The crowd ate the food that Jesus multiplied
for them from the several loaves of bread and the pair of fish that a small boy
had with him. Eating until it was full, the crowd saw Jesus as the true prophet of God in their midst for
having performed this amazing miracle. Yet,
the crowd still had doubts and questions. That
seems to be a common theme in the Gospels, doesn’t it? The
people see a sign, they begin to believe and to grow in their faith, and then
doubts and misgivings return. For
five weeks in a row, we’re going to be hearing readings from the 6th
chapter of John’s Gospel. We started
hearing readings from this chapter at mass last Sunday. The
crowds wonder as they follow Jesus around the towns and villages of the
countryside: Who is this man Jesus and what is he all about? Is he going to provide for their earthly
needs, symbolized by the lunch of bread and fish with which he fed them? Or is
there more beneath the surface. Is he
going to fulfill some other needs that they have.
This
6th chapter in the Gospel of John is called the bread of life
discourse. Christ tells us today: “I am the Bread of Life.
Whoever comes to me will never hunger.
Whoever believes in me will never thirst.” We
Catholics gather for the Eucharist as a community of faith on the Lord’s day, receiving the bread of life that sustains us on our journey of
faith each day. In
the Gospel today, we hear the crowd clamoring for more signs in their desire to
see and believe. We
hunger and thirst as modern disciples of Christ just as the crowd did in the
Gospel. In
response to our longing, the Eucharist is an important sign that we receive from
Christ – the sign of his true presence with us.
Pope
Francis has a way with words that has touched many lives. Many
of us Catholic priests, as well as many Protestant ministers, use quotes from
Pope Francis in our sermons and homilies because they so capture the attention
of the people. Pope Francis has spoken very bluntly and
directly about the importance that Eucharist should have in our lives as
Catholics. The
Pope asserts that Christ’s gift of himself in the Eucharist is not only a model
for Christian life, but it acts to transform us interiorly. He
explains that as we participate in mass and are nourished by the Body of Christ,
Jesus and the Holy Spirit act within us, shaping our hearts and communicating
interior attitudes to us that are to translate into behaviors that reflect the values of the Gospel. Thanks to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, our very lives become “broken bread” for
our brothers and sisters.
Just
how are we to live out to the Eucharist – to be leaven in the world? At
the forefront of a lot of people’s minds these days are the many difficult
issues that we’ve been dealing with as a society in recent weeks. This
summer, we’ve been faced with changes in the definition of marriage, with the
affects of a severe drought and water shortage in California and throughout the West, with mass shootings
and racial tensions, with the issue of changing the Mississippi state
flag. It is
interesting how I’ve encountered some people here in Tupelo who have voiced their disappointment
in not having these issues brought up in their home church, even though this seems to be all people are talking about. But
hopefully here at St James you've heard me and other Catholic church leaders
bring up these issues and address them from a perspective of faith. One
message you have heard from us is that as Christians, we are called to treat
others in the discussion of these issues with dignity and respect even when we
do not agree. And
in living out the spirit of the Eucharist in the world, probably one of the
most difficult situations we are faced with is trying to love someone in the
sense of Christian fraternal love when the other person does not return that
same sense of love and respect. If we
know that the other person does not wish us well, it is easy to carry ill will in
our hearts. One
of the hardness things we are called to do in our lives is to love someone who
doesn’t love us, to forgive someone when they don’t think they have done us
wrong. In
the spirit of the Eucharist that Christ invites us to receive in our lives,
Pope Francis asserts that we are to oppose anger and ill will with good will
and pardon, with sharing and welcome. The
spirit of the Eucharist is a spirit of charity, a spirit of giving hope to the
disheartened and giving a welcome to the excluded.
As I thought about the message that we hear
from the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel, I thought about the way I am
living out the Eucharist in my life as a priest. And I think all of us, no matter who we are
and where we are on our journey of faith, can look into our hearts and see the
ways the Eucharist is calling us to transformation and renew on our road of
discipleship. But
we called to do more than ponder and reflect upon it – how is the Eucharist
really transforming and converting us?
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