The Bread of Life from a Tooth Ache

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Bread of Life from a Tooth Ache (Y-not question the Sunday Readings)

by Sandra @, Friday, July 31, 2015, 10:32 (4 days ago)

edited by Sandra, Friday, July 31, 2015, 10:47

Reading 1
EX 16:2-4, 12-15

Responsorial Psalm
PS 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54

Reading 2
EPH 4:17, 20-24

Alleluia
MT 4:4B
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone, but by every
word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel
JN 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

******************

In the Gospels we find a strong emphasis on food, mainly named as bread and wine. 2,000 years after these gospels were written, bread and wine is still a delightful way of sharing life together with friends and good conversation.

Last week we had the story of feeding the multitude with a few loaves and fishes. This week Yeshua speaks about BREAD FROM HEAVEN. Is he speaking of what we now know as Eucharistic bread? We are assured that if we share in the eating of this blessed bread and wine, we shall never thirst. Not a physical thirsting but a fullness of soul and mind and a peaceful heart. I believe there are many other ways of receiving Bread from Heaven and I shall explain with 2 personal stories.

This gospel so reminds me of a time in my life over 40 years ago when I spent a few years nursing at a Mission outpost in PNG. Our location was very isolated and food was scarce. We survived mostly on Sao biscuits and tins of Spam. Yet our hearts were warm and we just get on with what we were there to do.

After several months on the mission station my enthusiasm was waning. I longed for a hot shower, an inside toilet and a bed without cockroaches crawling in it. Then one day God fed with me that Bread of Life in the form of an old Papuan man. He arrived at our mission station in a tired and weary state. He was brought to me and he just pointed to a tooth in his mouth that I could tell was rotten with an abscess. Word spread quickly and soon a huge crowd gathered on the grass as the ladies were returning from their gardens and the men did nothing much anyway every day. I had no tools or experience in extracting teeth but fortunately our priest happened to be with us that day and he suggested he had pliers in his motor bike kit would they help? So we lit a primus and boiled the pliers in a billy- can. I gave the man a Pethidine injection and sat him on a chair on the grass. It took over ten minutes to slowly remove his diseased tooth and I prayed fervently it would not break into pieces. As I held up the pliers with the tooth, the crowd roared their approval. The man was so grateful he threw himself on the ground and put his arms around my legs saying words that I knew probably meant “thanks”. It was the most humbling experience of my life. I was only there through the courtesy of the Capuchin missionaries.

It was amazing this man found our mission. I learned he had walked for 3 nights to reach us. He walked through so much enemy territory he hid by day and walked by night. He had waited for a full moon to help his vision. He had no road maps. He just knew there was a Mission with a nurse in a certain direction. There are over 800 languages in PNG and this man managed to find us. He had no idea that he was The Bread of Life for me at that time. My waning inner spirit rose to the heights of humility and enthusiasm.

BREAD FROM HEAVEN is entirely unselfish. It has no length, breadth or depth. It is an all-consuming unconditional love. It is also a free gift that we can accept or reject. If we want to be happy amidst the crisis and trials of life that come to each one of us, we do well to accept that the Bread of Life comes to us in forms other than consecrated hosts as with my ‘tooth’ man. Let me tell another story to illustrate this.

30 years after my time in PNG I knew a woman who was not Catholic and followed no other faith tradition. Ann was the most intelligent woman I have ever met. Dux of her school came easily for her then University. She had a job that came with a very high salary and lurks and perks. She recorded every penny she spent right from her first day of work. Then came retirement with all her plans of travelling the world, going in a ship to the Antarctic, the world would be her oyster with a bottomless budget. Then she got sick. A diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer wrecked all her plans and she died a year later. She was very angry that my God had cheated her. Many people were praying for her recovery and when that did not happen she declared our God was not real or our prayers would have been answered. She left all her money to her younger brother in his 60’s and told her other brother she did not like him and left him nothing. I had never seen behavior like this and was shocked. She allowed many Christian women from my church and her Probus club take her to her numerous hospital appointments and chemo days. It never occurred to her to reimburse these older ladies for fuel costs or anything else. She felt we Christians need people like her as we only feel good when we are doing something for someone else. Well I was the one person at her bedside as she slipped away in a haze of Morphine that rendered her unconscious. It was a cold and lonely death in a hospital bed. She decided there is no god and heaven is a load of rubbish as there is nothing after death but a big black hole of nothingness. I have long wondered whether she found a loving God at the end of her life journey. The time and care given to her by so many people was in a way nurturing her with spiritual Bread of Life. She just did not ‘get it’. The generous ladies who did so much for her asked nothing in return for their time and inconvenience. 

