In all three of the Synoptic Gospels, the disciples are told to distribute the bread and fish among the people. This of course is a sign of their future mission to bring Christ to the world. But here in John, it’s Jesus Himself who distributes. As we will see in the coming weeks, Jesus will proclaim Himself to be the Living Bread that gives life to the world. You see, John wants to emphasize that Jesus is the source of all spiritual and bodily nourishment. And even though He will use intermediaries, it is always Jesus who comes to us in Word and Eucharist.

In the end, what happened? After 5,000 people had their fill, the leftovers filled twelve baskets -- another sign of the liberality with which God cares for us. The people are so excited they want to make him King, declare Him the Messiah. And they’re right: He is King and Messiah, but they’re also wrong. They’re wrong because of what they missed. They saw the miracle, but missed the message. The only King they’ll see is one in nakedness and shame, a falsely convicted criminal among criminals, hanging on a cross. And where will these crowds be then?

No, the real teaching here is that Jesus is the true source of nourishment for our lives. And if we want that nourishment we must obey the Father who declared, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him". As St. Paul instructs us in the 2nd reading, we must “live in a manner worthy of the call you have received…striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.”

Brothers and sisters, be prepared to enter totally with Jesus into the paschal mystery of His love-centered life, to mirror His self-giving as a way to life. For when we as a people listen to Him and trust in Him…well, as we’ve already seen, God takes care of His people.

Homily: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: Is 55:1-13; Ps 145; Rom 8:35,37-39; Mt 14:13-21

In today’s Gospel reading, Matthew tells us about a miraculous banquet – the miracle of the loaves and fishes – one of the few miracles described in all four Gospels. But this passage is actually a story of three banquets.

The first is a birthday banquet that King Herod had thrown for himself. It was during this banquet that Herod had John the Baptist murdered, simply to please his wife and stepdaughter. Deeply upset when told of John’s death, Jesus wants to be alone with His apostles, to grieve and pray with them in peace and quiet. So he sets off in a boat, headed for a deserted area along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. But the crowds won’t hear of it and follow him on foot. Jesus can’t escape, even for a few hours.

Feast of Herod and the Beheading of John the Baptist

Seeing thousands of people lining the shore, he’s moved with pity, sets aside his own needs, and spends the day among them, healing the sick, teaching them, caring for them. We get the impression that Jesus almost loses track of time, and as evening comes, the Apostles, those most practical of men, become concerned. Can’t He see it’s late and the people are hungry? He’s spent the entire day with this demanding crowd. Enough is enough! And so some of the Apostles approach Jesus and suggest He dismiss the crowds. Let them go so they can buy food in the surrounding villages.

"Give them some food yourselves"

Jesus’ response is extraordinary: “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” The Apostles must have been shocked. Feed them ourselves? Has He gone mad? We hardly have any money and only five loaves of bread and two fish. These 12 practical men, these realists, still had so much to learn. They had watched as Jesus turned water into wine. They had witnessed thousands of cures. And still they thought only in human terms.

In effect Jesus is telling them, “You seem to have a problem. Go ahead and see if you can solve it yourselves.” But the apostles don’t hear this. Their faith, still in the embryonic stage, allows them to hear only the apparent absurdity in His words. They haven’t yet accepted that there are some problems we humans simply cannot solve without divine help.

And so Jesus, no doubt with a sigh and a shake of the head, orders the crowd to sit down on the grass. He then takes the food, and in words remarkably similar to those He would later use at the Last Supper, blesses and breaks the loaves, and gives them to the disciples, who then distribute the food among the crowd. 5,000 men, and probably many more thousands of  women and children, hungry and weary, eat and are satisfied.

In an ironic twist, Jesus turns the Apostles into waiters at His banquet. The men who wanted to dismiss the crowds become instead their servants. This banquet, this miraculous picnic hosted by Jesus along a normally deserted shore in Galilee, was a banquet of love, so different from the banquet of death thrown by Herod.

Jesus feeds the hungry, and in doing so, gives His Apostles something to think about. Did they make the connection to the psalm we prayed only moments ago? “The hand of the Lord feeds us; He answers all our needs.”

Yes, the Apostles experienced the miracle; it would be hard not to as they watched the bread and fish multiply in their own hands. And yet it would seem they only recognized its full meaning much later. They didn’t recognize the sign of the bread. Neither did they see how Jesus has used them, multiplying the bread in their hands, not His own, and distributing it through them. They didn’t grasp the meaning of the 12 baskets full of fragments, far more then they started with, showing that the Bread of Life, the Bread He would later give the world, would never be exhausted.

"This is my body..."

And so a story that begins with a banquet of death, and moves to a banquet of love, ends with a banquet of life, a banquet of eternal life. Jesus didn’t institute the Eucharist that day in that deserted place; no, He waited until the Apostles were ready. He waited until the night before He died. But He did provide His disciples with a glimpse of the banquet to come, the banquet at His altar, a banquet that would feed, not thousands, but millions every day.

The Eucharist is a marvelous gift. But how much do we value it? When you are hungry or thirsty, do you think only about your next meal, or do you think also about your next Eucharist? When you sit at the dinner table with family and friends, do you take a moment to reflect on the miracle of the Eucharist at God’s table?

Jesus fed the stomachs of the thousands who had followed him in Galilee. Today He feeds the souls of His followers throughout the world, providing them with perfect nourishment, giving them Himself – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. The Eucharist is so valuable, it’s invaluable. The fathers of the Second Vatican Council called it “the source and summit of the Christian life.” And the most wonderful thing about the Eucharistic miracle that will take place a few moments from now on this very altar is that God has sent each of us a standing invitation to this banquet.

Today’s Herods also send out invitations to their banquets, invitations to turn away from God in sin, invitations to reject the Bread of Life for a culture of death, invitations that the world pressures us to accept. But as St. Paul tells us in today’s 2nd reading, by accepting Christ’s invitation, we can conquer all that the world throws at us. With the Eucharist to nourish and strengthen us, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Praised be Jesus Christ!