And his mom said, that s good Johnny what kind of interesting things? And the boy said, we learned how to make babies

Transcription

1 MDP of God 17 th B There s the story of a little boy who was in 2 nd grade and he came home from school one day And he said to his mom, Boy we really learned some interesting things in school today And his mom said, that s good Johnny what kind of interesting things? And the boy said, we learned how to make babies The mother immediately stopped what she was doing. A feeling of panic came over her She thought I must not have heard that right She said, What did you learn in school? He said we learned how to make babies The mother didn t know how to react. She felt rage that the innocence of her little boy was violated. She was confused, why would they talk about that to 2 nd grader? She felt feelings of anger and sadness rage and panic all rolled together She finally pulled herself together enough to say, Johnny what exactly did they teach you? And he said, Well to make babies you drop they Y and add ies The mother obviously misunderstood what was being said to her by her little boy And the fact is, our reading today from John s gospel is also misunderstood a lot today and I m going to get to that misunderstanding in a couple of minutes But first, I just want to give a little background on this gospel In our Gospel today we heard from what is known as "The Bread of Life" discourse This is from St. John's Gospel, chapter 6

2 For us Catholics, this chapter of the bible teaches one of the most fundamental beliefs of our faith - that Jesus is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Blessed Sacrament As Vatican II said, the celebration of the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith - it's the source and summit because the Eucharist is Jesus who is the beginning and the end the first and the last- the alpha and omega of our faith Our faith begins and ends with Jesus - and as we celebrate the Mass, we are mystically participating in the saving work of Jesus [His suffering, death and Resurrection] So today, we heard the beginning of the Bread of Life discourse, and for the next five weeks, this teaching of Jesus will continue in our Gospel readings And so in today's gospel, we heard how Jesus miraculously fed His followers when they were in need This is meant to prefigure the miraculous food Jesus will give His disciples throughout the ages. ^^^ The Bread from heaven that we receive in the Holy Eucharist - the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus I'd like to first of all, invite all of you to reflect on this incredible truth in a very special way over these next six weeks Read - reread and read again John chapter 6 Pray over these verses - reflect on them - this would be an especially good time to visit the adoration chapel [sign up for and hour of prayer before Jesus]- to perhaps try to get to daily Mass a few times a week if that's possible for you Just kind of soak in these readings that talk about the pinnacle of our faith. Secondly, I just want to warn you that there are people these days who are trying to explain away God's Word that s why I started with that story about misunderstanding 2

3 There are people today who try to explain away the miracles of Jesus and also try to explain away the plain teaching that Jesus gives us in the Bread of Life discourse [ the Real Presence- b,b, s.di] And so these next few weeks, we'll be reflecting on the Jesus' gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist - the greatest - the most precious - the most incredible gift that is possible for God to give us in this life But today I want to comment on how people try to explain away this miracle of Jesus that we just heard in this gospel. What some will try to do as they look at this gospel, and this unfortunately is done by theologians, some bishops, priests, deacons, and nuns. And what they'll argue is that this was really a miracle of sharing. And they'll argue that what really happened, is that many of the people had food with them, but there were many who didn't have food. They were in an out of the way place, and so those with food would of course want to make sure that they had enough to eat, and wouldn't be inclined to share what they had with others. Evidently they had asked if people had any food, and the only one who came forward was one little boy - in this scenario everyone else looked around at all the hungry people around them - and said, "No I don't have any food." [hogging it for themselves] And so in this scenario, they argue that Jesus got them to sit down in groups - and those who had food - shared with those who didn't - and they had plenty of food, with twelve baskets left over. [Hold that for a second CS Lewis well educated people are more prone to propaganda then people who aren t well educated- think of themselves in the know- insightful deeper understandings then others] Many of you remember the story of the Emperor s New Clothes when the conman told the king and others that ignorant, unsophisticated people could not see the clothes so everyone was saying how beautiful the Emperor s new clothes were until one little boy blurted out, But he s not wearing anything - and the lie was recognized 3