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Yeshua himself is our Bread of Life. In so many ways Yeshua was a mentor of how we can live our lives. He cared about each and every person and we are called to do the same. That is not always easy! Some people are downright irritating (as with Ann) yet we are called to love them just the same. Love is not a partial offering but a total offering of who we are with an inner longing to love all of God’s creatures from both the Human and Animal species. Life is precious. We only have one chance so we need to give it our best. Yeshua promises to never leave us. We are fed, nourished and recharged by His own self. His spirit in the form of Eucharistic bread is given to us to keep our souls alive.

It is interesting to note the importance some people give to food. Eating is a huge part of some people’s lives. Look at the numerous television programs focused on cooking and eating. But I find it is heavenly bread that feeds our souls and minds and hearts. It is taking Yeshua into our own human heart and being that makes the difference. A person can be physically starving for human food, yet if their heart is filled to overflowing with divine love they barely notice the human hunger. Maybe we can each ask ourself: "Am I the Bread of Life" for the stranger?

Sandra --> Go to Catholica Ynot question the Sunday readings, for the responses to this Posting.

Looking Beyond the Bread to the Baker!

 “Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10 

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B:

Looking Beyond the Bread to the Baker!

In our gospel this Sunday we read the words from John's gospel (6:24-35); “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty!” This is what John has been try to tell us. It is more than just a summary of the miracle feeding of 5,000. The reference to “never being thirsty” recalls for me the story of Jesus meeting the spiritually thirsty woman of Samaria at the village well (Jn 4:1-42). John doesn’t present us with Jesus-the-magician; John presents us with 'Jesus - heaven come down to earth', or 'eternal life incarnate'. It’s a sign that Jesus is speaking with divine insight. He’s saying, “Listen to me. Let me tell you the deepest truth about what’s going on here. Don’t misunderstand who I AM for you! You’re seeing the sign – but you’re not reading it properly. You look at me and see a miracle worker. That’s not who I am. I am the stuff of life, sent you from God! Don’t have your minds on your stomachs but look more deeply and face the hunger and thirst for Life that is at the very core of you. Then look at me, and you’ll understand!”

We live in a world where two thirds of its inhabitants are starving and the other third has problems associated with overeating. When Jesus speaks of being the "Bread of Life" in John’s gospel, and criticises his hearers for being concerned only with full stomachs, he is not spiritualising hunger, nor is he advocating a focus on the “spiritual” rather than the “physical”. John’s Jesus is, more explicitly than in any other part of the New Testament, God incarnate. The 'Incarnation' is about God’s entry into the human condition and not a flight from it! This gospel can be read to challenge the rich, the well-fed, the powerful and the “haves". Jesus is the "Living Bread" who comes down from heaven who gives and is the life to the world! “Ah,” you might say, “but what sort of life is he giving? Is it the life that comes from giving bread to the hungry, or is it actually some sort of other-worldly life, meant to be lived in another place?” The point of the miracle is about feeding hungry people who have no means of feeding themselves. Provision and salvation Jesus is saying, belong together. Feeding hungry people and enabling them to continue living is part of God's idea of salvation! God it seems is interested in the whole person.

The wonder of the provision of food from heaven as seen in the Exodus passage (16:2-4,12-15) is about God providing what is needed to sustain the life of God's chosen people. When the hungry are fed and the naked clothed; when the poor are given enough and the thirsty given a cup of water, this is A PART of salvation! It is not some sort of “preparatory spadework” for evangelism. And when Jesus feeds the crowd, they do not only have enough, they have far more than enough. There is “something more”. It is this “something more” that Jesus goes on to stress that is the hunger and thirst of the soul. In a materialistic age, this is an important point. And for those of us who are aware of the sense in which the gospel is the Good News of a transformed world order of justice and provision for all, it is important not to neglect this dimension of human existence which is about more than eating, being clothed and having clean water. The Incarnation is about bridging the “gap” between heaven and earth.

