May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy mother pray for us.
The Gospel readings that are used in the celebration of Mass on Sundays follow a three year cycle and these cycles are labeled A, B, and C. In those years we read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Gospel of John we read at certain special times of each year, and during five additional Sundays of the year in Cycle B when we read the Gospel of Mark. Today we begin those five additional Sundays hearing the beginning of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. This chapter focuses on the teaching of the Lord Jesus regarding the Holy Eucharist. In these five Sundays we will have an opportunity to explore more deeply and to reflect prayerfully on the great gift of the Holy Eucharist.
Following the normal pattern seen in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus performs a miracle or a sign and then follows with his teaching. Today we hear an account of the feeding of the five thousand. When Jesus saw the large crowd that was following him, he asked his disciple Philip how they might obtain food for all of the people. Philip responded that they did not have the resources to obtain even a little food for all of the people. Andrew, however, who always brings people to Jesus, mentioned that there was a boy with five barley loaves and two fish. And then, dear brothers and sisters, an ordinary act of generosity occurred: a boy shared his lunch with Jesus. With this small and simple gift, the Lord Jesus performed a miracle of great abundance.
Receiving these gifts, the Lord Jesus, took them, blessed them and gave them to his disciples and to the crowd and continued to feed them until they were satisfied. And then, so that nothing would be wasted, the Lord Jesus instructed his disciples to gather all of the fragments of bread that remained, and with those fragments the disciples filled twelve baskets. What remained after the actions of the Lord Jesus was greater than the offering that the boy had made. Jesus had performed a miracle of great abundance.
However, the miracle of great abundance begins with a small offering. The miracle begins with a sacrifice. The five loaves and the two fish that the boy offers are the fruits of creation. They are a small offering indeed, but placed in the hands of the Son of God, the simple gifts of creation become an opportunity for a most profound encounter with him.
Each Sunday we bring bread and wine through the assembly to the altar. These simple gifts of bread and wine, the fruit of the vine and the work of human hands, represent us. And they represent us so profoundly and completely that with these gifts we send up to the altar all that we are. At each Mass we are invited to offer all our difficulties and struggles and our thanksgivings along with the bread and wine. We are called to offer ourselves and all that we are in such a way that when the bread and wine are brought forward we can rightly say, There is my pain. There is my suffering. There is my grief, my sorrow, and my sickness. There is my joy. There is my thanksgiving. There are my needs, my concerns, and my intentions. There go I to the Altar of God. But that is not the end of the gift. Because Christ receives all that we have brought, all that we have offered, needs, sufferings, intentions, all of it, and by the power of the Holy Spirit and the prayer of his priest he transforms it into himself and offers it the Father. We are made one with him and are made an everlasting gift to the Father. Every event of our lives has value because Christ has made us one with himself. My Brothers and Sisters our lives are not only given meaning by the Eucharist, but the Eucharist proves the meaning and the value of our lives. Christ Jesus calls us to be a living sacrifice with him.
Today, as we celebrate the Eucharist, as we are united more and more to Jesus, may we bring our loaves and fish, our simple gifts to the Altar, and receive from the hands of the Lord Jesus a miracle of great abundance.