4 Well for a lot of people today they are like those who claimed to see the Emperor s clothes- in their minds they are sophisticated- and insightful- and basically explain away the bible Now, you really have to have a lot of education - in fact you would have to have all your common sense educated out of you - to buy such nonsense When I hear that idea I can't help but think of Fr. O'Boyle (God rest him). Fr. O'Boyle used to say, "The problem in the world today is that too many people are educated beyond their intelligence." It would seem to me that the only reason this ridiculous attempt to explain away God's Word has had such play in the Church is because of human pride There are people who basically like thinking of themselves as avante garde They like to see themselves as on the cutting edge - the ones who are really insightful - the ones who have such a deeper understanding than the average run of the mill hoy paloy So if you were to say to someone who holds that view that what Jesus really did was to get people to share, that you think He really did multiply the loaves- often you'll receive a condescending look which basically says, "You poor uneducated peon. You obviously don't have the deep insight - the more complete understanding of the bible - the in depth knowledge that we who are educated have - you obviously are not in the know, not on the cutting edge." I'd like to draw your attention to the end of this Gospel story - when the people say, "This must be the Prophet [Prophet like unto Moses..] the one who is to come. Since Jesus knew they would come to make Him King, He withdrew to the mountain alone. Now remember these people were under the rule of the Romans - one of the most brutal empires in the history of the world. When conquered people tried to make someone else king besides Caesar or his puppets {like Herod) they didn't get a real warm fuzzy response. 4

5 In fact the response to what the Romans would view as insurrection or rebellion, was brutal and devastating Those involved would be crucified on a cross - their families would likely be killed or at the very least sold into slavery. Their homes destroyed. So just imagine people living under the Romans saying, "Oh Jesus, you got us to share - we want you to be our king. If you were able to get us to share, then you'll certainly be able to get the Romans to be nice - voluntarily give us our freedom and leave our country. Because you got us to share." That sounds really feasible right?!? - Sure My friends, the reason I spent so much time on that idea, is because those who explain away the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, will then oftentimes go on to explain away the miracle of the Eucharist Sadly polls indicate that a large percentage of Catholics don't believe in the Real Presence. Don't believe that Jesus is really present, body, blood, soul and divinity. And that He gives the very gift of Himself to us - because if they did believe they wouldn't consider not coming to this feast that Jesus has provided for us. If people really believed they would never dream of leaving the Catholic Church that has been entrusted with this precious gift, and leaving for some other church that rejects the clear teaching of Jesus in John's gospel [not to mention- Matt, Luke, Mark and 1 Corinthians] This miracle of the multiplication of the loaves is meant to prefigure the great miracle of Jesus throughout the ages of Jesus feeding us with the true bread from heaven, the Holy Eucharist. I want you to notice that there are twelve baskets of food left over. Now there are twelve tribes of Israel in the Old Testament The New Testament tells us that the Church is the "Israel of God" - and the Church is built on the foundation of the twelve apostles. What a coincidence that there are twelve baskets of food left over 5

6 It of course, is no coincidence at all In fact Jesus says, "Gather the fragments left over so that nothing will be wasted." One basket for each Apostle - and evidently they were to use this miraculous food to feed others, ^^^^. This is John symbolically saying that it is the Apostles and their successors who Jesus has entrusted this miraculous bread to, to be distributed. It is the Bishops and priests of the Church who today are entrusted with feeding Jesus' disciples with this bread from heaven. One last point I d like to make our 2 nd reading today gives us great insight into God s plan In our 2 nd reading from Ehephians St Paul speaks of unity of oneness that unity and oneness ar at the heart of God s plan in saving us St Paul said: I, a prisoner for the Lord, 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, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. You think Paul is trying to make a point about oneness? About unity? It s central to God s plan and one of the primary ways Jesus provides the power of unity is through His own Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist My friends, these next several weeks as we reflect on the Bread of Life discourselet s open the eyes of our hearts to recognize that Jesus is not done doing miracles for His people Every time we come to Mass we see a miracle Every time we receive communion we participate in a miracle The miracle of changing bread and wine into His very self the miracle of feeding us His faithful people with Bread from heaven the miracle of making us one in His Holy Body 6