Our 1st world culture has been built so that our lives and culture can exclude God. Individually and collectively, many people seem to be cut off from God. The fundamental “gap” manifests itself in injustice, oppression, poverty and death-dealing power or sin. To talk theologically, sin is both a personal and a collective structural problem. The “gap” is the absence of the Life of God. In John’s gospel (10:10) the terms, “eternal life” or “life in abundance” is something we are meant to experience in the here and now. We are created for fellowship with God. Jesus - the Word made flesh, does not only show us what God is like but he shows us what it is like to be truly human. To be human like Jesus is to live in the awareness of being God’s child and of the constant, transforming presence of God in our lives. Abundant life in Jesus is a life that overflows to others. We are made for joy, for love, for hope, for laughter, for deep relating. Yet these type of experiences of God in Jesus and through the Spirit are so often ridiculed as emotionalism or unimportant.

We fail people if we do not recognise the reality of and their spiritual hunger. The signs of the hunger for the "Bread of Life" are evident everywhere to whose eyes are open. Look at the current explosion of spirituality in self-help books, new age psychic fairs, meditation courses and classes on eastern mysticism. Millions of people who have nothing to do with the Church are desperate to make connections with spiritual reality. And yet the Church often fails to help them make a connection between their own deep sense of spiritual hunger and Jesus, the "Bread of Life!" We stand by in embarrassed silence, while people who have found something of significance in the occult, eastern meditation, Buddhism, and yoga. I think the reason for our failure is that we do not recognise in it a mirror of our own deep hunger and thirst for God. We should examine ourselves, lest we like the crowd in the gospel, fail to read the sign of the multiplication of bread correctly. In reality we need to remember that we are nothing more than beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

Often Christian churches can hold all sorts of strange doctrines and practices that can keep hungry and thirsty souls from life giving spiritual food. And the danger is that they distract and prevent needy people coming to experience Jesus Christ. They sometimes seem to obscure and “lose” Jesus! Our passage from John's gospel challenges us to do good theology. Good prayerful spirit-directed theology has to do with life – the life of faith and the life of the world. Good theology provides answers to our ongoing hunger and thirst for God. It is interesting that John gets the passionate about faith when he is at his most “theological” best – which means most deeply aware of God's grace! Because at the end of the day, grace is what this all about: a God who answers hunger and thirst with a gift that is far more wonderful and life-giving than we can ever possibly imagine: the gift of Jesus. This Jesus is not a dry, academic theory but "Living Bread!" And we are invited to come and eat and drink … if of course, we are hungry and thirsty in the first place! Amen.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost-YB -Br Simeon & Br. Luke

Homily preached by Brs. Simeon & Luke e.f.o. at Maroubra on Sunday 2^nd August 2015

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

Gospel:  John 6: 24-35

"Lord, give us this bread always"

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.

Last week we heard the amazing episode of Jesus feeding the 5000.  He took the tiny amount of loaves and fishes and multiplied it into enough to feed all the people on the hillside with food to spare.  Jesus suddenly had people wanting to be around him, he had crowds following him and they wanted more. They wanted more food and more miracles and more shows of his authority.

Today we hear Jesus tell the people what they really need.  He tells them that they are wrong to look for food again.  He tells them that they should not actually be looking for physical food; they should be looking to be fed by the Holy Spirit.  He tells them that the bread they are searching for is not the food but himself.

Many sought Jesus out because he offered them something no one else could give - bread from heaven from the very hand of God himself. When Jesus had performed the miracle of multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish to provide a refreshing and satisfying meal for more than 5000 people ( John 6:1-15), they wanted to make him their king - no doubt because they wanted more. When Jesus withdrew from the crowd and quietly returned to Capernaum to be with his twelve disciples, they ran to seek him there (John 6:24-25). Jesus met them with a probing question - “are you looking for physical food that perishes or food that gives eternal life?”

Jesus' question to the crowd, and to each one of us as well, echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy" (Isaiah 55:2)? There are two fundamental types of hunger - physical and spiritual. Only the Lord Jesus can satisfy the hunger in our heart - the hunger for truth, life, and love. Jesus alone can satisfy our hunger for truth - because in him alone is the Truth which is found in God. Jesus alone can satisfy our hunger for life - because he alone can give us abundant life - the supernatural life of God which transforms us now and lasts forever. Jesus alone can satisfy our deepest hunger for love - the love of God that knows no end, that never fails nor forsakes us, that outlasts sin and death. Jesus alone can satisfy the eternal hunger of our heart, mind, and spirit.

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells the people. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” He is offering the people himself. He is the imperishable bread that nourishes and sustains imperishable life.

Jesus makes us the same offer. He offers himself to us in every one of our relationships: family, friends, strangers, enemies, those who agree with us, and those who disagree. In every situation and each day of our life we choose the bread we will eat, perishable or imperishable. In so doing we also choose the life we want.

