John 6:1-15

2 Kings 4:42-44

Psalm 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18

Ephesians 4:1-6

John 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.

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.

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.

Philip answered him,

“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough

for each of them to have a little.”

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?”

Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”

Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.

So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

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.”

Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off

to make him king,

he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I thank you for the gift of the New Manna of the Messiah. I do not deserve this great gift. I am humbled by the communion I have with you through your Son and in your Spirit.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The New Moses: For the next five Sundays we will take a break from reading the Gospel of Mark and our Sunday Gospel will be taken from John 6. Today, we read about the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves for the five thousand. To understand this great sign, it is good to recall that the people in Jesus’ day expected the Messiah to bring back the miracle of the manna. They thought that the “manna that had stopped coming down during the time of Joshua would once again rain down from heaven” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, 86). This meant that the Messiah would be a New Moses who would lead a New Exodus to a New Promised Land and provide New Manna as food for the journey. Today’s miracle looks forward to the Last Supper, when Jesus will provide not just bread that sustains us for a day, but the Bread of Life, his own Body and Blood, that gives eternal life.

2. The New Elisha: The miracle recorded in the First Reading points to Jesus as a New Elisha figure. Elisha was able to work a miracle and feed 100 men with 20 barley loaves. This was one of the 16 miracles Elisha performed. The miracles of Jesus recall and surpass those of Elisha. Jesus uses 25% less bread to provide food for 50 times the amount of people! The predecessor of Elisha was Elijah, who prefigures the ministry and preaching of John the Baptist. “Elijah is a prophet of judgment and justice, while Elisha is a prophet of mercy. Thus, Elijah performs relatively few miracles of compassion (1 Kings 17:8-24) but is remembered for calling fire from heaven multiple times, killing the prophets of Baal, and delivering oracles of death and judgment against Ahab and Ahaziah (1 Kings 18). Elisha, on the other hand, has an extensive ministry of mercy, in which he grants conception to the barren, healing to the sick, resurrection to the dead, food to the hungry, purity to the poisoned or defiled, and even forgiveness to enemies (2 Kings 6:21-23). The Gospel authors recognized this pattern and its applicability to the successive ministries of John the Baptist, prophet of judgment (Mt 3:7-12), and Jesus of Nazareth, prophet of mercy (Mt 11:28-30)” (Bergsma and Pitre, A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, 421-422).

3. One Body and One Spirit: In our Second Reading, from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Paul moves from what God has done for us in Christ (Ephesians 1-3) to how we ought to conduct ourselves in that light (Ephesians 4-6) (Williamson, Ephesians, 105). “The ascended Christ sends forth the Spirit, and his heavenly power to sanctify and save becomes operative through baptism and in the lives of individuals (Prothro, The Apostle Paul and His Letters, 177). We need to practice the virtues of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Above all, we need to be united. We are one body, we share one Spirit, we have been given one hope, we have one Lord, we profess one faith, we have received one baptism, and we have one God and Father.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, strengthen the unity of your Church and heal the wounds of division. I am saddened when I see the work of the evil one in the Church that seeks to divide us. Inspire me to know what to say and how to welcome my brothers and sisters in truth and love.

Living the Word of God: Do I have a healthy knowledge of what unites the various Christian confessions and what divides us? Can I spend some time this week learning about the history of the Church and the Protestant Reformation? Do I know what the various denominations – Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, etc. – teach? Do I know what the Catholic Church teaches about grace, justification, merit, and the Sacraments?