Current Homilies for Fr.
C.P. Jones, O.P. and Fr. Bernard L. Keitz, O.P.
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Homily for OT XVIII 08
August 3, 2008
C.P. Jones, OP
Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21
Something in the tellingof
this great miracle of Our Lord feeding more than 5000 people with f
ive
loaves of bread shows us that an even greater mystery is being signified,
and that is when it says that Jesus looking
up to heaven,…said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them
to the disciples. The words are nearly identical to those that Matthew
uses to describe Jesus instituting the Eucharist at the Last Supper: Jesus
took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and
said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body. [Mt. 26:26]
So it appears that here, in this miracle of feeding a multitude, and in
another one that follows in the next chapter of St. Matthew’s gospel
[Mt. 15:32-39], Our Lord’s institution of the Eucharist is being
signified. Indeed, there are four details in chapters 14 to 17 of Matthew’s
gospel that foreshadow the entire story of the passion, death and resurrection
of Jesus.
First, the narrative begins in chapter 14 with Jesus learning of the death
of John the Baptist, prompting him to withdraw to a lonely place apart, no
doubt to think and pray about his own impending death. [Mt. 14:1-13]
Second, after the first feeding of the multitude, there is the remarkable occurrence of the disciples seeing Jesus walking on the sea of Galilee at night, and thinking that they were seeing a ghost, just as they would when Jesus met them in his resurrection. [Mt. 14:22-33]
Third, after the second feeding of the multitude, there is Peter’s profession of faith in Jesus as the Son of God, followed by Our Lord’s prediction of his passion, and his call to his disciples to follow him on the way of the cross. [Mt. 16:13-28]
Finally, at the beginning of chapter 17, there is the disciples’ vision of Our Lord transfigured, his face shining like the sun, and his garments…white as light, foreshadowing (again) his resurrection. [Mt. 17:1-13]
In the whole scope of St. Matthew’s gospel story, these prophetic events mark the turning-point between Our Lord’s ministry in Galilee, and his final journey to Jerusalem. One can only imagine the wonder and dread of the disciples as they moved with Jesus to the awesome culmination of their life with him. He was trying to prepare them for it, but he knew that they would not be ready for his cross, much less for his resurrection.
When he met them in his resurrection, Jesus would remind his disciples of all these significant things that had happened back at this turning-point of their life with him, events that were prophetic of its awesome culmination. This would have consoled them very much, to know that everything had gone according to the plan of God; but most of all, I think they would have been consoled—and mightily encouraged—by recalling the two great miracles of Jesus feeding multitudes through them, with the meager fare they had to offer him.
These great miracles of Jesus feeding multitudes, you see, foreshadowed the disciples’ life with Jesus continuing beyond his death and resurrection; these miracles signified the mystery of their Lord’s presence with them, and with the world through them, in the Holy Eucharist.
At the Last Supper, Jesus had commanded his apostles, Do this—that is, take, bless, break and distribute the bread that is my body—in remembrance of me. Each fragment of that bread was to contain him wholly—body, soul, manhood and divinity, Jesus Christ the Lord of all, giving all he is as food to all humanity, the bread of life, the fullness of eternal life with God. What multitudes have fed upon that living bread, the bread of heaven, and will feed upon him to the end of time! In the Eucharist, Jesus fulfills his promise: I am with you always, to the end of time. [Mt. 28:20, the last verse of the gospel]
As the disciples of Jesus looked back on these great miracles of feeding multitudes, from the perspective of his resurrection, the Eucharist would not have been the only thing the miracles signified. There is one detail that would have most consoled, and most encouraged them: that is, that their Lord had taken what little they had to offer him, their five or seven loaves of bread, and multiplied it almost infinitely. There was really no proportion between what they brought to give the Lord and what he was able to make of it. His disciples knew that Jesus was asking for all they had, little as it was. And what that signified to them (to us as well) is that the Lord can spread his kingdom, and indeed transform the world, through anything we offer him—if we give him all we are and have.
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY
A
3 AUGUST 2008
Fr. Bernard L. Keitz, O.P.
I’d like to begin with a confession: I love to eat. No doubt you
suspected that. Probably most of you are just like me: we love to eat.
People who love to eat find happy reading in the Bible.
Have you ever noticed how basic and important eating and drinking are in
the Bible?
Take the Gospels. There’s the Last Supper. Jesus eating in
Galilee –
with sinners and tax collectors, with his disciples, in the homes of Pharisees,
at the wedding feast of Cana. In Judea, in the house of Martha and Mary.
Jesus eating with his disciples after the resurrection: at Emmaus, “They
knew him in the breaking of bread.”
Six times the four Gospels record Jesus’ miracle of feeding the
hungry crowd with a few loaves and fish. In our Gospel reading today,
we just heard one of these multiplication stories from St. Matthew.
Think of the Old Testament – the Passover meal in Exodus,
the manna and quail sent from heaven, the covenental banquet on Mount Sinai.
Heaven itself is portrayed as a banquet. We heard this in today’s
first reading from Isaiah. God’s kingdom will be a festive
meal where everybody from the East and the West will sit at the table
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Isaiah tells us that all this food and
drink will be free: God’s free gift to us.
“You who have no money: come, receive grain and wheat.
Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk.”
With so much emphasis in the Scriptures on eating and drinking, it should
be no surprise that the central act of Christian worship is a
meal: THIS MEAL: the MASS, the EUCHARIST.
If someone were to ask: “Why do you go to church on Sunday?”,
a perfectly good answer would be: “I go to eat.”
Here in the sacred banquet of the Eucharist, our food and our drink,
our bread and our wine, are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ himself,
marvelously, mysteriously, sacramentally multiplied and distributed so
that each of us can have our fill.
Eating the Food which is Christ Himself – receiving Holy Communion –
is the peak experience of Christian joy.
We who have the privilege of distributing Holy Communion – the
priests and deacons and the Eucharistic ministers – have a unique
kind of religious experience. We are able to look directly into the faces
of those who come forward to receive the Eucharist. Most people show – by
the look in their faces, by the expression in their eyes, by their gestures
of reverence and devotion – that this act of Communion with Christ
is for them a supreme moment of consecration.
They show that they realize that partaking in the Eucharist is the most
sacred thing that we ever do; that here, in this bread which is Jesus
himself, is our deepest source of fulfillment and happiness.
At every meal there is food and drink. Often, too, there is service.
Biblical scholars who comment on Matthew’s Gospel find something
distinctive in his version of the multiplication of the loaves and fish.
Matthew seems concerned to underline the role of the disciples as ministers
in the miraculous meal. According to Matthew, the disciples
bring the bread and fish to Jesus. Then:
“He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to
heaven,
blessed and broke them and gave the loaves to the disciples,
who then in turn gave them to the people."
We recognize that the ministers of the Eucharist – the deacon,
the priest, the bishop, the special Eucharistic ministers – have
an important role in the sacramental meal. But we must never forget that
it is Jesus Christ Himself, the Eternal High Priest, whose action
alone effects the Eucharist.
The Mass is not mine; it does not belong to me or to any earthly priest
who celebrates. It is not my Mass, it is Christ’s. We
are privileged to act as ministers – servants, helpers, instruments,
like the disciples who distributed the loaves and fish.
It is Jesus Christ who is the host, the source, the provider, the real
celebrant, and the food in this sacramental meal which is the Eucharist.
When we receive the gift of Christ in Holy Communion, how joyful we should
be, how thankful we should be.