Theresa of Avila's prayer book contained a bookmark which she wrote: Let nothing

disturb you, let nothing frighten you; All things pass: God never changes. Patience achieves all it strives for. Whoever has God lacks nothing, God alone suffices.

As we leave this place of worship today,  I leave this with you and for me to ponder throughout this week....

 “Do you hunger for the bread which comes down from heaven and thirst for the words of everlasting life?”

Amen.

Mystery - Miracles or Magic!

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B: 

Mystery - Miracles or Magic! 

This week, we leave the Year B Gospel of Mark and read chapter 6 from the Gospel of John for the next five Sundays. Reading this passage all on its own (John 6:1-15), we could miss the major themes in the Gospel of John, and we might wonder why John places this story, which is told in all four Gospels, where it is. In this account there is compassion and communion, but there is so much more. While Jesus' heart is touched by the hunger of the "large crowd", John is teaching us about the power of God in Jesus, about who Jesus is. We learn about who Jesus is by what he does - as actions speak louder than words. The words Jesus said, connect to the actions Jesus did. We have the down-to-earth disciples, overwhelmed by the "large crowd", trying to work out the cost of feeding so many people. "It's Impossible!" they say, but all things are possible with God. This story is about the power of God in Jesus, and about Jesus' compassion for the large hungry crowd. God's power is "far more than all we can ask for or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20b). If the disciples had remembered the story of how the prophet Elisha (found in 2 Kings 4:42-46

- the first lectionary reading) fed a 100 people from "twenty barley loaves" then they might have had greater trust in Jesus - who is the very presence of God. If we can receive this faith story - Jesus' fourth 'sign' - with the eyes of faith, then we can grow in our ability to trust God in mist of the most seemingly difficult situations of life. 

The people who are with Jesus are a people longing and hungry for freedom from the Roman empire that oppresses them. This need leads them to project on to Jesus an easy short-sighted answer to their need. It's certainly understandable, and only human, that they would see Jesus as a miracle-worker and potential king. Even the desire for a king (never God's desire), however, is too small a dream and falls far short of God's dream for the people. Jesus wants to give us what we don't even realise we need; he knows what we need, deep down in our innermost, authentic human selves. Why do we ask for too little, when God can and would give us so much more? Can we see beyond our immediate wants and expectations? How else will we begin to see where God is leading us? 

How do you explain a miracle? The feeding of the five thousand recounts a great wonder that Jesus worked. Many have tried to explain this miracle in rational terms. The most common "rational" explanation of the feeding of the five thousand is that it was an act of generosity. They say the charismatic Jesus inspired many in the large crowd to share them with others there provisions. I strongly object to such a modern reading that misses the point that John is making about God at work in our midst, God's power to completely transform human expectations. However I believe, we're focusing on the wrong thing when we concentrate on explaining the miracle of multiplying the barley loaves and fish, when the more remarkable miracle is the hope that Jesus inspired in the masses who followed him. Jesus' powerful presence and deep compassion for their suffering and need might explain the ability of ordinary, insecure and fearful people to follow him to a deserted place. The scientific arrogant scepticism of our time seeks to provide rational explanations for everything and loses the capacity to wonder at the extraordinary within the ordinary of our everyday lives.

The definition of miracles that we are using here is not just the literal miracle of whether or not the person with a disease is healed. Rather it is about the more ordinary moments, when the power of God’s love and grace overwhelms our sensibilities. It is about see our faith communities becoming immersed in God’s healing love and goodness. A miracle may simply be that people believe that God’s grace has been unleashed. When we do something ordinary, God takes that ordinary act - like offering 5 barley loves and 2 dried fish - and creates something incredible. It seems that we limit the concept of miracle only to physical healing and discount the moral miracles of unity. We still have to be honest about the despair, brokenness and decline that is happening in our church situations but we can’t allow ourselves to believe the statistics that bring despair have the last word. We are called to be a people of hope, who declare by word and example that God is still about God transforming lives. This story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and our stories of change and transformation as individuals and communities have amazing miracle power if they are told and heard and believed. Our stories have to touch the heartstrings in order to inspire change. The God who spoke to Moses and the prophets - still speaks, the God who protected his people and fought their battles - is still at work, the God who feeds the poor who are hungry and thirsty - is still doing so. This is the reality in which we scripture-formed believers 'live and move and have our being'. Each time we do what we thought we could not do, each time a faith-community lives in loving faith unity despite differences, God has been at work. When we recognise God's presence - this is a miracle. Our gift of faith takes us beyond appearances.


