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.
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. And 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. 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 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 risk to
give a kind word to someone who is down and out, a word of
encouragement; when you 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 we reach
out to another human being out of love and compassion,
perhaps even denying our precious time, to do these kind of
things, we won’t get back 12 baskets full, but Jesus will
certainly give us ten times what we gave 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. Thank you and may God bless you this coming week. It
is my wish that this message was meaningful to you.
