A Short Sunday Sermon

 

Do you like sermons which go on for 30 or 40 minutes? I don't, and typically run outside for a cigarette and a cup of coffee, if available, while the preacher's banging on interminably. That in mind, I'll try to keep it short lest you lose interest and dive into the nearest gun shop.

The miraculous feeding of the 5000. Positive divine power proof that Jesus was God; mortals can't do such things. Our first lesson, the divinity of Christ, but what else? Start at the beginning of the passage and what do we find? Jesus stepping ashore from his boat, God made Man stepping onto the shore of the world, the Incarnation. Once there he beholds the crowd, the mass of broken humanity, and moved with compassion, cures the sick.

Behold the character of the Incarnate Word; full of compassion, with mercy, pity and love, he heals the sick. There on that shore it was physical disease, which points to a greater cure, our deliverance from sin and death, of being made whole again by the great physician of our souls. Where is this achieved?

On the Cross, and again the miraculous narrative points us to this, to the "lonely place apart" where the day is well-spent, to Gethsemane, the Praetorium, to Golgotha itself and the Cross, where our Lord cries out, "It is finished," and darkness covers the land even as he feeds us with the miraculous food of his body and blood.

Look what we have in just the first half of the Gospel passage, an outline of Christ's redemptive work, but we have to ask, where do we get this supernatural food? In the Eucharist, which is emphatically prefigured in the miracle. What happens?

There in the dark, recall his Passion, he takes the small offering of  5 loaves and two fish, signifying what? The Law and the Prophets, the 5 senses of Man sanctified, the sevenfold order of creation, Jesus himself who is the bread of life? All this perhaps and more and, having taken this up he blesses it, breaks it and gives it to the disciples to distribute.

He does the very same thing at the Last Supper, the first Eucharist, where from his compassion he feeds his disciples with the miraculous food of his body and blood shed for them on the Cross for the remission of their sins, for their healing and life. He does the same for us today in the Mass, where our Lord steps ashore to heal us, to make us whole again with God, nourishing us with the supernatural food of his body and blood.

What can we do in the face of such mystery? Draw near with faith to the sacrament of our Lord's Body and Blood, wherein the Great Physician heals us, forgiving our sins and raises us to eternal life.

God Bless,

LSP

I Am The Bread Of Life

 

He, Jesus is the bread of life. Here's Farrer on the Sacrament:

The disciples indeed, who were still carnal, were amazed at the greatness of His virtue, they could not yet however recognise in Him the truth of the Divine Majesty. Wherefore it goes on, "For their hearts were hardened." But mystically, the toil of the disciples in rowing, and the contrary wind, mark out the labours of the Holy Church, who amidst the beating waves of the world, and the blasts of unclean spirits, strives to reach the repose of her celestial country. And well is it said that the ship was in the midst of the sea, and He alone on land, for sometimes the Church is afflicted by a pressure from the [p. 128] Gentiles so overwhelming, that her Redeemer seems to have entirely deserted her. But the Lord sees His own, toiling on the sea, for, lest they faint in tribulations, He strengthens them by the look of His love, and sometimes frees them by a visible assistance. Further, in the fourth watch He came to them as daylight approached, for when man lifts up his mind to the light of guidance from on high, the Lord will be with him, and the dangers of temptations will be laid asleep. (Bede, on Christ walking on the water)

God bless,

LSP 

A Short Sunday Evening Reflection

 

In today's Gospel, Mark 6:30-44, we saw Christ miraculously multiply loaves and fish to feed 5000, a physical feast which points to a heavenly one. The elements of the miracle are telling.

5 loaves for the 5 books of the Law given by God to Moses on Sinai, the law of righteousness and love spoken to by the Prophets. And so there are two fish, for the twofold summary of the divine commandments, to love God and neighbor, as enunciated by Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets.

This Law is fulfilled in Christ, he is the love of God incarnate, righteousness itself, so the bread and fish ultimately represent him. Jesus, the bread of life, will miraculously feed the people of the new covenant with himself, he does so in the Eucharist. I found this helpful, from Benedict XVI:

The dual commandment to love God and neighbor encloses the two aspects of a sole dynamism of the heart and of life. Jesus thus achieves the ancient revelation, not in adding an unedited commandment, but by realizing in himself and in his own salvific action the living synthesis of the two great words of the old covenant: “You will love your God the Lord with all your heart …” and “you will love your neighbor as yourself” (cf. Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).

In the Eucharist, we contemplate the sacrament of this living synthesis of the law: Christ gives us, with himself, the full realization of the love for God and the love for our brothers. And this love of his, he communicates to us when we are nourished by his Body and his Blood. This is when what St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in today’s reading is achieved: “You broke with the worship of false gods and became the servants of the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). This conversion is the beginning of the path of holiness that the Christian is called to achieve in his own existence.

 

You broke with the worship of false gods and became servants of the living and true God. This conversion is the beginning of the path of holiness that the Christian is called to achieve in his own existence. Yes indeed.

God bless,

LSP