What are our expectations for our own church community? What hope do we have in spite of perceived falling attendance? Do we worry about whether we are being true to the gospel, speaking courageously, and acting boldly on behalf of all those who suffer, or are we worried about whether our church will be able to pay its bills? This is a pressing question and we can be tempted to concentrate on survival and maintenance which can distract us from our true mission. We want our church to survive so that it can preach the gospel, minister to the suffering and speak a prophetic word in a world that has little compassion and caught up in self interest. As gospel inspired people, we are challenged to focus not just on the "reasonable," not just on "basic needs," but on "multiplying resources," so that we might experience "a revelation of amazing grace." The words grace, and amazing, belong in any discussion of miracles and wonders. Have you ever witnessed such sharing, such wonders, such grace? Generosity itself is a miracle to me, and it expresses a God given power to completely transform lives. And I don't mean the lives of those who receive as much as the lives of those who give.


 Speaking of those who give: the disciples of Jesus were overwhelmed by the need before them. They did not it seems feel a responsibility to meet the large crowds need, so Jesus raises their awareness. They try to assess the situation, measure their resources, and figure out a solution, but they are powerless in the face of so many hungry people. John draws a contrast between the power of God that was about to burst forth and the power that we think we have today: the power of knowledge. John observes that "knowledge as power," is the opposite to "love's knowledge" which can take what appears to be little and indeed multiply it. It is "loves knowledge" that enables an individual and a community to recognise the power and presence of God in a given situation. God responding to our prayers for the world's needs with the question, "What do you have?" Think of the abundance many of us enjoy, even in the midst of economically challenging times. I often feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of problems and the needs of the world. And yet, what would happen if we trusted in the power of God to multiply in amazing ways the resources we have, and what would happen if we saw this as a communal question? Perhaps our sense of community has been lost in an over-emphasis on the individual. This miracle shows us that there is always enough for all, with plenty left over, "twelve baskets." 

John's Gospel is the one that does not have an account of the Eucharistic meal in the upper room, so this story is John's equivalent of 'the last supper.'" What follows the sharing of loaves is important, because John, unlike the other Gospel writers, draws political meaning when the people start talking about Jesus as their new king. Jesus first performs a "sign," and then will discusses it with those who witness it and then uses it as a teaching moment with his followers as he interprets its meaning. That is John's approach to teaching us about the power of God, and about who this Jesus really is - not a magician but a visible expression of the living God - the same yesterday, today and forever. This story connects us with the celebration of the Eucharist. It reminds me that Jesus does not command his disciples to exclude the divorced and remarried, the pickpockets, the spies from the Temple, the merely curious, or the hangers-on, or those who don't know their catechism, or even those who are unsure about their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Jesus simply responds to human need, as he so often does, above all other considerations. How well does this mirror our celebration of Eucharist sacrament today? It seems that the church wants to protect Jesus-Eucharist from the defiled (sinners) and only let those who are worthy to be fed. The crowds came out from their homes, their towns, seeking something from Jesus. What are we as part of the "large crowd" seeking for today? C.S. Lewis, the 20th century English theologian reflects; "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." As we come with our hunger and thirst for love to the Eucharistic table, will we sense a miracle? Will we with faith based on "love knowledge" be able to see the "sign" Jesus works?

9th Sunday after Pentecost Y.B-Br. Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br. Andrew e.f.o. at Springwood on Sunday 26th July 2015

9th Sunday after Pentecost Year.B


Gospel John 6: 1-21

John 6:14 "After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world."

Elisha, his name means "God is Salvation" son of Shaphat, was a prophet from Abel Meholah in Gilead. He lived in the northern Kingdom of Israel during the reigns of Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz and Jehoash. During his prophetic lifetime he performed many miracles that rivaled Christ himself; on this occasion Elisha fed 100 people with 20 loaves of barley and some ears of grain and with some to spare. In contrast we have the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was the first appointment in the year designated by God for the Jews to meet with Him in a holy convocation, it occurred the week prior to Passover.
John has chosen to place his account of the feeding of the 5000 during this combination of Holy days. (John 6:4 “Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.")
Jesus makes what Matthew Henry calls a Coasting voyage to Bethsaida (Luke 9:10) where despite his weariness he continues to heal and to preach to the people until evening.
It is important, to note that this is the only miracle reported by all four gospel writers, though John is the only one to mention the more intimate facts which bring this event alive to us -such as the matter that the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish were brought to Andrew by a little lad or  paidarion—, probably one that used to follow the crowd, as settlers do the camps, with their eatables to sell, and the disciples had bought what he had for themselves, coarse barley bread and fish rather than the finest wheat.

