Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
† Sunday 30th July 2000
Theme: Jesus - feeds us with word and sacrament

A reading from the second Book of Kings 4 : 42 - 44
This event takes place while there is a famine in the country of Gilgal.The Prophet Elisha - the man of God - commands his servant to feed the multitude with “the bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves.”. Elisha’s remark, “They will eat and have some left over,” serves to underline the importance of Elisha’s action, he is the ‘man of God’ who reveals the generosity of God. The people are invited to listen with particular attention to the message the prophet brings from God. This passage is clearly an inspiration for the event recorded in the gospel reading today, when Jesus too feeds the multitude.

Letter of Paul to the Ephesians: 4 : 1 - 6
In an earlier part of this letter, Paul has set out the unity of all peoples under the rule of Christ. Now Paul turns his attention to the need for unity within the Christian community itself. Reminding us of the fundamental union Jesus’ disciples have in virtue of the one Spirit they share, he reminds Christians of their God given vocation to, “preserve the unity of the Spirit...there is One Lord, One faith, One baptism, and One God who is Father of all.”

The Gospel according to John 6: 1 - 15
We may I think, assume that many of the witnesses to the Feeding of Multitude, will have been familiar with the event described in the first reading where the prophet Elisha fed the crowd. The evangelist, John in this case, uses many words in the text which point to the Eucharist.We can get some idea of the magnitude of this multiplication of the loaves when we understand the statement from Philip, “Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.” For this amount of money might equate to eight months wages. While Jesus, is the one who earlier in the gospel provides “living water,” here Jesus is the one gives the living bread, and does so so abundantly, that “they filled twelve hampers from the scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves.”. This miracle event is meant, I believe, to authenticate for the crowd, and for us too, the teaching of Jesus as the one sent from God. The fact that people even then misunderstood the sign and thought to make Jesus king, only underlines the real meaning of this event for the true disciple.
© Peter Harrison 2000