The Miraculous Sign of Jesus
Introduction:
May
you continue to pray and work for the unity of all who call upon the Abba
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as our one GOD.
We are called
to be the one Body of Christ, His Church. As believers and disciples of the Lord
Jesus, we must show our unity with other believers. Yes, there will be disagreements
and differences of opinion, but we are to work for unity with other believers.
As St. Augustine said, we are called to have “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials,
liberty; in all things, love.” We are called to communion (Latin cum – “with” and
unio – “oneness”).
That will never
happen unless we continue to pray and work for that unity that Jesus prayed for
on the night before He died (cf. John 17). We must join our master teacher and pray
for and work toward unity among all His disciples.
Two themes
emerge from our readings today: the abundant and gracious feeding of GOD’s people
and the call to unity. Together these themes can remind us that GOD’s graciousness
extends beyond our normal expectations and that same graciousness is the source
that can draw us together. The First Reading describes the multiplication of loaves
during the time of the prophet Elisha. The psalm reinforces the theme with the Responsorial
refrain: “The hand of the LORD feeds us, [the LORD] answers all of our needs.” In
his continuing letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul speaks about unity, and he presents
the seven “ones.” In the Gospel, Jesus feeds the crowd of thousands by multiplying
five barley loaves and a couple of fish.
First
Reading 2 Kings 4:42-44: They will eat and have some left over
Commentary:
The
prophet Elisha was renowned for the wonders he worked; others are related before
and after this incident. Here he is repeating Moses’ miracle of providing bread
or manna for his followers. For Christians, however, the greater interest is that
the miraculous feeding by Jesus is recounted in terms that deliberately recall this
incident: the chance-comer who provides barley loaves and more, the prophet’s command,
the disciple’s incredulous question, the repeated command, the feeding and the food
left over. The same six steps may be seen in the gospel. So, Jesus is repeating
the Moses miracle after the pattern of Elisha, only a thousand times as generously:
instead of twenty ‘loaves’ (small pitta-breads) among a hundred men, Jesus shares
out five among five thousand. What is the point of this modelling of the story?
For John Jesus is a second Moses, standing in the same tradition but greater than
Moses, making God known just as Moses had done, bringing to completion all that
Moses had begun. ‘The Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through
Jesus Christ.’
Responsorial
Psalm 145:10-11,15-18: You open wide your hand, O Lord, and grant our desires.
The psalm
echoes the abundant care GOD has for those who seek GOD’s help. The psalmist praises
GOD for providing food in due season and opening the divine hand to satisfy the
desires of all living creatures. It is the hand of GOD that feeds us, for GOD truly
answers all our needs and gives to us beyond what we need.
Second
Reading Ephesians 4:1-6: One Body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God
Commentary:
The
continuing disunity among Christians makes this passage difficult to read with a
clear conscience. It is perhaps the strongest plea for unity in the New Testament,
with the possible exception of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper. Is there a ‘peace
that binds you together’? One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
all – all this is undeniable. One faith? Perhaps not in the sense of a set or list
of beliefs, but all Christians profess the same awareness of the inability to save
ourselves; we all rely on and put our trust in God’s promises, fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. In itself that awareness should be enough to draw us together. What can
still justify our disunity? One comfort is that immense strides have been made in
a lifetime since the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was established,
a heartening desire to understand one another and our still separate traditions.
The work of the one Spirit is clear in that the generation that began this search
can hardly have hoped for such rapid convergence. Gradually we discover that the
traditions in different Church communities express the same fundamental values in
slightly different ways, with slightly different emphases.
Gospel
John 6:1-15: The feeding of the five thousand
Commentary:
Jesus’
conversation with Nicodemus, which comes just before this passage, centred on being
born again of water and the Spirit, which is fulfilled in the Church by the sacrament
of baptism.
Now the focus
has changed to the other great sacrament of life, the Eucharist. The starting
point on which Jesus will reflect is the feeding of the five thousand. In the synoptic
Gospels, the background (and so the meaning) of this wonderful feeding was Jesus
as the shepherd, taking pity on the sheep without a shepherd, feeding them on the
green grass beside the flowing waters. In John, however, the allusion goes further
back, to Moses giving the people manna in the desert: Jesus goes up the mountain,
as Moses went up the mountain of Sinai, and the Passover, the festival of the trek
through the desert, was near (verses 3-4). We will hear that the manna given by
Moses was not the true bread from heaven. There was a greater gift to come.
This is chalked
up as one of the seven signs worked by Jesus, and they immediately recognize him
as a prophet. As a first step, he is acting as did the prophet Elisha, who fed his
hundred followers with ten loaves (2 Kings 4.42-44), but now the gift of Jesus is
on a far larger scale: five loaves among five thousand men. If we look further back,
Jesus is also acting as the prophet Moses, who gave the whole people manna, and
they all had enough. A further numerical reminiscence is given by the twelve baskets
of scraps, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
Reflection:
Can
anything on this earth truly satisfy the deepest longing and hunger we experience
for God? A great multitude had gathered to hear Jesus, no doubt because they were
hungry for the word of life. Jesus' disciples wanted to send them away at the end
of the day because they did not have the resources to feed them. They even complained
about how much money it would take to feed such a large crowd - at least six month's
wages! Jesus, the Bread of Life, took the little they had - five loaves and two
fish - and giving thanks to his heavenly Father, distributed to all until they were
satisfied with their hunger.
