2015/07/26 - Homily - 17th ord. Sunday

Imprimer

Jesus is incredible!
He makes the miracle of the loaves of bread.
Finally, for him it was so easy to do it.
He was as a great prophet and so was able to do it.
In the past, a prophet Elijah after his meeting with the widow in Zarephath made them not run out of flour for many days.
Why did Jesus do it in his own way without, following the long list of the prophets, their words and deeds.

 

But with Jesus one is never sure of what could be done.
Often, he is so unpredictable.
As in today’s Gospel.


He wants to improve the faith of his disciples.
He asks them how to feed so many people? 
He knows why, but they don’t know.


Jesus, did  a such great miracle in order to show how to stay steady in trust to God.
But it couldn`t be enough if He had stopped to show about such trust.
In fact, Jesus` miracle of the multiplication of the   bread was a first stage of it.
The second one was his teaching about the meaning of this particular miracle.
He is the bread of Life.
Chocking for so many people, he knew what he made.
In our Christian lives we are often looking for simple faith.
We need to believe what is necessary to fill our earthly life by doing good things.
Good things for our happiness, and the happiness of our children.
Indeed there is nothing there against the Christian faith.
Our faith means living in happiness with God and this good news starts right at our baptism. 
The people around him seeing so great a thing done with the bread and so many others done before,
are on the verge of proclaiming him king. Last Sunday we saw that Jesus` target was  how to be  a good shepherd for the people who seemed lost were looking for somebody able to lead them. The answer was the leader must be as a good shepherd for his flock.
Today we hear what the people would do if there were a king to lead them.
Jesus as bread, it is Jesus as a servant and not as someone unpowered by some super natural power to lead his people in the political field.

 
But when Jesus later will say I am a bread of life,
Something strange is coming to fill our sensitive mind.
How it is possible, it is surely too much!
His own body meaning his own life, his whole mission on earth concentrated in such a few words: I am the bread of life??
The supreme level of his teaching will be revealed on the Cross, when He will abandon, give up own life for us.
Surely it sounds as too much to hear, but it was reality? and it continues.
Jesus gives his own life, his whole Love coming from God for now and forever.
Is it really too much? Or it is enough to stop and consider the multiplication of the bread is just a way to  fill up the stomach and eventually finds out  how to receive  such profit for our whole earthly life.


In fact, Jesus asks us to believe to something which appears as unbelievable.
God through Jesus may provide us with the good food we need.
What is it? The good food for us is given in the spiritual meaning of course, but not only
I think it is also for our body .But this is only possible through a deep relationship with Him  for example, when    we try to do all our best to provide the right nourishment both for our body and for our spirit.