“Joachim and Ann, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him. And so rejoice, Ann, that you were sterile and have not borne children; break forth into shouts, you who have not given birth. Rejoice, Joachim, because from your daughter a child is born for us, a son is given us, whose name is Messenger of great counsel and universal salvation, mighty God. For this child is God.” St. John Damascene

They cooperated with God without knowing their role in the plan of Salvation. They waited upon the Lord for his timing in giving birth to a child, whom they saw as ordinary, but in heaven learned the truth of their daughter. How could they know that Mary would be the Mother of the long awaited Savior, promised by God? How could they know that the child born of Mary will be their Savior? They were simple, unknown, faithful, lowly followers of God. Yet, they are remembered and honored, because of what God did through them. We may never see the fruit of our labors, but all done in and for God will resound into eternity.

 

"O God, let me know you and love you so that I may find joy in you; and if I cannot do so fully in this life, let me at least make some progress every day, until at last that knowledge, love and joy come to me in all their plenitude. While I am here on earth let me know you fully; let my love for you grow deeper here, so that there I may love you fully. On earth then I shall have great joy in hope, and in heaven complete joy in the fulfillment of my hope. " St. Adrian of Canterbury (+710)

 

Where will that joy come from that so many people are searching for? He says it comes from knowing the Lord and in loving the Lord. The more we know the Lord, not only intellectually but more importantly relationally, the more I am intimately alive in him. The more my knowledge is a heart knowledge, the more I want to love him with my whole being. It is in this graced relationship that I will find the joy that is not superficial but lasting.  Isn’t this the message of Jesus to us? “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” (John 15:10-11) His joy comes from knowing, loving and serving him.

Homily Seventeenth Sunday Year B

Reading 1: Elisha was a prophet of the Lord. God chose him to succeed Elijah at the end of his mission on earth. As Elijah performed miracles at the command of God, so Elisha has the same power. Elijah asked a widow during the long draught in the land to make him a hearth cake and give him a drink of water. The widow said she had enough flour and oil to bake something for herself and her son before they die. Elijah said do what he asked and she would have flour and oil as long as necessary. She did and the little she had never ran out.

 

Elisha accepted the gift of 20 barley loaves and told his attendants to feed a hundred people. Elisha prophesied in the name of God: “They shall eat and there shall be some left over.”

 

What is key here is the faith of Elisha in the power of God; the obedience of Elisha at the word of God; the obedience and trust of the servants; the faithfulness and compassion of God. Elisha saw a need and turned to the Lord for his guidance. What does that say to us? Where there is a need that is beyond our capacity to take care of, do we turn to the Lord for his direction? And if God tells us something that is beyond us and is confirmed in the word of the Lord, do we in faith act on the word of God, even though humanly it looks impossible? And when we see the power of God manifested, do we give God the glory and tell others about what God did?

 

Gospel: We have been following the Gospel of Mark for the last few Sundays. Last Sunday, we read that Jesus saw the vast crowd seeking him. They were like sheep without a shepherd. He taught and healed them. Today and the next few Sundays, we will read from the Gospel of John.

 

Our reading begins with Jesus looking at the vast crowd and realizing that they have been with him all day and have not eaten. He has compassion on them and chooses to feed them rather than send them away on their own.

 

The connection with the first reading is obvious. Just as Elisha fed the 100 with 20 barley loaves and there was a sizable left over, so Jesus, the new prophet feeds the 5,000 with five barley loaves and two fish with twelve large baskets of fragments remaining.

 

What can we learn from this message of the Scriptures?  1) Like Elisha and Jesus we need to be attentive to the Divine Appointments God gives us. 2) We need to be attentive to and act on the lead of the Holy Spirit in our daily life. 3)Nothing is impossible to God. 4) Jesus gave the Apostles an opportunity to participate in the miracle through obedience and trust.

 

Reading 2: Paul gives us a glimpse of the life of a true disciple of Jesus. A disciple belongs to the Lord.  A disciple lives a life worthy of one’s call from God, received and initiated in Baptism, affirmed and empowered in Confirmation. As a disciple, I am who I am in the eyes of God, nothing more, nothing less.