Jesus
is the true bread from heaven that gives us abundant life: The people
of Israel had been waiting for the prophet whom Moses had promised: The Lord your
God will raise for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren - him
shall you heed (Deuteronomy 18:15). The signs which Jesus did, including the miraculous
feeding of the five thousand signified that God has indeed sent him as the anointed
Prophet and King. Jesus' feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle that is
repeated in all four Gospel accounts. What is the significance of this particular
miracle? The miraculous feeding of such a great multitude pointed to God's provision
of manna in the wilderness for the people of Israel under Moses' leadership (Exodus
16). This daily provision of food in the barren wilderness foreshadowed the true
heavenly bread that Jesus would offer his followers.
The
food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ: Jesus makes
a claim that only God can make: He is the true bread of heaven that can satisfy
the deepest hunger we experience. The sign of the multiplication of the loaves when
the Lord says the blessing, breaks, and distributes through his disciples prefigures
the superabundance of the unique bread of his Eucharist or Lord's Supper. When we
receive from the Lord's table we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, who makes us sharers
in his body and blood. Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 A.D.) calls it the "one
bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the
food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ" (Ad Eph. 20,2). This supernatural
food is healing for both body and soul and strength for our journey heavenward.
When you approach
the Table of the Lord, what do you expect to receive? Healing, pardon, comfort,
and rest for your soul? The Lord has much more for us, more than we can ask or imagine.
The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist at the Lord's Table is an intimate
union with Jesus Christ, our Divine Healer and Savior. As bodily nourishment restores
lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens us in charity and enables us to break
with disordered attachments to creatures and to be more firmly rooted in the love
of Christ. Do you hunger for the "bread of life"?
The Lord alone can satisfy the deepest longing of our heart: The feeding of the five thousand shows the remarkable generosity of God and his great kindness towards us. When God gives, he gives abundantly. He gives more than we need for ourselves so that we may have something to share with others, especially those who lack what they need. God takes the little we have and multiplies it for the good of others. Do you trust in God's provision for you and do you share freely with others, especially those who are in need?
Lord Jesus,
you satisfy the deepest longing of our heart and you feed us with the finest of
wheat (Psalm 81:16). Fill me with gratitude and give me a generous heart that I
may freely share with others what you have given to me.
Daily
Quote from the Early Church Fathers: God enables us, by Leo the Great, 400-461 A.D.
"In rendering
service to the grace of God, we are not only made subject to our King through obedience
but are even joined to him through the will. If we are of one mind with him (willing
what he wills, disapproving of what he disapproves), he himself will bring us victory
in all our battles. He who has given the 'will' will bestow also the ability. In
this way can 'cooperate' with his works, speaking that prophetic utterance in the
exultation of faith: 'The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the defender of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?'" (excerpt
from Sermon 26,4,2)
POPULATION
EXPLOSION AND EVANGELISM EXPLOSION. “There is a lad here who has five barley
loaves and a couple of dried fish, but what good is that for so many?” —John 6:9
The Lord’s
first words to newly created human beings were: “Be fertile and multiply” (Gn 1:28).
His will is to multiply people. There are over seven billion people on planet
Earth. The Lord also intends to multiply disciples. He commanded us: “Full authority
has been given to Me both in heaven and on earth; Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all the nations” (Mt 28:18-19).
To get us into
the multiplication business, Jesus will multiply loaves and fish. He will take our
little everyday lives and miraculously make them more than sufficient to feed the
masses both physically and spiritually. The multiplication of our loaves-and-fish
lives is the transition from multiplying people to multiplying disciples. The Lord
wants an evangelism explosion greater than the population explosion. This occurs
when the Spirit explodes our little lives of total commitment. The fallout will
cover the world with the Gospel and the name of Jesus.
Jesus promises:
“I solemnly assure you, the man who has faith in Me will do the works I do, and
greater far than these” (Jn 14:12). His “power now at work in us can do immeasurably
more than we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20). Let Jesus light your fuse.
Prayer:
Jesus,
as I worship You in Mass today, multiply the effect of my life to win the nations
to You. “There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope given
all of you by your call. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and
Father of all.” —Eph 4:4-6. Praise Jesus, Who was broken so that we may experience
the power of multiplication in our everyday lives. Glory be to the Lamb of God.
The
personal question for today: How have I experienced the graciousness of GOD
being extended to me above and beyond my own needs? When have I felt “in communion”
with GOD? Did the feeling lead me to feel a closer bond with those around me? What
can I do to bring about a greater sense of communion with others who also believe
in the Good News of the Lord Jesus?