First reading: 2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm: Ps 145:10-11,15-18
Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel: John 6:1-15
Jesus said, —Have the people recline.—
Other things alluded to:
There’s a lot in every set of readings and you can take a few of Jesus’ words or actions and write whole books on the subject. Scripture is very dense – meaning that it is filled with instructions for the totality of the life we are to live with God. That’s what God wanted, that’s the reason He came to us, to give us His word, His instruction. The prophets and the patriarchs cooperated with God in getting the word out. The Apostles carried the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth. Jesus gave us the whole message — the message from the Father’s mouth.
Looking at today’s readings and Gospel we see a lot. We find the consternation, confusion, and doubt of the Apostles — how would so many be fed. We see the faith of a boy who stepped forward with a few loaves and a couple of fish, offering that to Jesus, for the multitudes. We see the hunger of the crowd, following Jesus into the wilderness, not for food but for His teaching. We see the power of God in the miraculous feeding of the multitude; Jesus’ miraculous action in dividing the little into plenty.
A place for everything and everything in its place:
Looking at the Gospel I think we often overlook a secret ingredient. Jesus put everything into its place and found a place for everything. Jesus was more than just the message of God among us, He was the great organizer and the master of the disciplined approach.
Jesus feeds everyone, everyone has a place to recline, there’s enough food for everyone, and nothing goes to waste, but is gathered back into baskets. There is no mess and no waste. Jesus, who prayed that not one of His sheep would be lost assured the welfare of all the sheep and the loss of nothing.
Jesus the great organizer:
In today’s Gospel we see Jesus the great organizer. We don’t consider Jesus as an organizer but think of this: You have Jesus, a few followers, and at least five thousand out in the wilderness. People certainly followed prophets in those days, and there were mass journeys to Jerusalem for Passover and other festivals, but you didn’t see a rag-tag group of thirteen leading five thousand into the middle of nowhere. Jesus did.
Think about the times. Certainly Rome with its army and political muscle could have gathered and organized a large group. Perhaps the Chief Priest, Sanhedrin, and the Temple Guard could have organized something, but a penniless group of thirteen led by the promise of a word, of a teaching, of a miracle? No one would have believed it if it hadn’t of happened. It did.
Jesus is in fact the great organizer. Jesus didn’t need to rely on His infinite knowledge and infinite power. He didn’t depend on His command over an army of angels, but organized this large group in the wilderness based on something else. All He had was His word and His words: —Have the people recline— organized five thousand plus.
What Jesus relied on was the faith response of the crowd. In faith and in hope they followed Him. In faith and hope they placed complete trust in Him. They left the food, the shelter, everything back home and followed on blind faith. They journeyed many miles on foot, just to hear. We must respond similarly.
Jesus seeks our faith response to His presence. He doesn’t use the power of heaven and an army of angels to get us to respond. He doesn’t create miraculous visions for us. He simply offers us an opportunity to respond, to say yes, to follow Him, to trust Him — and if we do we will hear.
The discipline of Jesus:
Jesus took the faith and hope of that crowd just as He takes our faith and hope and turns it into discipline. Come together, listen, come to me, be healed. Gather in small groups, recline, eat. Jesus turns humanity’s faith response into action that brings us paradise, eternal life, perfection, the life we were meant to live.
The discipline of Jesus begins in teaching. We begin in listening to His Word, the awesome sacrament offered by our Holy Polish National Catholic Church. We gather in a crowd to listen to Him, to be enlightened by Him. It certainly isn’t me — for I have no gift. The word we hear is the voice of Jesus teaching. He teaches at length, He teaches steadily, He teaches us in this day and age in the same words His Apostles heard. He hasn’t modified His message. He presents it to us in its simplicity telling us — make this part of your life. Eat this bread, my word for eternal life. In His word our faith response finds fulfillment, it finds its home, its completion, its happiness.
The discipline of Jesus is completed in our common meal. He tells us, recline in small groups and eat. Waste nothing. Gather from what you have eaten and fill many baskets carrying them into the world so that others may be fed.
Why we need Jesus:
We need Jesus. The armies of the world cannot organize us in this way, taking our faith response and turning it into fulfillment. You see the error of those who take faith and turn it to political action, corrupting the message of Jesus to serve political masters. The false priests, their guards, and their temples cannot organize or fulfill our faith response. They ask us to respond to their their temples of stone, of gold, or of corruption. Those who put their faith in those places find no food to fill them, find no home.
We need Jesus, who has the power of heaven at His call, but who organizes and disciplines us according to His word, the teaching and food He has given. It is the only place that our faith response can find peace.
Where are we without Him?
All of our inner longings, all of our desires are fulfilled in Jesus. Our faith response is our search. We search for meaning, for sense, for organization, for discipline. We seek to quiet the inner torments of our soul. We can only find the place, quiet that torment, when we find Jesus, when we hear His word, when we eat His bread.
Our natural drive is to seek that place of fulfillment, the place we are complete. Without Him, without His word and food we are unhappy, seeking like people in a room with no light. We bump against everything yet nothing fulfills. Nothing makes us completely comfortable.
Jesus creates:
Jesus breaks darkness and makes sense of our search. He enters that dark place. He appears in the valleys and on the mountains where we conduct our search. He takes us by the hand and shows the way. He organizes us, disciplines us, leads us, teaches us, fulfills us, and feeds us.
To create organization is to create sense out of chaos. Jesus is the great organizer who makes sense out of our chaos, who gives us the promise only God can give, eternal happiness, eternal fulfillment, perfect sense, perfect peace. “Lord, give us this bread always.” Amen.