 

The virtues and qualities Paul talks about are at the heart of being a disciple. These lead to unity and peace. It is not easy to preserve this unity. It is a choice and decision. We are called to speak the truth in love.

 

Hearing these virtues how do we rate ourselves?  Do we bear with one another through love? How humble, gentle and patient are we in our daily interactions with others?  Do I embrace the truth that all this is possible because I belong to the Body of Christ, that Jesus is the Lord of my life and that by God’s grace I am filled with the Holy Spirit and am a son or daughter of the Father of all?

 

As you reflect on the Word of God, what is God saying to you? 

“Begin nothing on earth unless it has its end in heaven; do not walk on a path that does not lead to heaven.” St. Charbel Makhlouf  

 

Basically, a good rule of thumb is to view all things in the light of our eternal destination. If what we are doing does not lead us to fulfill our God-given destiny, then it is of no lasting value. We are only wasting our time and energy on what will die with us. But if what we are doing benefits us in our relationship with God, then it will go with us into eternity. This is what motivated St. Paul. “Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

 

 Seventeenth Sunday Gospel B

After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (of Tiberias). A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. 

· It was significant for John to recall that it was near the Feast of the Passover that the multiplication of the loaves and fish took place. Feeding the crowd in this manner reminded the people how God provided a meal for them at Passover and fed them in the desert with Manna. This miracle also anticipated the Last Supper transformation of bread and wine into his Body and Blood.

When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?" He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. 

· How did he know this in his humanity? Is it the presence of the Spirit?

Last Sunday we heard that Jesus had compassion on the people for they were like sheep without a Shepherd. He will express his compassion in this miracle.

Philip answered him, "Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little (bit)." One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" 

· That they were barley loaves indicated they were the food of the poor. This may also be an allusion to the miracle that Elisha did in the OT.

Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. 

· Since it is near the Feast of Passover it is springtime.

So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. 

· Indicating the number underlies the magnanimity of the miracle.

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." 

· The OT had spoken of one who would come who would be like Moses.

In the OT the prophets spoke of the abundant banquet in the new Messianic kingdom.

· This was the fourth sign Jesus performed according to John; the first was the changing of water into wine at Cana.

Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone. 

· This event is told in each of the four Gospels, indicating its significance to the early Church.

· What does this passage say to you? Where has God shown his abundant love to you?

· Knowing what the people wanted to do, what is your response to God’s love in your life?

 

“The source of justice is not vengeance but charity.” St. Bridget of Sweden

 

What we call justice sometimes is a guise for vengeance. It is a trap of the devil to make us feel powerful and haughty. Even then, when we have our vengeance, we will not be satisfied. Why? The evil is not only in the perpetrator but also in us, where there is festering anger and non-forgiveness. God shows us mercy and love when we sin against him countless times. He has become our justice by giving his life for our salvation. He calls us to forgive the offender and to show the person the same love and mercy that we have received from God. Justice belongs to God. The offender and we are both sinners, deserving punishment in justice, but instead receive love and mercy. Remove vengeance from the heart, so that when we stand before the judgment throne of God, he will not exact vengeance on us.

 On this the Feast of St. Mary Madalene we reflect on the experience of her encounter with the Risen Lord. When Mary saw the empty tomb, she ran to tell the Apostles. When they came, saw and left, "Mary went and remained standing outside the tomb." She remained because she was still seeking the Lord out of the great love she had for the One who had transformed her life through forgiveness and acceptance. Initially, she sought but did not find, because she was seeking the body of a dead person, not the person alive and risen. But, even so, her love and perseverance was rewarded. The Lord reveals himself to her, though, at first, she thought it was the person who removed the body. As soon as the risen Lord calls her by name, "Mary" the eyes of faith opened her to the reality of the risen Jesus. Immediately, she clung to his feet with joyful tears. But Jesus tells her not to cling to the past, but go and proclaim to the Apostles that he was risen from the dead, as he predicted.  What lessons can we learn? Never stop searching for the Lord. Each new experience will be different from the past ones. But these encounters are not to satisfy us, but to proclaim to others of Jesus' great love and plan for each person, who seek him with their whole hearts.