Gospel Reflection of 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 29th July 2018

Today we will reflect on the Gospel reading from John, where Jesus miraculously multiplies the five loaves and two fish, which is the humble offering of a young boy to feed five thousand men and their families.

In 2007, a young man in a baseball cap stood in Washington Union Station during the morning rush hour and played his violin.  He performed six classical pieces in 45 minutes as hundreds walked by.  People tossed into his violin case a total of $22.  The irony is that the night before, this young man called Joshua Bell, sold out Madison Square Garden at $100 a ticket.  He is widely acclaimed as one of the best violinists in the world.  Sadly, recent studies have shown that the majority of Catholics no longer attend Mass regularly.  They are like that rush hour pedestrian traffic in Union Station unaware of what they are really missing.

Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish, not just to feed hungry bellies but to prepare his listeners for an even greater miracle – the giving of His own Body and Blood for our true food in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  He wants to teach us by first drawing our attention to what is most immediate to us – food!  To fill and satisfy our hunger is a very real need, a need we all have, the most basic of all instincts.  And Jesus knows our natural hunger.  He Himself experienced it in His humanity.  But He wants to show us that spiritual hunger is even more fundamental.  Why?  Because as St. Augustine wrote in his confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You”.  God desires more than a relationship with us, He desires intimacy with us.  We can have relationships with all kinds of people. In fact, with social media and cell phones and video chats we can have relationships with people in distant places, but not intimacy.  Intimacy is different.  Intimacy can only be achieved when two people are truly present to one another.  The Church calls the Eucharist the ‘Sacrament of Love’ because Jesus has made Himself truly present to us.

A non-Catholic friend of mine said to me that at his church, they only get Communion once a month.  He then asked why us Catholics make such a big deal about Communion?  My response was simple – ‘If you only eat once a month, you are going to die!’.  Similarly, we will die spiritually without the life of Christ within us.  Jesus says, ‘Truly I say to you unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you’.  If we can agree that the goal of the Christian life is to be conformed to the image of Jesus, then it follows that Jesus’ Real Presence in the Eucharist would be the centre of our lives as Catholics.  In fact Catholics build beautiful cathedrals, tabernacles and adoration chapels because of the Real Presence.  Catholics use vestments, vessels, altars, candles, purificators, altar linens, kneelers because of the Real Presence.  Catholics have Eucharistic Processions and liturgical feasts because of the Real Presence.  Catholics go to confession, genuflect, bow and are obligated to attend Sunday Mass because of the Real Presence.  And Catholics put a consecrated host in a pix and bring it to the sick and home-bound because of the Real Presence.  Finally, Catholics celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day in parishes throughout the world because of the Real Presence.

Will you renew your love for Jesus in the Eucharist and visit Him in adoration this week?