1. God Provides Food
2 The Meagre Gifts of a Little Boy
3. He Took Bread and Gave Thanks
Introduction by the Celebrant
1. God Provides Food
The traditional sign in the scriptures that God loves us and cares for us is that he provides food for his people, usually bread, the staple food in much of the world. Can we believe this when so many go hungry? Let us first ask ourselves whether food is lacking or the distribution and sharing are bad. The bread of the Bible stands not only for food for the body but also for God’s word, love, concern and presence. The most profound of these signs of God’s care is the Eucharist in which Jesus keeps giving himself as our food and drink for the road of life. Let us give thanks to the Father with Jesus this great gift
. 2. The Meagre Gifts of A Little Boy
Who are we in the eyes of God? What can God do with us? After all, we are no more than little people in a vast world. Today’s liturgy shows us that God can do very much through us and with the little we have to give. When we give to him our time, our life, our talents and the little we can do, he turns them into blessings for many. He can do great things with us, but we have to put them at his disposal. The Gospel shows us what Jesus could do to satisfy the needs of a large crowd with the meagre gifts of a little boy. We ask the Lord to make us generous with the little we have.
1. He Took Bread and Gave Thanks
Whenever Christians come to the Eucharist they hear what Jesus did for people. He took bread, gave thanks, and gave the bread to those present, saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is I myself giving myself to you.” We hear in today’s Gospel that one day Jesus gave food to a hungry crowd. He is the one who can appease the hungers of all people of our earth. He wants us to share him with all and, like our Lord, to share ourselves too with one another. Ask him in this Eucharist to teach us how.
First Reading: Bread for the Poor
In a time of famine the prophet Elisha orders bread destined for a religious offering to be given to the hungry poor. As there is not enough, God sees to it that there is more than needed to satisfy all.
1 Reading 2 Kings 4:42-44
A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God,
twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits,
and fresh grain in the ear.
Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.”
But his servant objected,
“How can I set this before a hundred people?”
Elisha insisted, “Give it to the people to eat.”
“For thus says the LORD,
‘They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'”
And when they had eaten, there was some left over,
as the LORD had said.
Responsorial Psalm 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
R. (cf. 16) The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due season;
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs
Second Reading: One People, for God Is One
The apostle Paul exhorts the Christian community to be one. Our unity bears witness to the Trinity, which is the source and model of all unity.
2 Reading Ephesians 4:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
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.
Alleluia Luke 7:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has risen in our midst.
God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Bread for the Hungry
Jesus reveals himself in the multiplication as the giver of bread to the hungry. He will use this sign later to reveal himself as the bread of life in the Eucharist.
Gospel 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.
Commentary
In John’s gospel there is no account of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Instead, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, and said, equivalently, “Do this in memory of me.” It is like another communion. Without that communion, which is the service of others, the communion of the Eucharist is robbed of its fruit in one’s life. But scholars see in John 6 (today’s gospel reading) a Eucharistic reference. It throws a different kind of light on the Eucharist. When we come to Mass we sit anywhere. This may seem a small thing, but it has deep significance. There are no privileged places. We come in simplicity of heart, as God’s children. We are addressed in the Liturgy and by the celebrant as one people. We hear and say and do the same things. For the moment we are a family, a community. We don’t often sit on the ground nowadays, and hardly ever at Mass, but we are those disciples in John 6, sitting on the ground, in humility and simplicity, sharing our poverty and (because of it) sharing the Lord’s gift.
Blessing
We have broken bread with the Lord.
This commits us to call on all human resources
to share with those in need
food, justice, culture and freedom.
He also invites us to break for all
the higher bread of the gospel,
which satisfies the deepest hungers
of every human heart.
May God strengthen and bless you for this task:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go, and share God’s love and gifts
with one another.
R/ Thanks be to God.