Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

07-26-2015Weekly ReflectionFr. Paul Pulimalayil

2 Kings 4:42-44, Ephesians 4:1-6, John 6:1-15

We were meditating during this month about the prophet, starting from Jesus passing on to the disciples and their experience and we come to the final part of that series of meditations. We are brought to the Eucharist. The Prophet is to become the Eucharist. According to Vatican II council Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. This Sunday we begin a five week focus on the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John. The event is packed with meaning. It obviously refers to the Eucharist. The meditation should lead us to a better participation in the Eucharist which will force us to look in to the needs of our brethren.

With the words “Lead a life worthy of [your] calling!” Paul urges the Christian community in Ephesus to be faithful to their mission. One body and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your calling. (Eph 4/3-4). These words of Paul are addressed to us today. And what is this calling? We are called, first of all, to acknowledge God as a good, caring and loving God. The Bible expresses God as “the God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob.”

In the readings of today we see the multiplication of the bread. This event is one of the best known events in the life of Jesus. It’s the only miracle that is described in all the four Gospels. (In Mark’s Gospel, this story is told twice!) St Mark ́s Gospel, in its brevity, does not provide sufficient material for all the Sundays of Year B. For the next five Sundays, the Church puts before us, on the table of the word of God, Jesus ́ promise and explanation of the Eucharist from Chapter 6 of St John’s Gospel.

John's reference to the feast of the Passover is not casual; his chronology always has theological importance. What is about to happen is the introduction of the new Passover meal, with effects that far surpass the original Passover.

Jesus’ mercy and he sees the suffering and he feels for them. The initiative is from God not of the people. Nobody requested or complained to him about food. It is motivated by Jesus ́ abiding compassion for "the crowd." (cf. last Sunday)

Jesus tells the disciples that they should feed the crowd; But the response of the disciples is one of hopelessness. We hear the responses: “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” (Mt 14:17)

“Where can anyone get enough bread here in this deserted place?” (Mk 8:4)

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good are these for so many?” (Jn 6:9)

But it wasn’t hopeless. It wasn’t impossible. They do end up feeding this great crowd. The problem with their first response to Jesus was that they failed to go beyond the limitations of their own expectations.

It may be that our expectations of ourselves are too limited. We may confine ourselves to limited expectations of whether the hungry of our world can be fed, whether we can eliminate war, whether prejudice and racism can be overcome, whether women can achieve equality - and most of all, whether you and I can have a part in making any of this happen. Their fundamental mistake was that they didn’t include God in the equation. Remember the time Jesus said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” If we take that seriously, we realize what a mistake it is to leave God out of the equation.

In our daily life we find many things impossible. When it comes to being a better person... when it comes to healing some relationships... when it comes to doing better at our job, our diet, our marriage, raising our children... when it comes to helping to make our city a better city, our parish a better parish... when it comes to caring for the poor, helping to build a peaceful world... if we put God in the equation we can go way beyond the limitations of human expectations. The truth is, God is already in the equation, because God sent his only Son into the world to bring peace, justice, wholeness, and the Lord has poured the Holy Spirit upon us to share in that work.

God's way of doing things, that incorporates material creation and our human contributions into his plans, is operative even – perhaps we should say, especially – for what is most sacred, the Eucharist. The bread and wine we offer him are fruits both of the earth and of the work of human hands (Offertory prayers). Like the boy with the loaves and fishes, and like the apostles, the priest, in order to be at Jesus ́ side as a minister of the Eucharist, has given up what he certainly needed for himself: his life – as have all those among the people who have understood what the Eucharist demands of them. We have to see what Jesus is doing. He receives the bread and fish, gives thanks, blesses and gives to be served. We should do the same, take, give thanks. bless and give.

The difference of receiving and giving is important. The disciples’ serve the bread after receiving it from Jesus the miracle occurs. It becomes not bread but Eucharist. The miracle is growing. It is the bread of eternity (Jn 6/ 24-35), will give a new relationship (41-51), will convert us to God (51-58) and though difficult, when given grace will be understood fully (60-69).

Today Jesus is calling us to become Eucharist in our daily life. We should see the pains of the people around us. What we can do to alleviate the pain around us in the family, in the world. Our work is to give what we have to the hand of God, then receive it from his hand and then distribute it.

BACK TO LIST