Seventeenth Sunday of the Year July 25, 2021
2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15
Let me tell you a story of a little boy Johnny. He was in Sunday school and his mother came to collect him. "Boy," exclaimed Johnny as he settled himself in the car, "that story of Moses and all those people crossing the Red Sea was something!" "Tell me all about it," said his mother. "Well, the Israelites got out of Egypt, but Pharaoh and his army chased after them. So the Jews ran as fast as they could until they got to the Red Sea. The Egyptian Army was getting closer and closer. So Moses got on his walkie-talkie and told the Israeli Air Force to bomb the Egyptians. While that was happening, the Israeli Navy built a pontoon bridge so the people could cross over. They made it!" The woman was shocked, and asked, "Is that the way they taught you the story?" "Well, no, not exactly," admitted Johnny, "but if I told you the way they told it to us, you'd never believe it, Mom."
Little as he was, Johnny had imbibed the secular mentality of our age that makes no room for miracles and spiritual realities. Natural faith, which is limited only to what we can observe and verify, hinders the believer from arriving at that supernatural faith without which we cannot experience the miraculous hand of God.
Our God is a personal God who is concerned about each and everyone and takes care of his people. He is like a benevolent Father caring for the needs of his children and planning a future of each one. Today we see in the Gospel Jesus feeding the Five Thousand people.
We have the message and teaching of Jesus in and through the miracle:
- Jesus' sensitivity: The crowd never complained about being hungry rather Jesus Himself understood their need and asked His apostles about buying bread. Let us have a heart that understands the needs of others.
- Jesus' generosity: Jesus did not multiply five loaves exactly for 5000 instead He multiplied the bread in surplus so much so that 12 baskets were left over after feeding the crowd. When God gives He gives in abundance. Let us be generous in giving because no one becomes poor by giving. The following five points may help us to deepen today’s passage:
- Jesus' selflessness: Jesus after having fasted for 40 days was also hungry and He could have very well made use of His divine power to satisfy His hunger but He didn’t do so instead when He saw the hungry crowd He made use of His divine power to multiply the bread and feed them. Let us put other's benefit before our personal gain.
- Jesus' gratefulness: Though it was little [5 loaves and 2 fish] Jesus thanked God for them. This is something we need to learn from Jesus. To be always grateful to God even for the little that we have.
- Jesus' attitude of non-wasting: Jesus by asking his disciples to gather what was leftover teaches us another great lesson of never to waste food. Because the food that we waste is the food we deprive the poor.
- Jesus' omnipotence: Philip calculated in terms of money and said 200 silver coins would not be sufficient to buy bread. Andrew calculated in terms of numbers and said 5 loaves and 2 fish of what good are these for so many. From a human point of view, it seemed impossible but to God who loves and cares everything is possible.
Jesus' greatness: Jesus by His miraculous power could have produced bread out of nothing but He preferred to use the little given by the boy. When we place our littleness in the hands of the great God miracles occur. Jesus uses our littleness to manifest His greatness.
St Francis of Assisi in his prayer, “Make me a channel of your peace” prays “It is in giving that we receive”. The boy gave and the Lord blessed. Let us give our time, our talents, our help to those who are in most need. Let us experience the blessings of God and joy in us which even the twelve baskets cannot contain.
Today is World Elderly Day. Let us pray for them and thank God for all that they have been in our families and communities. Their life has been a blessing to all of us.
(You are most welcome to add your thoughts and reflections in the comment section below)
Happy Sunday
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