Whereas the other Gospels record the disciples suggesting to Jesus that he send the crowd away to buy food and find lodging. Here in John’s account Jesus asks Philip, by name, WHERE they are to buy enough food to feed everyone, yet Philip’s response refers not to the where but to the COST of it as though the group purse could not meet the task, yet we already suppose the provisions to be theirs. Jesus already knows what he will do.

And so what I suspect is the largest picnic ever attended get underway.

The grass is plentiful there and sits at the base of the hillside upon which Jesus was overseeing the proceedings, the disciples are instructed to have the men recline in groups of 50, and we are told that 5,000 of them are seated in this way – only Matthew’s Gospel draws our attention to the presence of women and children (Matthew14:21), making the number many more thousands than the five mentioned.
Although the group is huge, it represents a family gathered for a meal, a family communioning together. Jesus took the loaves and blessed them and gave them to the disciples to distribute and likewise the fish until all were served and when everyone had eaten enough the scraps were gathered up to fill 12 baskets..

John introduces this miraculous meal to us as the first Holy Communion, or in rephrasing that, in the interval between the miracle and this gospel, about 90 years of Christian living had transpired to bring John to deliberately place his account of it during the 3rd Passover of Jesus' ministry for the wealth of symbolism recognizable to both Jewish and Gentile Christians.

The Barley was the first of the cereal grains to ripen and at the Harvest Festival, before Passover was offered in the Temple as first fruits.  Jesus had just offered the first fruits to his Father and given them to the crowd that all might eat and be filled.  Since the disciples had acted in loci Eucharistic Ministers we might suppose that each collected a basket of the left over bread and fish – somehow symbolic of the 12 tribes, abundance for Israel?

 In his time with us Jesus ministered to the marginalized and how many of them must have been here in this crowd? The smaller groups gave many the opportunity to rub shoulders with different sorts of people and may have reminded later Christians of the Home churches which sprung up quite soon after the Resurrection. Even of Pentecost, the birth of the Church which would occur about 57 days later.
To sustain so many of those on the margins of society a prelude to another Passover when Jesus would offer himself as First Fruits.

The Fish has been suggested as the representation of the Church, being the secret sign by which early Christians found each other so that in feeding the multitude with bread and fish Jesus was both giving Himself and the Church to them in a Holy Communion. Holy Communion is a conversation, a Communication between God and the Church or God and the Body of Christ which this event certainly was.

Alternately taking the anagram ichthys:- (ΙΧΘΥΣ), the Greek word for fish and we have - Jesus Christ, God's son and our Saviour, such that at that first Holy Communion Jesus gave himself to the 5000 as Son of God and their Saviour who is the Bread of Life.
The readings for the next two weeks follow this one giving us the controversial groundwork for the development of the Latin and Greek understandings of the nature of the blessing Jesus gives to the bread and the wine.
Some of those present at that time understood that a man like Jesus just might be a suitable military Messiah. They sought to make him King but he slipped through the crowd and went into the hills to pray.
Soon we shall partake of the Holy Communion, as we do so let us make it a prayerful conversation, a Communication between ourselves who are the Body of Christ and the Lord who gives us His mysterious Food for our Spiritual nourishment.

Amen

The Lord's My Shepherd!

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B:

The Lord's My Shepherd!

Mark's Gospel this weekend (6:30-34) describes the return of the disciples from their first mission and inauguration into apostleship. They are exhilarated and exhausted, and have stories to tell Jesus of healings, exorcisms, and the effectiveness of their preaching the good news. Perhaps there were darker stories of their failure and rejection that they need to process privately with Jesus their master and teacher. Whatever the need, Jesus senses that his disciples need a break. They are tired, overstimulated, underfed, and in need of some prayerful healing solitude.

Jesus, himself, is not in top form. He has just lost John the Baptist, his beloved cousin and prophet, the one who had baptised him and had spent a lifetime in the wilderness preparing his way. Worse, Jesus has lost him to murder by Herod, a terrifying reminder that God's beloved are not immune to senseless, violent deaths. Maybe for Jesus his own end, feels closer. It is possible, he is grieved and heartbroken. He says to his disciples as the crowds throng around them at the edge of the Sea of Galilee "You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest a while." In the words "Come away" I hear both tenderness and longing. Yes, Jesus wants to provide a time of rest and recuperation for his friends. But he is weary, himself; the need that he articulates here is also his own.

