Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary time
Jn 6:1-15
Dear Friends, For the next five weeks we move from Mark to John for our gospel readings. We take time to consider selections from Johnn’s Discourse on the Bread of Life in his marvelous chapter six. John presents two major themes in this remarkable teaching on the Bread of Life. Two interwoven themes are Jesus as the life-giving revelation from heaven and as the life-giving bread from heaven. The focus is Jesus as Word and Sacrament. Only verses 51-58 are explicitly about the Eucharist though implications of the Eucharist appear often in this special chapter.
Today’s story of the loaves and fishes appears six times in the four Gospels. It has its roots in the Old Testament and it points toward the Eucharist. It is a powerful display of the theme of divine hospitality of the kingdom. One difference in John’s version is very significant. Jesus himself feeds the people. The message portrayed in Jesus’ action is this: the people receive the nourishment directly and abundantly from Jesus.
This relates this feeding to the feeding of the multitude is the manna in the desert. Likewise, right after the similar desert feast in John, we have Jesus walking on the water. This is a shadow of the Israelites walking through the Reed Sea on the road to freedom.
John is continually inviting us to go deeper into the story. Here one message is that Jesus feeds more than the physical hunger for a hurting and hungry humankind. His compassion and mercy reach out to all the sufferings, fears, anxieties and hurts of the broken children of Adam and Eve. In the end, bread is never enough for the hungers of the heart. Only love is sufficient.
Today’s gospel is all about Jesus turning the bread into love. The story of the boy with the few loaves and fishes is another lesson for us. God often uses little people and meager gifts and talents to produce wonderful results.
The youngster’s sharing opens up the gifts of life to all. Through the sharing, a scarcity is transformed into abundance. At the same time, the limits on the food avoids over-consumption. This is a great lesson for us today in a world suffering from the distorted distribution of food and all other resources. Billions of dollars are spent on diets while millions go to bed hungry every evening. Jesus’ action should lead us to examine our lifestyle. Our consumer-driven world naturally moves to overconsumption, neglect of the poor and the continuing mutilation of our environment.
Jesus’ command to gather the leftovers has a double message for us. At one level, it challenges everything about our lifestyle. At a different level, it calls the disciples into a role of sharing the Bread of Life that is the Eucharist with the Church.
All through these five Sundays with John 6 we are invited into the mystery of the Bread of Life. We meet Jesus once again. He is both the Word of revelation and the Bread of Life in the sacrament of the Eucharist. We need to encounter this expression of God’s love. It is crucial to avoid the superficial response of the crowd. They loved the bread but were clueless of the true meaning of Jesus’ action. We need to enter more deeply into the event, the event that relates to the many hungers of our daily life. We need to let today’s gospel challenge everything about our life from our participation in our materialistic culture to the depth and quality of our prayer life.
Today’s story of the loaves and fishes appears six times in the four Gospels. It has its roots in the Old Testament and it points toward the Eucharist. It is a powerful display of the theme of divine hospitality of the kingdom. One difference in John’s version is very significant. Jesus himself feeds the people. The message portrayed in Jesus’ action is this: the people receive the nourishment directly and abundantly from Jesus.
This relates this feeding to the feeding of the multitude is the manna in the desert. Likewise, right after the similar desert feast in John, we have Jesus walking on the water. This is a shadow of the Israelites walking through the Reed Sea on the road to freedom.
John is continually inviting us to go deeper into the story. Here one message is that Jesus feeds more than the physical hunger for a hurting and hungry humankind. His compassion and mercy reach out to all the sufferings, fears, anxieties and hurts of the broken children of Adam and Eve. In the end, bread is never enough for the hungers of the heart. Only love is sufficient.
Today’s gospel is all about Jesus turning the bread into love. The story of the boy with the few loaves and fishes is another lesson for us. God often uses little people and meager gifts and talents to produce wonderful results.
The youngster’s sharing opens up the gifts of life to all. Through the sharing, a scarcity is transformed into abundance. At the same time, the limits on the food avoids over-consumption. This is a great lesson for us today in a world suffering from the distorted distribution of food and all other resources. Billions of dollars are spent on diets while millions go to bed hungry every evening. Jesus’ action should lead us to examine our lifestyle. Our consumer-driven world naturally moves to overconsumption, neglect of the poor and the continuing mutilation of our environment.
Jesus’ command to gather the leftovers has a double message for us. At one level, it challenges everything about our lifestyle. At a different level, it calls the disciples into a role of sharing the Bread of Life that is the Eucharist with the Church.
All through these five Sundays with John 6 we are invited into the mystery of the Bread of Life. We meet Jesus once again. He is both the Word of revelation and the Bread of Life in the sacrament of the Eucharist. We need to encounter this expression of God’s love. It is crucial to avoid the superficial response of the crowd. They loved the bread but were clueless of the true meaning of Jesus’ action. We need to enter more deeply into the event, the event that relates to the many hungers of our daily life. We need to let today’s gospel challenge everything about our life from our participation in our materialistic culture to the depth and quality of our prayer life.
When we do, we will meet in Jesus as the one who goes far beyond the superficial desires created by an advertising driven consumerism. He will let us gradually see, at least to the eyes of our heart, what is truly important in a world that is passing away right in front of us. Jesus, the Bread of life, will provide us with all that we need. He will offer the gifts of wisdom, life and truth to satisfy the deepest longings of our heart.
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