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July 30, 2006 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) Dr. Terrance Callan 2 Kgs 4:42-4 X Eph 4:1-6 X John 6:1-15 We need food to stay alive. And our need for food can make us aware that we also need other things to be alive in the fullest and deepest sense. Jesus is the food we need the most for this kind of life. The reading from the gospel according to John tells the familiar story of Jesus’ feeding a crowd of five thousand with five barley loaves and a couple of dried fish. This is very similar to an incident in the career of the prophet Elisha that is narrated in the reading from the second book of Kings. This reading tells how Elisha fed one hundred people with twenty barley loaves. In both cases the people ate their fill and there was food left over. These are both very striking incidents, but the miracle of Jesus far surpasses that of Elisha. Jesus fed fifty times as many people with about one fourth the amount of food, and there were twelve baskets of leftovers - more food than he began with! The similarities and differences between the two miracles make it clear why the people react to Jesus’ miracle by saying, “This is undoubtedly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” They perceive that Jesus is a prophet like Elisha, but one who is much greater than Elisha, the final prophet who will completely accomplish the mission of the prophet. However, Jesus’ reaction to the people’s exclamation shows that their perception of Jesus was not fully adequate. When Jesus realized that they would make him king, “he fled back to the mountain alone.” The people were impressed by Jesus’ miracle, but they did not see its deepest significance. As Jesus goes on to say in the remainder of the sixth chapter of the gospel of John, this miracle shows that Jesus himself is the bread of life. The one who believes in Jesus has in Jesus all that is needed for life in the fullest sense. The proper reaction to Jesus’ miracle is not to make Jesus king, but rather to believe in him as the source of life. The reading from the letter to the Ephesians exhorts its readers to live worthily of the call they have received, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love.” The reading goes on to urge us to be united because all of us have certain things in common - “one body and one Spirit, …one hope...one Lord, one faith , one baptism; one God and Father of all.” Because all of us belong to the one body of Christ, share one Spirit, have one hope, etc., we should be united with one another. To put this in terms of the reading from the gospel of John, because we all look to Jesus as the source of life, we should be united with one another. We all eat the one bread of life. This shared life should make us one and give us peace.
Terrance Callan |
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