Corpus Christi Blog

Gathering as One at Mass

07-29-2018HomiliesFr. Chad King

Our Gospel today is taken from John chapter 6, which every Catholic should know well, as it is the great chapter explaining the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist, and its explanation in John 6, is so important that the Church asks us to reflect and learn from it over the next 5 weeks. Today, we begin with the miracle of the feeding of 5000. Have you known that the great Eucharistic teaching of John 6 begins with this miracle? Let me reveal how. First, though let’s recall last week’s Gospel from Mark because it leads directly into Mark’s version of this miracle of feeding the 5000; and it will help us more fully understand the context of this story.

Last week Mark accounted that the 12 apostles had just come back from their first mission.  They were sent out 2 by 2 to heal the sick and preach repentance, because in Jesus Christ the Kingdom of God has come.  And we hear from Mark about the great success and effectiveness of that mission.  The Gospel last week stated that “people were coming and going in great numbers that they didn’t even have an opportunity to eat”.  So, Jesus and the 12 apostles went in a boat across the sea for some time to themselves.  However, people got word that they were crossing and another great crowd “hastened there on foot from all the towns” and met them on the other side.  The Gospel last week concluded, at seeing the vast crowd, “Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things”. 

Imagine that scene if you will- people had heard the preaching of the apostles and they left what they were doing and came to Jesus.  However, when they saw them getting into the boat and cross the sea, many ran towards where they were headed, not knowing where they would end up, but they ran and told others.  About 5000 people from the near-by towns heard the message, dropped what they were doing, and ran to meet Jesus. This is the repeated message portrayed in the Gospels, drop everything because following Jesus is the most important thing you can do.  Therefore, can you imagine the excitement in those who tracked the boat and ran to tell others?  And how much excitement and anticipation there must have been in the people who heard the message that Jesus was headed their way!  Think about how much effort and sacrifice that took to drop everything they were doing to hurry on foot to the shore, to track where the boat was headed, and run to meet Jesus wherever and whenever he disembarked.  The effort and sacrifice Jesus saw when he disembarked touched his heart and he was moved by their longing and desire to see and learn from him.

And so, that context of the people gathering brings us now to Jesus’ compassionate response to the hunger and longing of the people, and the miraculous multiplication of the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish and the feeding of more than the 5000.  I say more than 5000 as Matthew tells us that it was 5000 men, not counting women and children. 

However, John’s version of this miracle is not just a practical response to human hunger, but Jesus’ heart was so moved, that he also saw their spiritual longing too.  Jesus’ viewed them as sheep without a shepherd is evident in the details that John gives.  For example, John specifies that it was near Passover, which alludes to that it was springtime; and John specifies that there was a lot of grass in that area which would have been green in the springtime.  Jesus instructs the over 5000 people to ‘recline’ or lie down on the green grass.  This is an illusion to the famous Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, He leads me to green pastures”.  Therefore, John is revealing to us that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who will take care of every physical and spiritual need and desire of his sheep.

In addition, some of you might remember that John’s Gospel, written around the year 90 AD, some 20-50 years after the Synoptic Gospels and most of the writings of St. Paul, doesn’t have what is called a Eucharistic Institution narrative, meaning that John doesn’t have a detailed account like Matthew, Mark, and Luke does of what Jesus did at the Last Supper when He instituted the Holy Eucharist.  Instead, John’s purpose of writing chapter 6, and beginning it with the feeding of the 5000, itself is John’s institution and teaching on the Holy Eucharist.  This too is evident in the details that John gives and the words he chooses.  For instance, our Gospel specifies that the Jewish feast of Passover was near, the same time as the Last Supper.  Jesus instructs the people to ‘recline’, which is the same word used in the Synoptics when they ‘reclined at table’ at the Last Supper.  And again, listen to the verbs John uses to describe what Jesus instructs and does in this miracle of the feeding of 5000.  “Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, and distributed them, and after all had their fill, the fragments (or breakings) filled 12 baskets full.”.  The words for ‘took’, ‘bread’, ‘give’, ‘break’, besides ‘recline’ are the exact same words of the Synoptic’s Institution narratives, hardly a coincidence because there were other words that could have the same meaning.  And, of course, the word for thanksgiving that John uses when Jesus ‘gave thanks’, is ‘Eucharistisus’.  Therefore, it is clear that John’s version of the miraculous feeding of the 5000 is the beginning of the teaching of the Eucharist, which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper and we celebrate at each and every Mass.

Now, my brothers and sisters, now we have looked at how this miracle is the beginning of John’s institution and instruction of the Holy Eucharist, let us return to the vision of the people from the beginning of the homily to reflect on how we gather for Mass.  Recall how much sacrifice and effort the people showed, and how they dropped everything they were doing, for the most important thing for them was going to meet Jesus.  How do we gather?  Do we come to Mass with eager anticipation? Do you fast from unnecessary food and drink an hour before you receive Holy Communion in eager anticipation?   Look at the time you arrive at Mass, are you arriving early and prompt, does it show the importance?  Do you arrive early enough to have time to quiet yourself, and prepare for what you are about to do and receive?  Look at what you wear to Mass, does your clothing show effort for the most important thing you do today?  Look also at your participation at Mass, are you engaged and focused, do you actively sing and respond to the prayers? Even though it might be a sacrifice and effort that you might not like to do, singing and responding helps us enter in and open our hearts to get the most out of Mass.  Reflect on how actively and intentionally you listen and pray during the Mass.  Also, just before the consecration and transformation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, the priest says to you- “pray that my sacrifice, and yours, might be acceptable to God our Father”.  What sacrifice are you offering- what are the desires, worries, and anxieties on your heart that you want to lay upon the altar to be transformed?

To conclude, let me make one final point in our reflection on how we gather at Mass, this time from our powerful 2nd reading.  St. Paul says, “I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience…striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit: 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”.  When you come to Mass, please recognize that it’s is not just about prayer time between you and God, but that we are to gather together, with humility and patience for ourselves and others.  That we gather as one, and we pray for each other and exemplify to each other our heartfelt love and devotion for God.  One Lord, one faith- we gather as one people of God, united in our faith in God through His Church.  The Eucharist is the source of our unity, the Eucharist binds us together and makes us one- that is why it is called Holy Communion, and to receive Eucharist we must be in full communion with God and others.  Therefore, as the Church teaches- if someone is not Catholic, has set themselves outside of the Catholic faith by intentionally not believing in or following the Church’s teaching- like not being married in the Church, for example; or likewise anyone who has set them outside the state of grace through willfully committing a mortal sin- then those people are not to receive Holy Communion, the source of unity, until they can be reconciled and united in the ‘one Lord and one faith’.  To conclude then, join me in praying, as we do in the 3rd Eucharistic prayer, “Look, we pray, upon the oblation (or offering) of your Church and, recognizing the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself, grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son, and filled with His Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ”.

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