Today we remember the most
famous picnic in religious history. Today’s Gospel recounts the account of
Jesus feeding the five thousand with the multiplication of the loaves and the
fish.
I invite you to envision this
well-known miracle story of Jesus feeding the five thousand people with five
barley loaves and two fish in a new way.
Imagine that the hungry crowd
of 5,000 people represents all the people we will encounter through this coming
week, beginning at the dismissal rite of this Mass. These are the people God puts in our path as
we journey this week … obviously your family members, the people who have
gathered for this Eucharistic celebration in our parish community, the people
you work with and vacation with, the incidental people you meet during the
course of the week, the person in the car driving ahead of you and so on and son
on.
These are all God’s
people. In some real ways, they are
hungry for that which gives them life.
They may or may not be physically hungry, but they are spiritually and
emotionally hungry for the fullness of life.
Lord calls us to move out of our comfort zone and do something about it.
Do we think of ourselves as
people having a responsibility to feed the hungry in our midst? To be clear from the Gospel, we are missioned
to feed the hungry – the physical, emotional and spiritual hunger of people
whom the Lord places in our lives.
Imagine further that we are
the five barley loaves and fish that Christ distributes in the world. Yes, if we envision the Gospel account in
this way, we are all challenged to give of ourselves in the service of others. This is our spirituality. This is the meaning of stewardship. Pope Francis in his homily on this miracle
account says its spiritual message is more about sharing than multiplying.
As the Body of Christ, we are
commissioned to wash the feet of God’s poor and feed the hungers of people we
share life with.
Barley
loaves are the food of the poor. Let our
loaves represent that which is most broken, most vulnerable within us. Let the barley loaves stand for the risk and
vulnerability involved in reaching out to others, in moving out of our comfort
zone in the service of others. Let the
loaves we distribute be like the risks of faith that our parents and
grandparents, many within this very parish, took as they lived the life to
which Christ called them and to which Christ calls us. Thank you for the sharing that you do in
financially contributing with your offertory envelopes. This generosity is essential to support the
ministries of the parish.
But
to be clear, we are called also to share of ourselves in feeding the
spiritually and emotionally hungry that the Lord places in our lives. In the Gospel account, God met the hunger of
the people, beginning with the generosity of one of the least among them – the
young boy who was willing to share his five barley loaves and two fish. May this young boy who was willing to share
be our examination of conscience for us.
What reasons do we give for not sharing some of our perfectly disposable
gifts?
Thus
young boy also provides an inspiration:
Whenever we are discouraged by the demon of “What good can my little bit
do (whether of money, time, or effort), we should remember that God can
multiply our little bit.”
As
we consider and take responsibility for our mission collectively as a parish
community, we are sent forth as the Church of St. Joseph’s to be a Church of
Mercy. As we are fed and nourished in
the mystery of the Eucharist, we are to share the giftedness we have been
given. We are to share our five barley
loaves and two fish so that the Lord reveals His love to the hungry through our
generosity. The Lord is merciful to us
so that we can be merciful to others.
This
Gospel miracle account is good news because it tells that God is concerned
about people who hunger. It is good news
because it reminds us that God can work wonders with the little we have if we
are willing to give it all. It is good
news because it reminds us that with God in our midst, we can always make a
banquet out of what seems to be pretty poor fare.
In
the Gospel account, there is more here than just a great number of hungry
people being wondrously fed and satisfied.
Jesus is gathering with the hungry in the context of a shared meal, not
only to feed and to be fed but to enter into covenant with all those
present. Here Jesus sets an example for
those who follow him in ministry. Our
task is not simply to dole out food but to take, bless, give thanks and share
our food together with the hungry and the poor, thereby sealing our
relationship with them. We are to offer
nourishment as well as commitment, food as well as fellowship.
The
true miracle is not the multiplication of loaves and fish, but the
multiplication of God’s grace. The God
who is the source of all life offers us the possibility of participating in the
divine life by our sharing with others our five barley loaves and two fish.
When
Jesus and the disciples ate together with the crowds who had gathered that day
by the Sea of Galilee, they were announcing by their sharing that a new
relationship was being established between Jesus, the disciples and all the
hungry whom they fed.
Moreover,
the meal of barley loaves and fish by the Sea of Galilee anticipated another
even more significant meal that Jesus would host with his own. This meal would remember the gift of himself
on the cross and the covenant made with sinful humankind through his
blood. That meal would celebrate the
union in love that believers would forever thereafter enjoy with God, with
Jesus, with one another, in the Spirit.
The
bread we receive from the hand of God is more than mere barley loaves. It is the Eucharistic bread of full life,
life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.
As we are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord, we are sent forth
to share our five barley loaves and two fish with the hungry people in our
midst.
Have
a Blessed Day.
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