Jesus Feeds the Multitudes: Reflections on the Readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B in the liturgical cycle focuses mainly on the gospel of Mark. However, the gospel of Mark is the shortest of the gospels, so the Church fills out the year with readings from other gospels, mostly the gospel of John. Thus, this week (and through August) the gospels will focus on my favorite book and favorite chapter in the Bible, John Chapter 6. This is very appropriate as we are in the middle of a Eucharistic revival and that is what John 6 is all about.

To set the stage, the first reading (2Kings 4:42-44) is about the prophet Elisha feeding a hundred people with twenty barley loaves of bread. When this was done there was food left over. While this is impressive, it is nothing compared to what Jesus would do. However, it is a “type” of what is to come. Typology involves things that occur at one time but point to something else, something similar. We see this often in the Old Testament as everything there points to Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus is the fulfilment of the covenant.

The responsorial psalm (Psalm 145) also leads up to what the gospel will cover and reiterates what is contained in the first reading. It boldly states, “The hand of the Lord feeds us, he answers all our needs.” Just as Jesus will later give us the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father) by which we ask God to give us our daily bread, this psalm tells us that God feeds us and fulfills the needs of the faithful. Besides feeding his people physically, one also gets the sense that the psalmist also intends to convey God feeding the people’s spiritual needs.

The second reading continues with an excerpt from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, which began with the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. One of the themes of this excerpt is for the Church to bear with one another through love (remember, God is love, 1 John 4:8) and the call to the unity of the spirit, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all.” While it doesn’t seem obvious, this also points to the miracle Jesus will perform in the beginning of John 6, a precursor to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a sacrament of unity. One must be united to Jesus through the Church to be worthy to receive the Eucharist (see CCC 1385). It is for this reason that members of other Christian denominations not in communion with the Catholic Church are denied the reception of communion.

The gospel is the climax to this week’s readings, as usual. This week it is the beginning of chapter six of John’s gospel. If we recall last week’s gospel from Mark, Jesus had been followed by a large crowd and when he saw them he had pity for they were like sheep without a shepherd. The next segment of Mark’s gospel is another version of what we read this week from John, and the “follow-up” to Elisha’s miracle in the Old Testament. John, however, throws in another fact not mentioned in Mark’s gospel: “The Jewish feast of Passover was near.” This is important because it is during the Passover week that Jesus will institute the Eucharist. There is a notable difference between what Elisha did and what Jesus did. In Elisha’s account he notes, “For thus says the LORD,
'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.' And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said.” By this we see that the one multiplying the loaves is the Lord, not Elisha. When we go the gospel, however, Jesus gives thanks but does not say that his Father will take care of the needs of the people. He just gives the command to have the people recline and then He Himself broke the loaves and distributed them to those reclining. Jesus acted on his own authority, as he does throughout the gospels. Can anyone read the gospels with an open heart and open mind and not see that Jesus is Lord?

In the coming weeks we will read more from Chapter Six of the gospel of John which is foundational for our belief in the Eucharist. Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from Vatican II notes, “... in the sacrament of the eucharistic bread, the unity of all believers who form one body in Christ is both expressed and brought about.” The Catechism tells us that “the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324) Is it the source and summit of your life? This is the key to being a Catholic. Catholicism is completely Christ-centered; in his life, in his love, and in the Eucharist. And so we must be also.