Friar’s Corner: Give food to the people and you will have some left over
2 Kings 4:42-44; Ps 145:10-11, 15-18; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15
I want to begin again by asking the Holy Spirit to increase our understanding. “Come, Holy Spirit come! And from your clear celestial home, shed a ray of Light Divine!”
In this year of the B Cycle of Sunday readings we are looking at that famous chapter 6 of St. John’s gospel. St. John takes certain major miracles stories in Christ’s life. St. John develops them more than the other gospels. This chapter is a long one about Jesus giving us a way to receive his daily food. In the Our Father Jesus taught us to ask the Father each day for “daily bread.” And Jesus offers us this daily bread at Mass every day, all over the world. And we have some leftovers we keep in the tabernacle for communion of those who are seriously ill and for adoration services.
In the first reading today a man brings the prophet Elisha twenty barley loaves and fresh grain. Elisha tells his servant to give the food to a hundred people and he will have leftovers. And so it happened. Chapter 6 of St. John starts out with Jesus feeding five thousand men with give barley loaves and two fish. And they also had leftovers. They collected twelve baskets of leftovers. As we think about this story we need to expand it. This gathering was not a men’s retreat. So we have to figure in the wives, children and other relatives. We might come up with thirty thousand or more. This story is not a healing story but a great miracle.
When we look at the ancient churches that go back to Jesus and the apostles, we see that Jesus is feeding his people every day all over the world. The Orthodox do not have Divine Liturgy every day but the Roman Catholics are able to receive in our parish churches all over the world. Had Jesus remained on earth he would have been only where his human body would be. In the Eucharist the Holy Spirit and the priest change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus as food for our journey to heaven.
Jesus is our new great prophet and he wants to visit with us every day. As we are in the state of grace the whole Trinity lives within us. At Mass we get an increase of his power and love. We get our batteries charged and our gas tank filled up. Then Jesus sends us out into the world to be his loving hands helping others. The more we realize the great joy of this great sacrament the more we help God change our world. Do you want more joy? Run to Jesus,
+ Fr. Bob Hilz
(© 2015 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)
