The 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 28, 2024

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.

For the next four Sundays (making five consecutive Sundays altogether) the Gospel Reading will be taken from the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John.  Because of this arrangement in the Lectionary we will be able to study in detail the words and events related to the Lord’s feeding of the five thousand And his revelation of his Body as the Bread of Life.  It is profitable and necessary for us to do this because the mystery of the Lord’s Body and Blood lies at the very center of our Catholic Faith.

The feeding of the five thousand occurred in the months just before the Lord’s Death on the Cross, a fact which ought to be borne in mind when we read his subsequent words on his Body and Blood, and how the he gives these to us to be consumed so that we might have eternal life.

“Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”  St. John tells us the Lord asked Philip this question in order to “test” him, that is, to teach him by drawing the correct answer from him, step by step.  This was a standard pedagogical method at that time.  John only gives us the first step with Philip, but we can assume from what follows that Jesus did not get the answer he wanted from him.  Next, the Lord tested Andrew, who does better: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”  Andrew follows the Lord’s question with a suggestion, as the method required.  The Lord approves of his answer and so tells him, “Have the people recline.”  That is, not sit, but recline — the posture for eating in those days.  And this was possible because “there was a great deal of grass in that place.”

“Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them.”  He gives thanks to the Father in order to teach us to give thanks for the earthly food as well as the spiritual food we receive from him, which the bread signifies.  He distributed the bread and the dried fish through the Apostles, allowing them to share in his work of feeding the multitude.  “They collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.”  The amount of food leftover far surpassed the original five loaves and two fish.  The people realized that this was a sign, and they decided that the sign indicated that Jesus was the new Moses, who fed the Hebrews in the Sinai wilderness with manna from heaven.  This new Moses was the longed-for Messiah who would literally fulfill the prophecy of Psalm 2, 4-6: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them [the kings of the earth] in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.’ ” 

“They were going to come and carry him off to make him king.”  The people did not ask the Lord for the meaning of the sign.  They decide on their own, priding themselves that they were able to do this.  The Lord gave them ample time for them to ask, but they do not avail themselves of the opportunity.  Instead, they decide to acclaim him as their king and march with him to Jerusalem.  The Lord does not forcibly prevent them from doing this but conceals himself and then departs secretly by way of the sea.  They do not want to be taught, for they have made up their minds, but he will let them cool down and then teach them.  And then they will reject the One who gave the sign, the only one who could explain it.