Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Russian Billionaire Yuri Milner and the British Physicist Stephen Hawkins are putting their money and brains together. They have joined forces for one of the most tantalizing yet most elusive project –finding intelligent alien life. The price tag for this project? $100 million! Recently, NASA’s space probe “New Horizons” flew by just 12,500 km (7,800 miles) away from Pluto. The probe took 9 years and travelled almost 3 billion miles to get to Pluto. This mission cost about $900 million. Just this week NASA’s $600 million Kepler mission has revealed an earth-like planet whose distance from its sun is the same as the earth’s distance from our sun. I get very excited about news like this. I am no scientist but I understand the significance of such missions. It is in our nature to probe the mysteries that surround us and it advances science However, here are a few other pieces of information that could leave us wondering. Feeding America, a network of food banks in the Unites States, tells us that just in the United States, 16 million children face hunger on a daily basis. It also tells us that 84% of its clients with children purchased the cheapest food available even if they knew it wasn’t the healthiest option. The world hunger scene is even more critical. As I said earlier, I am not against us trying to find alien life in the universe. But it is puzzling that we cannot solve the hunger problem here on earth.
We can approach the miracle of the multiplication of loaves from many perspectives. The best place to begin is last week’s gospel. In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus “saw the vast crowd and his heart was moved with compassion for them…” (Mk 6:34). Even though he was exhausted, Jesus began to teach them. In today’s gospel reading, the same compassion that led Jesus to teach the crowds also made him think about their physical need. Jesus’ question, “Where can we find enough food?” left the disciples perplexed. The answer to this question was not found in outer space. A God with a compassionate heart and a little boy with a little food solved the problem that day.
There and three things we can learn from the story of the multiplication of loaves.
a) What is this miracle really about? This miracle can be understood on so many levels. We can reflect upon this miracle as the proof of the divinity of Jesus, or as prefiguring the Eucharist. How about we understand this miracle as an insight into the abundance and generosity of God? It is in God’s nature to give. It is in God’s nature to be generous. God fed the Israelites in the desert, quenched their thirst, gave them a homeland and gave them a new beginning. There is nothing God holds back from God’s people, not even his Son. Similarly, the miracle of the multiplication of loaves is an insight into the heart of Jesus. This miracle begins in the heart of Jesus and it will end on the cross. And before that awful death on the cross he would take bread one more time, say “This is my body,” and ask his disciples to do this in “memory of me.” And this time, the bread would feed not just five thousand people but generations and generations of people including each of us today. Today, we will leave this church a forgiven, healed, restored, fed and loved people – all because of the generosity of God.
b) Imitating the generosity of God. Having reflected on the compassion and generosity of God, there is yet another element yet to be reflected upon – the little boy. The God who created the world from nothing could also have created bread for five thousand people. But that is not how the story goes. A little boy brought his five loaves and two fish and gave it to Jesus. He did not keep any for himself or give half of his food to Jesus. No, he gave it all to Jesus. Christ recognizes this because very soon he would give all he had on the cross. On that day, in his little way, this boy’s generosity matched the generosity and abundance of God. And that is the key for a Christian - that we strive to match the generosity of God. Perhaps Paul’s words in today’s second reading can be helpful for us. Paul says, “I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love.” Our generosity with material things must begin with an internal disposition. Just as Christ’s compassion for the crowd led him to multiply the loaves, our humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love, will make our generous with material things. May our compassion and generosity match the little boy in today’s gospel. May we imitate Christ in his compassion.
c) Two kinds of Generosity. In my introduction to this homily I pointed out the dichotomy between searching for alien life and dealing with human needs here on earth. Similarly, there can be a dichotomy in our generosity. In other words, sometimes our generosity can be fueled by selfishness. Let me explain. When I first came to the US a worked in a parish in St. Louis, I remember a deacon telling me that he was helping at the mother Teresa soup kitchen because this was his passport to heaven. This is very different from Jesus’ actions. Last weeks readings told us that Jesus and his disciples were exhausted. But the human needs trumped their own need. Both the multiplication of loaves and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross are based on genuine human needs. God did not save us because God wanted to feel good about God’s self but rather God saved us because we needed to be saved. As a pastor, I have to constantly remind myself that my generosity and charity are not about me but about the genuine needs of the people. And sometimes, the needs of the people may not be where I feel good. But I constantly battle this dichotomy.
As we celebrate this Eucharist, let us thank God for continuing to feed us and provide for our needs.
- Fr. Satish