In this event, I get a chance to glimpse the human life of Jesus, a life I can relate to easily. His need to withdraw, his desire for solitary prayer, his physical hunger, his sleepiness, his inclination to hide. These glimpses take nothing away from Jesus' divinity; they enhance it, making it richer and all the more mysterious. They remind me that the doctrine of the Incarnation truly is Christianity's best gift to the world. The God 'through whom all things were made' as the creed professes: hungers, sleeps, eats, rests, withdraws, and grieves. In all of these ordinary but necessary ways, our God is like us. He's also like us in that sometimes, his best-laid plans go astray. The needy crowd anticipate his plan, and follow on foot. By the time he and his disciples reach their longed-for destination, the crowds are waiting, and the quiet sanctuary Jesus seeks for himself and his disciples is nowhere to be found. Does Jesus run? Does he turn the boat around and sail away? No. As Mark puts it, "Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things."

The shepherd is a recurring image in both Testaments. In the Old Testament, the shepherd and the king are associated or joined together. Israel longed constantly for another shepherd king like David, but were often disappointed. Jeremiah (23:1-6) criticized King Zedekiah and others like him. “Doom (woe) to the shepherds….” They were supposed to gather and lead God’s people, instead their neglect scattered the flock. The consequences of such poor and corrupt leadership were dire: Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were taken into exile. Jeremiah makes a dark promise. God will take back the flock and shepherd them. God will rescue them by sending a righteous leader who has the heart and mind of God. God fulfills the promise made to the people. Jesus is the promised shepherd who will gather and feed God’s weary flock.

Jeremiah promised a shepherd king like David "who will reign and who will be wise” who will "who will practice honesty and integrity in the land.” By our baptism each of us is called to continue the mission of shepherding like Jesus and it can be very tiring! We do that in daily, unofficial ways by how we teach and set good example for others, especially the young. Did you notice what Jesus, the shepherd, did immediately when they disembarked and saw the needy crowd? He taught them. We don’t want our young to have a false notion of God, or a diminished notion of their worth before God. So we teach. But we also need some reflective time ourselves to dwell on God’s Word, lest our teaching be more about idols we fashion from our own thoughts, than about our shepherd Jesus.

Some of us are engaged in full or part-time ministry within our church community. What Jesus said to his disciples is true for us as well. We need to figure out how to “come away .. all by ourselves” for short and occasionally longer periods, to hear the Word of God for ourselves, and those we are called to shepherd through our teaching. The bottom line: all of us are sent to share our knowledge of Jesus, a knowledge that 's not primarily found in books or doctrine, but as a result of our personal encounter with Christ.

I write this reflection, as a comfortable middle-class Australian, and it is too easy a temptation for me to pass on compassion's responsibility to someone else. Whether I'm looking at the needs in my own circle of influence, my seemingly self-sufficient neighbours, or the wider community, it is tempting to tell myself that nothing urgent is at stake. Everything can wait, because I'm not the only person on the planet or in the church. Not much really depends on me. Or does it? However, this week's Gospel reading is about the ongoing and necessary tension between compassion and self-care. The gospel reveals to me that Jesus also lived with this tension. Still, the point is valid, we all need to figure out how to get to our own “deserted places.” That might be a few minutes in the car before we go to work; a pause in the yard after we put out the garbage at night; a walk in the park; turning off the television, the phone and just sitting; listening to any music that helps us go inward for a brief period. Not all attempts by Jesus to withdraw to a quiet place were frustrated.

On the one hand, Jesus was unapologetic about his need for rest and solitude. He saw no shame in retreating when he and his disciples needed a break. On the other hand, he never allowed his weariness to overwhelm his compassion. He realised in this situation, that he was the last stop for the aching, desperate crowd "who were like sheep without a shepherd." Unlike me, his personal boundaries were finally less important to him than his desire to love others. Is there a lesson here for us? Is it strive for balance? Recognise weariness when you feel it? Don't apologise for being human? Take breaks? Yes. All of these are essential things. But maybe also and most importantly this: We live in a world of dire and constant need. Sheep can die without their shepherds. There are high stakes, and sometimes, what God demands of our hearts is costly. While balance remains the ideal, it will not always be available in the short-term. Sometimes, we will sometimes have to bend out of balance. If that happens, what should we do? In what direction should we bend? If this week's Gospel story is our example, then the answer is clear. We need to decide for authentic compassion. Jesus did. The gospel is not encouraging us to be work-a-holics, but shepherds.

