17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today and for the next four Sundays, our gospel readings are from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel.  The chapter begins with the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes that we hear today, the only miracle story that occurs in all four gospels (Matt. 14:13-21; Matt. 15:32-39; Mark 6:35-44, and Luke 9:1-17).   John uses this story to frame Jesus’ discourse on the bread of life and to teach us about the Eucharist.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that, “the miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributes the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist” (CCC 1335).

We are all so familiar with this beautiful story that it is easy to overlook some of the important details.  We get the big picture but there is a lot to consider in this event.  One of the more notable details is that Jesus did not perform this miracle on his own.  He had many helpers including the disciples, particularly Philip and Andrew, the boy with the loaves and fishes and the 5000 or more people who participated in the meal.   Without all these people, the story would be incomplete.  The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was a shared community experience.

In a similar way, Eucharist is a shared community experience for us.  The Catechism teaches us that, “Christians come together in one place for the Eucharistic assembly. At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active parts to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the offerings, those who give communion, and the whole people whose "Amen" manifests their participation” (CCC 1348).

Just as the people gathered around Jesus on the side of that mountain near the Sea of Galilee were nourished physically and spiritually by the five barley loaves and two fishes Jesus distributed, so the Eucharist we receive here nourishes us physically and spiritually.  Jesus himself feeds us and draws us into “unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit … one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”  (Ephesians 4:3-6).

O God, you open wide your hand,
giving us food in due season.
Out of your never-failing abundance,
satisfy the hungers of body and soul
and lead all peoples of the earth
to the feast of the world to come.
We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.

Amen