Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading I
2 Kgs
4:42-44
A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God,
twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits,
and fresh grain in the ear.
Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat."
But his servant objected,
"How can I set this before a hundred people?"
Elisha insisted, "Give it to the people to eat."
"For thus says the LORD,
‘They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'"
And when they had eaten, there was some left over,
as the LORD had said.
Responsorial
Psalm
Ps 145:10-11,
15-16, 17-18
R (cf. 16) The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due season;
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
R The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The Lord is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Reading
II
Eph 4:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Gospel
Jn 6:1-15
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people recline."
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
The miracle recounted in the First Reading
parallels 1 Kgs 17:14-16. Twenty
barley loaves and ears of grain-food for the prophet, yes, but hardly enough to
feed a famine-stricken people. Hardly
enough, that is, unless the power of Yahweh is with you.
The close literary connection between the miracles performed by Elijah
and Elisha, especially the multiplication of food and the raisings from the
dead, and similar miracles of Jesus recounted in the synoptic Gospels cannot
be ignored. The New Testament writers seem to have selected particular acts of
Jesus to assert, especially to their Jewish converts, that the power of God
worked through him.
In the Second Reading, Paul speaks of the unity
of the body. The author exhorts the
readers to lead lives worthy of their Christian calling (1 Thes 2:12; Col1:10)
and names a catalog of virtues borrowed from Col 3:12-15 which they should
practice. Unity of the Spirit,
however, is unique to Ephesians and reflects the author's greater interest in
the role of the Spirit. A whole
series of "one formulas" are introduced to further describe the
components of the Christian calling: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God.
This “one formula” denotes the teachings to which all members of the
Church subscribe. Since the sole
ritual action in this list is baptism and because Eucharist is not mentioned, it
is possible that such "one formulas" were used as liturgical shouts
during the baptismal rite itself. The
formula which speaks of "one God" appears to be a unit in
itself, a Jewish formulation which has been incorporated into Christian
teaching. It consists of the
additional designation of God as the "Father of all," plus the three
prepositional phrases – over, through, and in all.
This is a Stoic manner of speaking, taken up and transformed by
Greek-speaking Jews and Christians. See
the "one formula" of 1 Cor 8:6 and the similar use of prepositions
there.
The
entire chapter from which today’s Gospel Reading is
taken will center on the one theme of Jesus as the bread of life.
It has four clear divisions:
(1)
multiplication of the loaves
(2)
walking on the water
(3)
the discourse
(4)
epilogue of reactions
The
multiplication of the loaves (6:1-15): The Jewish Passover (v. 4) was an
unleavened bread feast, so the reference prepares us for the bread miracle that
is about to take place. This miracle is the only one narrated by all four
evangelists: Twice by Mark, in 6:31-44 and 8:1-10; Twice by Matthew, in
14:13-21 and 15:32-38; and once by Luke in 9:10-17. It must be that the
primitive Christian Eucharist made the prefiguring loaves miracle common
property in all the Christian communities.
And, indeed, what Jesus does with the bread sounds like the rubrics for
what the Christian minister continually did in the celebration of the Eucharist. In the accounts of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, Jesus took the
bread and blessed and broke and gave.
So would the Christian minister.
John's description is equally ceremonial, but with one even more
Christian peculiarity. In 6: 11,
Jesus took, gave thanks, and distributed.
The Greek for "give thanks" is eucharisteō, which
gives us our word for Christian Eucharist. It occurs again in 6:23. This same Eucharistic overtone is
heard again in verses 12-13, where the fish have disappeared from the
discussion, which speaks exclusively of the bread and the care to be taken of
the remaining fragments. The
ultimate sign (v. 14) of this miracle points to Jesus as the bread of
life, particularly in the Eucharist.
The
reaction in verse 14, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come
into the world," refers again (as in 1:21, 24) to the prophet like
Moses (Deut 18:15, 18) who was expected in the final days.
Jesus has just fed the people with bread; Moses did the same with the
desert manna. One final note of
interest is that the two disciples who function in this manifestation of Jesus
to the crowd are Philip and Andrew, the same two who in 1:41, 45 acted as
apostles to Nathaniel and Simon Peter, and who will later be apostles to the
Greeks (12:20-22). Their role in
the Fourth Gospel is to reach out.
In the story of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel assures Mary that nothing is impossible for God. Indeed these very same words apply to this Sunday’s readings. Elisha’s command from the First Reading is confronted with a skepticism that is repeated in the Gospel story of the multiplication of the loaves. Both stories emphasize the angel’s words that nothing is impossible for God. In fact, today’s Gospel assures us that not only will all be fed, but also when we are feed by God all will be satisfied. Today’s readings ask us to put our faith, hope, and trust in God. By ourselves nothing can be accomplished, but with God all things are possible.
Several years ago, and before the thought of becoming a deacon entered my mind, I truly believed that nothing was impossible for me. I was running a successful business; I had my house and several expensive and exotic vehicles to drive around. My family life was great and it seemed that I was invincible – I was my own "god". But the reality of our dependence on God quickly sinks in when we are faced with tragedy. In a period of 1 month, I lost my business and what’s more important, almost lost my son. It was at this moment of my life when I saw myself totally impotent. Nothing I could have done would have brought my son back from his cardiac and respiratory arrest. I realized then, and continue to remind myself every day, that God is the one that deserves our trust. He is the one who makes things happen because He is the one with dominion over everything. No human being, regardless of their intelligence, wealth, social status, or power has the ability to do what God does.
Despite all of this, despite the signs and miracles performed by God, what’s important is that God is a God of all people. His wonders and works are not reserved to just a few. He holds no favoritism when it comes to feeding his people: “A large crowd followed Him”. Surely there were both sinners and saints in this crowd. There were probably religious (priests, pious persons, etc.), and lay people, yet not one was turned away and all were fed. For Jesus they were all one people searching. The disciples too were searching and with faith did what was asked of them knowing that the task was impossible at best. Yet trusting enough to put aside their weakness and allow God to be God, the miracle occurred. We too must follow in the footsteps of those who have placed their trust in God; first of all Mary who is our model of faith, and allow him to work in and through us so that we in turn may make him known to everyone. Like Mary, we need to rely on God alone, to choose God alone. We should not choose God because of his works, but simply because he is God. To not entrust our self entirely to God means that we place our trust and security in other things. Despite the uncertainty she faced when the angel appeared to her, despite the darkness she felt when holding her dead son in her arms, Mary remained firm and continued to trust in God, for whom all things are possible. It was in my darkest hour, when all I could do was trust in the God who created me, that his power became evident. We need to let God be God. Only if we do this will our hunger be satisfied.
New American Bible; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Ishida, T. (ed.), “Studies in the Period of David and Solomon”; Jones, G. H., “1 & 2 Kings”; Bruce, F. F., “The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians”; Swain, L., “Ephesians”; Sanchez-Bosch, Jordi, "Escritos Paulinos”; Alegre, X., y Tuñi, J. O., “Escritos Joánicos y Cartas Católicas”; Barrett, C. K., The Gospel According to John”; Brown, R. E., “The Community of the Beloved Disciple”; Schnackenburg, R., The Gospel According to St. John”; Segovia, F. F., “Love Relationships in the Johannine Tradition”; “The Collegeville Bible Commentary”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary”.
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa