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| Andre-Rublev's Saviour |
Homily preached by Br. Simeon at Winmalee on Sunday
3rd August 2014:
8TH
SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.
Gospel: Matthew 14: 13-21
Jesus withdrew in a boat to a
deserted place by himself . . .
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, Jesus said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, Jesus said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy
sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen.
This
Gospel reading is one in which we can use our imaginations of this setting of
the feeding of the five thousand. Can you possibly imagine, being in the midst
of Jesus and his disciples and hearing Jesus say to them “ you feed
them”! “Excuse me, you said what.... how, by what means Lord, we
have nothing and certainly nothing that will feed this amount of people, all we
have is five loaves and two fish”. Just imagine as you read this passage, and
through your imagination see Jesus
taking the five loaves and the two fish, and with your own eyes, seeing the miracle that take
place, that all these folk have been fed, awesome! Through this act of Jesus,
we have the second act as the Eucharist, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist at
the Last Supper.
The
multiplication of the loaves and fish is the only one of Jesus’ miracles
recorded in all four Gospels. The early Christian community especially
cherished this story because they saw this event as anticipating the Eucharist
and the final banquet in the kingdom of God.
This
miracle also has strong roots in the First Testament. For the peoples of both the First and New
Testament, the image of a great banquet was an important visualisation of the
reign of God: the gifts of the land were unmistakable signs of their God’s
great Providence; the Messiah’s coming was often portrayed as a great banquet
with choice food and wines.
The
miracle of the loaves and fishes is a clear affirmation in God's
providence. Just as the merciful God
feeds the wandering Israelites with manna in the desert, Jesus, “his heart
moved with pity,” feeds the crowds who have come to hear him.
In
Matthew’s account, Jesus acts out of his great compassion on the crowds. First,
he challenges the disciples to give what they have -- five loaves and two
fish. Then he performs the four-fold
action that prefigures the Eucharist:
Jesus
takes, blesses, breaks and gives the bread and fish to the assembled
multitude, making of them a community of the Lord's banquet.
More
astounding than Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand is Jesus’ transforming them
into a community, a community who becomes one in their need, one in the bread
they share, one in the love of Christ who has brought them together.
We,
too, can perform wonders in our own time and place by imitating the four
“Eucharistic verbs of Jesus: to take humbly
and generously from what we have been given by God, to ask His blessing on it, to break by offering it to others in
God’s love, to give with joy-filled gratitude
to the God who has blessed us with so much.
The
bread of the Eucharist, which we share together in charity and faith, today, is
a prelude to the great banquet of the next world to which our loving Father
invites us.
Christ
calls us to become a Eucharistic people: to become
the Eucharist we have received.
Amen.