At our Eucharistic celebrations we are often like the scattered sheep. Jesus, our shepherd, gathers us from the many places where we live, work and spend our days. What we have in common and what draws us to this special pasture, is the faith that, with our shepherd we are well cared for, nourished by the Word of God and the living Body and Blood of Christ. The shepherd does again what he has done before: he sends us out well fed to return to the places where each of us is called from to be shepherds. We do not go out on our own, but are strengthened by the Holy Spirit, that was Christ's source of strength in his humanity as he set out to shepherd God’s needy people. So we pray; "Jesus you are my shepherd, I have everything I need."

Using the Ordinary for The Extraordinary.

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B:

 Using the Ordinary for The Extraordinary.

Our reading from Amos (7:12-15) seems to say that God isn't too fussy about who is called to be a prophet? God goes looking in some rather ordinary places to find “suitable” candidate for the all-important role of speaking for God to an often-resistant audience. The prophets themselves admit to being pretty ordinary until God called them. The prophet Amos preached in the northern kingdom at the King’s own temple at Bethel. The northern kingdom was enjoying prosperous times, so why did God need to choose and send a messenger to them? Because, while some had a lot, the needy were being neglected and religious practices had been reduced to empty ritual - which is people worshiping the ritual rather than worshiping through the ritual. Amos spoke against the excesses of society and the emptiness of its religious practices. The high priest at Bethel was Amaziah, who had prestige and religious authority on his side tells to Amos, “Off with you, visionary and flee to the land of Judah!” But good old Amos admits, “I was no prophet … I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.” Let's face it, God chose a farmhand to go to a prominent religious centre to preach a message of reform to its people, prominent religious leaders and the king. So it's the old story of pride meets humility. The constant theme of scripture is 'God resists the proud but exalts the humble of heart.'


If God chooses the most unlikely to accomplish divine purposes and to speak God’s word then, God has to back up the chosen one. God must have been at work, not any mere human instrument on his or her own can fulfill such a calling. There have been some powerful prophets in our time from ordinary backgrounds, but obviously chosen by God to accomplish God’s intentions: Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Archbishop Oscar Romero, artists and political voices, parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, teachers and even our critics, who address a word to us at a crucial moment and changed our present and future path. These were probably people without much formal faith education, perhaps even a young person. But they opened our eyes to the superficial character of our ways, or our social indifference to the needs of others. Amos describes of himself, “The Lord took me… and said to me, ‘Go to prophesy to my people….’” God chooses "ordinary people" like us to fulfill special tasks. Each of us, through our baptism, have been called to be a prophetic person because we share the life of Jesus. Last week Mark' gospel focused on Jesus’ rejection in his own hometown community. In response to their hostile reaction Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honour except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” This week Jesus sends the Twelve out to perform prophetic deeds and speak prophetic words. Mark (6:7-13) makes the point that just as Jesus was rejected, so too, those sent in his name should expect the same treatment. When rejected and Jesus seems to expect they will be, they are to “… leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” We should not be surprised when our words or deeds in Jesus’ name are rejected and ridiculed. The sending of apostles did not end when Jesus sent out the Twelve. We too have been called as "ordinary people" to advance the reign of God, to act and speak in the spirit of Jesus. Jesus’ recommendations to his disciples about taking nothing “but a walking stick, no food, no sack, no money in their belts,” certainly cuts me out of the picture as I never pack light.


Why is Jesus asking so much of his disciples? It was the Jewish custom that as a person entered the temple courts, they would have to stop first, remove their staff, shoes and money belt and, only then, enter. They were entering a sacred presence and everyday things had to be put aside. His message and the healings it would bring, were to be the first concern for his disciples; everything else being secondary. A disciple, on the way to preach would be in the presence of the Holy One, even while on the road. The houses they entered and the families who received them, would be like the Temple where God dwelt. Jesus reminds his disciples that when things got difficult they should rely on God and not what they brought along?

Jesus sends us to be prophets, to call the world to repentance; that is the immediate world we occupy, as well as the larger worlds we are part of. He wants us to change our behaviour and so as to drive out the demons that would destroy and lessen us as a loving people filled with the Holy Spirit. So we gather for worship to become a holy people, living temples, nourished by the Word and Sacrament so we can go forth strengthened to be prophets - truth speakers - to the world Jesus has entrusted to us for healing. Yes, now it is 'OUR TURN' to go out.