17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 29, 2012
5:30 PM
J. A. Loftus, S.J.
For the next five Sundays, we interrupt our normal reading of Mark’s
Gospel in order to present almost all of St. John’s sixth chapter; that chapter
is John’s rather lengthy discourse on Eucharist. It begins today with the
action part of the story, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. The
Sundays throughout all of August will offer reflections or meditations on one
or another aspect of this story. Today’s homily will be a little different from
what I usually try to do. Today I’m just going to try to give you a brief
overview, a heads-up for what’s coming. There is a question we will be
hearing all month: do you really believe all this stuff?
A number of year’s ago, the Jesuit scripture scholar, John Donahue,
writing in America magazine, suggested that “these readings come, at least in
the Northern Hemisphere, in the middle of summer and hardly evoke rapt
attention at a sunny, summer Mass.”
But, he suggested, that if you want to
grasp anything at all over the next month of gospel readings, you might want
to read the entire chapter of John’s Gospel for yourselves. It gives the
context for everything that follows. It won’t hurt; it’s not that long.
The multiplication of the loaves is the only miracle from Jesus’ public
ministry narrated in all four Gospels. And, in all four, it has Eucharistic
overtones. But only John places the event specifically at Passover; only John
has Jesus explicitly seated on a high mountain (evoking Moses on Sinai); only
John makes mention of Philip, the disciple who will later bring Greeks to
Jesus anticipating the inclusion of non-Jews in the Eucharistic banquet. And
John, alone, uses language explicitly evocative of the Last Supper. Jesus
takes the loaves, gives thanks, breaks the bread and gives it to the people.
John alone also uses the Greek verb eucharisteo (“to give thanks”).
So there can be no doubt what this miracle story is really about. In
today’s readings, I just want to highlight one theme: the theme of abundance.
The theme begins to be apparent in our first reading from the second book of
Kings. The prophet Elisha is given 20 barley loaves with which to feed a
hundred people. Recalling the previous promise of God that the people shall
eat and there will always be something left over, Elisha repeatedly instructs
the man to give it to the people, and trust the Lord.
God does not just satisfy the hungry, offer bare sustenance in a famine
situation. God will provide in abundance. So much so, that there will always
be something left over–to continue to share. In John’s gospel numbers
always have some significance. Hence, in John’s version, each tribe of Israel
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receives its own wicker basket; there are twelve of them, filled to the brim
with more food for the journey, more abundance to be shared. God’s care,
God’s love, is never miserly!
Our Psalm response today echos the same theme: “The hand of the
Lord feeds us; the Lord answers all our needs.” Here comes that question
again: do I really believe that. All my needs?
This is not, naturally speaking, a time of abundance for many people.
Our country and our world are still recovering from a significant economic
collapse. People are hurting all over; Europe is a disaster. And at home,
people are trying just to marshal what resources they can find. We are
networking for job opportunities, saving on food and entertainment, and
cutting back (or at least preparing for further cut backs) on many fronts. So
how do we hear God’s story of abundance? How really? Is it just fantasy?
Wishful thinking? Or a promise to be taken, somehow, in faith, seriously?
Today’s story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is a
challenge to our everyday world of concerns and caution. I suggest to you
that it is also an invitation in our life of faith. Perhaps like me you find
yourself thinking of other Gospel stories.
Remember the lilies of the field; remember the birds of the air; that
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every hair on my head is counted as precious; remember the five thousand
hungry, hurting brothers and sisters who come before us in another Gospel
story. They too ate their fill and had enough left over to continue sharing
with each other. God’s promise, in John’s Gospel especially, is not for
sustenance; not for survival; but for life in abundance.
At this table, in a few minutes, we take the same bread and same cup.
We bless them and give thanks–for all we do have, and for all God’s good
things yet to come. We live in hope and in the Promise of God’s abundant
life–life so often provided, surprisingly, by a little boy with only five loaves
and only two fish.
number.
But that adds up to seven! A magical and sacred
Abbondanza! Abundance is God’s Promise.
All this month we will be asked whether we believe and just how much
we believe. Each time we take up the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation
there is that question asked again: can you still believe? Will you? God’s
Promise is abundance, not just survival. Abbondanza! Peace! Believe!
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