Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 110
Reading I
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
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
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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has risen in our midst.
God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Our faith in God should be the guiding principle in all of our affairs in we are to experience this life as God intended us to do. We cannot let doubt or disbelief creep in. If it does then our relationship with God will be compromised. Because we are human we do have this tendency to think about the worst case scenario and to perceive things are worse than they really are. Once we engage these negative thoughts they quickly multiply and force out good thoughts; challenging our faith and causing us extreme anxiety. God does not want us to feel this way. He wants us to be at ease. He wants us to have full trust in Him and wants us to rely on Him completely. It is Satan who wants us to distrust God and to be fearful of all outcomes in all situations that we face.
In our imperfection we tend to separate our spiritual relationship with God from our physical life. Either consciously or unconsciously we doubt that God can influence our physical life here on this earth. At times we pray for strength and a positive outcome regarding specific situations yet we still worry; filled with doubt that what we are facing will be rectified through Divine Providence. We immediately feel abandoned; falling back on our own will to face a seemingly impossible situation alone. Staying close to God means we are closer to the perfect than we allow us to believe. This is a weakness that should be continuously addressed if we are to continue to strengthen our relationship with God.
The Scripture Reading today tells of a man who came who Elisha with an offering. Because he was bringing an offering it was obvious that he knew who Elisha was. He was a great prophet and the heir of Elijah. To bring an offering means there was some sort of faith that this man had. He knew of Elijah, the defeat of the Prophets of Baal, and the miracles that Elisha himself did. Yet when Elisha told him to give the bread to the people to eat the man immediately doubted; thinking it impossible to feed 100 people from the 22 loaves. This serves as a lesson to us that we should always have complete trust and faith in God. When we do only good things will abound. God has complete confidence in us. Shouldn’t we have full confidence in Him? He created us. He loves us. Why wouldn’t God take care of us if we allow Him to do so? It is a good exercise to make ourselves answer that simple question. If we come up with a justification for having these doubts then that becomes an obvious area of our relationship with God that we have to work on.
This world is dysfunctional. There are a lot of bad things that happen that are hard to comprehend. Many of these events happen to those who are apparently not at fault. Bad things do happen to good people. This leads to many people having trouble trusting God. Some people even end up hating God as a result. Whatever is wrong is not God’s fault. We welcomed evil into this world. We chose to turn away from God and rely on our decisions and defective judgment. As a result a product which was perfect became imperfect. When this happened and continues to happen we then look at the end result and blame God instead of taking responsibility ourselves.
The fault lies with everyone. Even those who profess to follow Jesus Christ ignore the words of the apostle Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians. In it he stresses one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. He talks about the unity of peace with tolerance and patience. He was against divisions, hatred, and animosity. After over 2000 years we cannot even get this right. This chapter should be read and followed by all Christians; especially those who engage in division and are reluctant to follow what is specifically written by arguably the greatest evangelist of the Christian Faith. We cannot pretend our faith is strong and our relationship with God when we cannot even follow the faith we profess correctly and with abandon. We are hesitating too much and many refuse to make the adjustments necessary to make ourselves better men and women.
The miracles that Jesus performed had an impact but the impact was always in danger of fading away. Reinforcement through instruction and prayer was necessary to build a solid foundation that was to be continuously built upon. If we do not provide constant maintenance to our condition then it will eventually fall apart. A lot of what He said and did was meant to be reflected on and referred back to when those who heard Him doubted or were challenged. When Jesus questioned his disciples regarding where they could buy enough food for all the people to eat they immediately relied on a physical solution and then mentioned the limitations that were apparent to the challenge before them. Never did they place their trust in a spiritual solution to overcome the physical problem even though they were witnesses to the power of Jesus and the miracles He had already performed. He knew how they would answer before they answered and He then presented the solution which was firmly rooted in faith and God. This is where all of our solutions should come from.
The Multiplication of the Loaves and the miracle of The Breaking of the Bread opened the eyes of thousands. This serves as a precursor to the Eucharist and an indication that The Word of God is all the nourishment we need. Jesus has given this gift to the world to the believers and unbelievers alike. Turning to Jesus means that our eyes will be opened and we will be fed physically, mentally, and spiritually. This promise was fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled today if we allow Him to do the work necessary. We cannot let our relationship with God be limited by the barriers that we ourselves erect. We need to be focused on tearing down barriers and running to God. He is waiting for us with open arms.
Deacon Tom
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