Friends,
our Gospel
today focuses on St. John’s intense meditation on the meaning of the
Eucharist. The tone is set with the familiar story of the feeding of the
five thousand, the only miracle story mentioned in each of the four
Gospels. This scene deeply affected the first Christians.
Jesus
instructs the crowd to recline on the grass. Taking the barley loaves
and dried fish, Jesus makes a meal that satisfies the enormous crowd.
They are
hungry, tired, and worn out from their exertions, and Jesus gives them
sustenance for the day.
For
Thomas Aquinas, the great metaphor for the Eucharist is sustenance,
food for the journey. Baptism defines us, making us sons and daughters
of God; confirmation confirms and deepens this identity; marriage and
holy orders seal us in our life’s vocation. These are sacraments offered
once at key moments in one’s life.
Then
there is the Eucharist, which is daily food, nourishment to get us
through the day-to-day. How effective would we be if we never ate, or
ate only on special occasions and in a festive environment? Not very.
So, in the spiritual life, we must eat and drink or we will not have the
strength.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 110
A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God,
twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits,
and fresh grain in the ear.
Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat."
But his servant objected,
"How can I set this before a hundred people?"
Elisha insisted, "Give it to the people to eat."
"For thus says the LORD,
'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'"
And when they had eaten, there was some left over,
as the LORD had said.
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people recline."
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
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