Sunday, July 28 2024
17rd Sunday During the Year – Year B

1st reading: 2 Kings 4,42-44
Psaume : 144 (145),10-11,15-16,17-18
2rd reading: Ephesians 4,1-6
Gospel: John 6,1-15

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For five Sundays, we interrupt the more or less continuous reading of the Gospel of Saint Mark to read almost in its entirety chapter 6 of Saint John, this long chapter which begins with the multiplication of the loaves and which will continue with the great discourse of the bread of life in the synagogue of Capernaum — in passing, it is perhaps good to take the time at one point or another to read this entire chapter.

From the Garden of Eden where there are a multitude of diverse trees whose fruit is beautiful to see and good to eat, to the messianic feast announced by the prophet Isaiah, “feast of fatty meat and heady wine” (Is 25,6) - this messianic feast where we will discover that it is God himself who gives himself as food -, through the abundance of food that there is in Egypt, through manna, food of misery in the desert, through the feasts that David or Solomon will offer on the occasion of the arrival of the Ark in Jerusalem or the construction of the Temple, through the multiplication of the loaves, through the Eucharist... the Bible is a great food story through and through. For what ? Because God is the Living One who gives life. To tell us about this life that God gives, the Bible shows us God who nourishes because we need food to live. And this food comes from God since everything we eat we find in Creation. This is why we bless God before taking our meal. 

But since God created everything and created everything through his Word, why does Jesus need something to feed this crowd? Couldn't he feed her starting from nothing, he by whom everything was made? 

Thérèse asks herself this question in another context, but her reflection is enlightening. It's in a letter to Céline, letter 135, where she says: Formerly Jesus said to his disciples […]: “The truth is that the harvest is plentiful but the number of workers is small; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers. » What a mystery!… Isn't Jesus all-powerful? are not the creatures his who made them? So why did Jesus say, “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers”? Why?… Ah! it is that Jesus has such an incomprehensible love for us that He wants us to share with him in the salvation of souls. He doesn't want to do anything without us.

We can analogously trace this discovery of Thérèse about the workers sent to the harvest to this multiplication of loaves. Why does Jesus ask for the cooperation of the apostles? Because he doesn't want to do anything without us. And he will welcome this paltry gift that this young boy makes: these five loaves and these two fish for this crowd of around 5000 men. He welcomes this paltry gift compared to what is at stake, because he does not want to do anything without us, because he wants to associate us with his work of salvation, because he wants us not only to be saved, but with him we may also be saviors, not by our own grace, but by the grace we receive from Christ. 

And as this young boy is going to let himself be given away his five loaves and two fish to entrust them to the Lord in a way that may appear crazy, - because in fact this gift is not up to what there is to achieve - the Lord expects us to bring to him what little we have so that he can associate us with his work. The Lord Jesus has such an incomprehensible love for us that he wants us to share with him in the salvation of souls. He doesn't want to do anything without us.Whether it is in the education of children, in catechesis, whether in charitable service to the poorest, whatever the field, Jesus expects us to bring him the little we have so that he can do it bear fruit and that we can contemplate his work with which he associates us. The multiplication of loaves is about feeding the crowd. It is earthly food that is in question, because Jesus, we see in other Gospels, taught the crowd who did not have time to eat; but it is also about food which is properly spiritual, that is to say the food which man needs as man. One of the things that distinguishes us from the animal world is that we need spiritual nourishment, that which nourishes the meaning of our existence, which allows us to answer these fundamental questions which inhabit us: Why does Do I exist? For what purpose do I exist? What is the meaning of my life ? Is there life after death? Is there a right way to die? etc. This spiritual life is nourished by multiple things: it is nourished by all the contribution of the reflection which precedes us, starting with the Greek philosophers, well before Jesus, all literature, not only French, but from all countries, the great writers who, through their reflections, their meditations, say something about the meaning of existence. We need this food and we also need Revelation and reading the Word of God. We need it as humans and we can't just scroll on a screen to watch videos that serve no purpose. We need to make time for this nourishment of the soul.

Thérèse will participate in nourishing the souls of her sisters when she finds herself in the position of quasi-mistress of the novices. And she has some very interesting pages where she finally reveals certain aspects of her pedagogy. It's in manuscript C around pages 20; she writes this — It’s Thérèse’s style, let’s not let that put us off: 

When it was given to me to enter the sanctuary of souls, I immediately saw that the task was beyond my strength, so I placed myself in the arms of the good Lord, like a little child and hiding my face. in her hair, I said to Him: Lord, I am too small to feed your children; if you want to give them through me what suits each one, fill my little hand and without leaving your arms, without turning your head, I will give your treasures to the soul who comes to ask me for food.

Story of a soul, Ms C 22

We find something analogous with this multiplication of loaves. What does Thérèse bring? She does not bring five loaves and two fish, but she brings her person, her conversion, her meditation on the Holy Scriptures, her experience of God and she brings all this to the Lord. But she understands that all this is insufficient. So she asks the Lord to make this bear fruit and thus to give her what she will be able to give in turn, just as the apostles will bring these five loaves and two fish and will receive from Jesus what they will give to the crowd. 

But let's note an interesting clarification; Thérèse says: without leaving your arms, without turning her head, that is to say, she remains in contemplation of the Lord. She remains in this intimate union with Jesus. And this is what the Lord expects of us: that we can bring to him all that we are, all that we have, that we can truly give ourselves to him as he gives himself to us in a spousal alliance. “This is my body delivered for you”… It is a question of responding by also wanting to deliver ourselves even in our body as Saint Paul will tell us in the Letter to the Romans: “I exhort you therefore, brothers, by the tenderness of God, to offer your body a living sacrifice, holy, able to please God: this is the right way for you to worship him” (Rom 12,1:XNUMX).

It is about giving ourselves entirely to him so that he can make this gift bear fruit and, while keeping eyes fixed on Jesus who is the origin and the end of our faith, says the letter to the Hebrews (12,2:XNUMX), we can give to our brothers what Jesus will give us for them. 

Yes, Jesus has such an incomprehensible love for us that he does not want to do anything without us.

Amen