SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
29 JULY 2018
When
we hear about this miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five barley
loaves and two fish, our reaction might be:
“Wow, what an incredible event that happened over 2,000 years ago! All those hungry people were fortunate to
have been fed!” But that is not the
reason why Saint John recorded this sign in his Gospel. He wrote it so that we can deepen our faith
in Lord’s presence at this Mass.
Just as a
large crowd gathered around Jesus after he crossed the Sea of Galilee, so he
gathers all of us (from east to west, as the Third Eucharistic Prayer
proclaims) in this church for this Mass.
Just ancient people saw mountain as places where the divine touched the
human, so we encounter the Lord on this “mountain”. Teachers in the ancient world spoke from a
seated positon. Jesus has just spoken to
us in his Word. Just as he understood
the hunger of all those people for meaning in their lives, he knows that we
come to this church with many hungers, and he helps us to understand better
what can fulfill those hungers. Through
his Word, he warns us against putting all our energies into those passing
solutions which will never satisfy our deepest hungers. Just as the Jewish Passover was near, so we are
entering into the Memorial of the Lord’s Passover from death into life. That is why the Lamb of the New Passover is
pictured in the mosaic on the front of our Altar.
When he
decides to satisfy the physical hunger of the vast crowd, he asks for help from
Phillip and Andrew. Phillip sees it as
impossible. Andrew points out a boy who
has brought five barley loaves and two fish.
But he doubts if the boy’s box lunch could make much of a difference
with so many hungry people. Jesus
invites the vast crowd to recline on the grass.
Reclining in the ancient world was a posture for those sharing a meal
together. Instead of having them find a
seat among thorns and thistles (the result of Adam and Eve’s sin and their
being expelled from the Garden of Eden), he invites them to sit on grass, a
sign of the new Eden he will bring through his new Passover. He takes the five barley loaves and two fish
and gives thanks to the Father. Then he
distributes the food to satisfy the hunger of everyone who had gathered
there. Once they have had their fill,
the disciples gather twelve wicker baskets with fragments left over from the five
loaves and two fish.
In just a
few minutes, people will bring up a gold paten filled with hosts made from
unleavened bread, along with some wine.
The priest will take those gifts.
In the Eucharistic Prayer, he will praise the Father for the sacrifice
of Jesus made present as we remember.
During the singing of the Lamb of God, we will break the consecrated
host and place the rest of the hosts into ciboria. Along with the extraordinary ministers of the
Eucharist, we will distribute them to the assembly. We will take the remaining fragments for the
sick and homebound, and we will place the rest of the consecrated hosts in the
tabernacle.
Those who
were fed on that mountain were so impressed that they wanted to make Jesus a
king. They did not understand that this
physical feeding was a sign of the more profound feeding that would occur at
every Mass celebrated throughout the world after the Pascal Mystery had been
completed. Jesus withdrew to draw
attention away from him. At the end of
Mass, he will send us forth to proclaim the Mystery we have received and behave
as members of his Body. That is why he
feeds us with his Body and Blood. Our
reception of this Eucharist increases our trust that he can transform our
meager efforts and our limited resources into powerful witnesses to the Kingdom
of God. We can make a difference, not
because of our own efforts, but because he feeds us with the bread from heaven
and the cup of eternal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment