Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 27th, 2024
Fr. John Paul's homily for this weekend
THEME: JESUS CHRIST IS THE BREAD OF LIFE; HE IS THE EARTHLY SPIRITUAL FOOD FOR ETERNAL LIFE.
God is love. We were created in God’s image and likeness because God loves us. God’s love for us is infinite. He gave us his love and called upon us to always love one another as he loved us first by creating us without any request given to him. He expressed his deep love for mankind by sending to the world his only begotten son Jesus Christ as savior of the world. Right down from creation up to today, God’s love for humanity has never stopped. He wishes everybody had his love and shared it with one another.
The first reading from the book of 2 Kings: 4: 42-44 has given us an example of a good man who remembered to express and extend God’s love to the prophet Elisha by bringing to him the first fruits of his harvests in the form of twenty barley loaves of bread. On reaching Gilgal he finds the Prophet Elisha having 100 people receiving prophecy from him but unfortunately almost dying of hunger as they had stayed for some days without food. He asked himself, ”What good are these twenty barley loaves of bread to give to all these people to eat?” The Prophet Elisha told the people to sit down. Elisha with faith, hope, and trust in God prayed to God and suddenly God made a miracle and multiplied the twenty loaves of bread and was able to feed the people. Afterwords he collected baskets of leftovers. God does not want his people to suffer and die of hunger and other worldly problems. He always intervenes in every hard unpredictable situation.
The gospel reading we have heard today is related to the first reading. In it, also we have Jesus Christ preaching to five thousand people who also had stayed for three days without food. Jesus Christ asked Philip where shall we buy bread to feed all these five thousand people to eat? He knew what to do but wanted to test Phillip’s faith in God. Simón Peter’s brother who was listening to the conversation replied there is a boy here who has five barley loaves of bread and two fish, but what are they to five thousand people who have spent three days without food? Jesus Christ told the Five thousand People to sit down and in thanksgiving prayed to God. The barley loaves suddenly multiplied, and Jesus Christ was able to feed five thousand people leaving many baskets of leftovers.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what is Jesus Christ teaching us today from the two miracles of the Multiplication of the bread in the First reading and the gospel? Jesus Christ is teaching us that whatever we receive as gifts from God and from one another, we should always give back to God and share with one another as the good man in the first reading and the young boy did by giving out freely the few loaves of bread God had given them, which were used by Jesus Christ to feed God’s hungry people. Jesus is saying always give out whatever God has given you as a gift on this earth. He will multiply it to do good for the entire People of God, and in response God will grant us abundant blessings.
The hungry people who had gathered to listen to the Prophesy of Elisha and divine teachings of Jesus Christ symbolize the world’s hungry People of God. Hungry for the word of God and other worldly human needs. What are doing to feed them?
The prophets in the Old Testament expressed their concern and love for the hungry and needy by multiplying bread and feeding them. In the New Testament on Holy Thursday, Jesus expressed his abundant love by changing the bread and wine into his body and blood so that whoever believes in him and takes his body and blood has eternal life. He makes the sacrament of the Eucharist. And he makes the Eucharist the spiritual food on earth for eternal life.
The feeding of the 100 people by Elisha in the First reading and the feeding of the five thousand people by Jesus was a foretaste of the Holy Thursday Eucharist. He gives himself as the true bread that gives life and that whoever would receive him in truth would hunger no more as he would receive the spiritual food and bodily food.
Jesus is teaching us that he is both the true spiritual food for the world and eternal life. The three days the hungry people had spent listening to Jesus Christ’s teachings were days of repentance and forgiveness. We are reminded to prepare well before the reception of the Eucharist through the sacrament of Penance. The doors for the rooms of penance are always open. Let us always prepare well our hearts before receiving the Eucharist.
The people who had stayed for some days without food but listening to the teaching of Jesus Christ teach us that our life does not depend on food alone but on God and his word.
Finally, Jesus is asking us in this earthly life what do we hung for more? Is it dominion over others, Is it authority? Power? Riding in a yacht? Fine dining every day? For whatever we hunger, Jesus is saying always remember that He is the true bread of life and the earthly spiritual food that we should always hunger for.