17th ORDINARY SUNDAY B
2Kings 4:42-44; Eph 4:1-6; John 6:1-15
The miracle of five loaves and two fish can be named as the MIRACLE OF COMMUNION OR FELLOSHIP and deals with multiple issues:
IDENTIFICATION OF THE NEED OF THE COMMUNITY
Jesus recognized the need of food for the people who came to listen to him. We need to identify the needs of the local and global community. Those needs can be of peace, of love and concern, of food and shelter, of education....and of both spiritual and temporal.
CONCERNS AND NON-CONCERNS:
Jesus is concerned of the problem. So he brings the issue before the disciples for a way out in order to provide the food for the crowds, making it as collective concern. The response of the disciple, Philip is the expression of inability in spite of Andrew’s awareness of the availability of small quantity of five loves and two fish with a boy. However both the disciples’ concern becomes non concern. We need to show our concern to the existing needs. We can’t simply by pass the needs of others. We can’t keep ourselves away from the problems of the individuals in the community. At the same time, not simply as an individual trying to attend to the needs of others but see that a collective effort is made. Personal initiation should lead us to collective involvement.
TAPPING THE RESOURCES:
When the disciples do not have any food with them, they traced out the source of food, even though in little quantity i.e. five loaves and two fish, available with a boy. When we do not have with us, or when there is insufficiency with us, we need to look for the people who are capable like the Blessed Mother at the wedding at Cana, who looked on to Jesus and convinced him to help out. Then we should be able to persuade them to understand the situation and to help them out.
WILLFUL AND SACRIFICIAL OFFERING :
The boy sacrificed his needs (hunger) for the sake of Jesus and gave away all the food he has with him. What all we offer we should offer to God. Then only it will become as sacrificial offering.
CARING AND SHARING FROM INSUFFICIANCY.
We need to be moved with love towards the needs of the others as Jesus did.
It is true that we may not be having abundantly. Yet we need to offer/share from our in sufficiency. Out of the little we have, we need to share something as the prophet Elisha shared with 100 people with just 20 barley loves in the first reading. Our caring and sharing should go as an offering to God, because the boy did not directly share with the crowd but through Jesus. Hence Jesus, as a sign of caring, he blessed it; as a sign of sharing he broke it and gave back to the disciples for distribution. The selfless offering of the boy caused the miracle and made abundant availability of 12baskets more after sufficiency to the crowds. What is offered comes back hundred fold.
OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD OF GOD
The disciples obeyed Jesus unconditionally. They have no idea for how many people the available food would be sufficient. Yet they distributed from their insufficiency to sufficiency just because Jesus told them. They have no second thought what might happen when the food is not sufficient in such a large crowd. Yet they did just as the servants at the wedding at Cana, who served the mere water in the wine cups under the obedience to Jesus as the water turned into wine miraculously. The physical presence of Jesus may not be with us today to obey his word. Yet through the body of Christ, the teachings of the Church; the members of the church, family, community, His Word is available for us to obey.
In conclusion we need to care and share what we have even from our insufficiency identifying the needs of others, transmitting it from individual concern to the community concern and then tapping the resources from the availability convincing them to have a sacrificial offering to God, it is there we find a community of love and concern; community of love and share that obeys God’s Word. And God works wonders in and through that Community.
-Fr. John Raju Junjunuri
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