Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant,
the benefits assured to David.
R. (cf. 16) The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our
needs.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works. 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.
Brothers
and sisters:
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When
Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,
he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their
towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their
sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me, ”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to
heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.
There are
sure to be many different sermons, homilies, or reflections
pertaining to this gospel reading for today, depending upon
the point the message bearer wants to get to his or her
audience. Simply because John tends to give much to think
about. Previous to this chapter, John talks about at least
two other miracles in his gospel, when Jesus had returned to
Cana in Galilee where a royal official had begged him to go
down and heal his son, and at the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem in
a place called Bethesda where the sick man of thirty eight
years could not get in the pool. Jesus simply told him to
pick up his mat and walk. And that miracle was on the
Sabbath, as is this miracle of the multiplication of the
loves and fish.
It is a story about that no doubt, but whose bread did Jesus
multiply? Whose fish did he divide? Perhaps it is also about
what happened to somebody who gave all he had, the real hero
of that story, a small boy, though this particular gospel
reading does not mention him. Let’s go and find out. Come
on. There are all of those people: five thousand men and,
most probably, at least double that number of women and
children.
It is Jesus who says, “Ok guys, what are we going to do? How
are we going to feed them? Of course Philip knows what to do
to feed them when he said, “You just buy the food.” But then
added, “Let’s see, one piece of bread for each one in this
crowd would most probably cost you thousands of dollars. How
are you going to manage that. Then Andrew has a bright idea,
he asked the crowd, “Has anybody have food?” Silence. No one
is speaking up. There must have been quite a few in that
crowd who had food, but they kept their mouths shut. No one
admitted to having a crumb of bread or a bit of fish. Why
would they, they were afraid they would loose it, might have
to share it.
And then there is that little boy. He had been looking at
Jesus with an open mouth and a wet nose. He patted his
pockets, he felt under his shirt, and he shouted: “Yes Sir,
over here!” And out he came with five slices of bread and
two fish, probably small ones, very small ones, the ones
that small boys catch. And the whole crowd laughed. But not
Jesus. He took those slices of bread and he took those two
fish, and told the people to sit down. There was a great
deal of noise and everyone sat down. Only that small boy was
still standing there, looking with eyes full of wonder as
his fish and bread.
Jesus gave his fish and his bread to those big apostles of
his and said, “Divide it among them! They said, “ Divide
what?” He said again, “Just start, will you?So they did,
they started to break and to break and to break, until
everyone had enough, even more than enough. So much so that
they still have pieces in their hands when their stomachs
were full. After that my friends, Jesus said, “Can you
please collect the leftovers?” And what ya know, there was
twelve basketfuls, and Jesus gave them to that boy; after
all, it was his bread, his fish. Those folks praised Jesus.
They even wanted to make him a king. As far as I’m
concerned, I think that Jesus praise that small boy who had
given all that he had. It is that attitude that should be
king, and, in Jesus, was.
Those who give will receive folks, and will receive in
abundance. So when you are asked for something and you think
you are unable to give, think of that little boy, of his
story, and think of the twelve baskets full of food given to
him because he gave all he had.
You and I all know that there are many who are in need of
being given to these days, and that giving is not limited to
just food and drink, material things. As followers of our
Lord, and the Christians that we claim to be, there are many
other ways of giving, and many needs beside food. When I
give a kind word to someone who is down and out, a word of
encouragement; when I take the time to listen to a hurting
heart, the cries of the lonely, the outcasts, those
searching for a reason to go on in this life; when I reach
out to another human being out of love and compassion,
perhaps even denying you precious time, to do these kind of
things, I won’t get back 12 baskets full, but Jesus will
certainly give me ten times what I give him in his name. And
everyone has something to give my friends. It doesn’t cost
much to give love, to give from our hearts, to give because
our giving is an attitude, like that which that small boy
had. And though often times we may be unable to give, we can
still carry that attitude and we can still offer up those
people in prayer, for prayer is the greatest gift we can
give anyone, other than our very own lives. Thank you
and may God bless you this coming week. You are always in my
love and prayers.
