GOSPEL READING:
Mark 8:1-101 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him, and said to them, 2 "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; 3 and if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come a long way." 4 And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these men with bread here in the desert?" 5 And he asked them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven."6 And he commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish; and having blessed them, he commanded that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate, and were satisfied; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people.10 And he sent them away; and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples, and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
Meditation: Can anything on earth truly satisfy the hunger
we experience for God? The enormous crowd that pressed upon Jesus
for three days were hungry for something more than physical food.
They hung upon Jesus' words because they were hungry for God. When
the disciples were confronted by Jesus with the task of feeding
four thousand people many miles away from any source of food, they
exclaimed: Where in this remote place can anyone get enough
bread to feed them? The Israelites were confronted with the
same dilemma when they fled Egypt and found themselves in a barren
wilderness.
Like the miraculous provision of manna in the wilderness, Jesus,
himself provides bread in abundance for the hungry crowd who came
out into the desert to seek him. The Gospel records that all were
satisfied and they took up what was leftover. When God gives he
gives abundantly - more than we deserve and more than we need so
that we may have something to share with others as well. The Lord
Jesus nourishes and sustains us with his life-giving word and with
his heavenly bread.
Jesus nourishes us with the true bread of heaven
The sign of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says
the blessing, breaks and distributes through his disciples,
prefigures the superabundance of the unique bread of his Eucharist
or Lord's Supper. When we receive from the Lord's table we unite
ourselves to Jesus Christ, who makes us sharers in his body and
blood. Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 A.D.)
calls it the "one bread that provides the medicine of immortality,
the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever
in Jesus Christ" (Ad Eph. 20,2). This supernatural food is
healing for both body and soul and strength for our journey
heavenward.
When you approach the Table of the Lord, what do you expect to
receive? Healing, pardon, comfort, and refreshment for your soul?
The Lord has much more for us, more than we can ask or imagine.
The principal fruit of receiving from the Lord's Table is an
intimate union with Christ himself. As bodily nourishment restores
lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens us in charity and
enables us to break with disordered attachments to creatures and
to be more firmly rooted in the love of Christ. Do you hunger for
Jesus, the true "bread of life"?
Lord Jesus, you alone can satisfy the hunger in our lives. Fill me with grateful joy and eager longing for the true heavenly bread which gives health, strength, and wholeness to body and soul alike.
Psalm 106:4,6-7, 19-22
4 Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people; help me when you deliver them;
6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wonderful works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.
19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image.
20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Breaking the bread of God's Word, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"In expounding to you the Holy Scriptures, I as it were break
bread for you. If you hunger to receive it, your heart will sing
out with the fullness of praise (Psalm 138:1). If you are thus
made rich in your banquet, be not meager in good works and deeds.
What I am distributing to you is not my own. What you eat, I eat;
what you live upon, I live upon. We have in heaven a common
store-house - from it comes the Word of God." (excerpt from
SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 45.1)
