Jul
27
2018
0
By Anonymous (not verified)
View the readings for this Sunday.
Sunday, July 29 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 KGS 4:42-44
PS 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
EPH 4:1-6
LK 7:16
Buy frequently used items in bulk? Stick to your grocery list? Only use coupons for things you need? Grow your own fruits and vegetables?
Smart little tricks like these can make your dollar at the grocery store go further. But no one can turn less into more like our heavenly Father, as we see in the readings this weekend.
Elisha's Miracle
In the first reading from 2 Kings, during the time of the prophet Elisha, the Israelites endure a famine. A man brings Elisha 20 barley loaves. Now, barley was cheap and likely baked into small loaves. But Elisha tells this man to give his small offering of bread to the 100 people present.
The man objects, stating the obvious fact that his 20 loaves could not provide nearly enough food for so many. Elisha, however, insists, "Give it to the people to eat. For thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and there shall be some left over'" (2 Kgs 4:43).
After they had eaten, there was, indeed, some left over. Elisha had performed a miracle.
Jesus' Miracle
Something similar, but more profound happens in the Gospel reading.
A crowd of around 5,000 traveled several miles, walking around the Sea of Galilee, to see Jesus.
Looking upon the crowd, Jesus tests the Apostle Philip, asking him where they could buy enough food for so many. Philip answers practically that it would take two hundred days of wages to buy enough for each person to have just a little. In other words, Philip thinks it would be impossible.
But the Apostle Andrew has a bit more faith. He notifies Jesus about a boy present who has five barley loaves and two fish (likely enough food for this boy alone, according to Scripture scholar William Barclay). Andrew qualifies the meagerness of his discovery, saying, "but what good are these for so many?" (Jn 6:9). He realized that what he presented in this child to Jesus did not mean much.
Still, something inside him believed that maybe this tiny bit of food could somehow make a difference.
The Lord took this little offering and revealed His great power with it, feeding all 5,000 people with 12 baskets left over. He fed many more than Elisha with even less.
Jesus does not consider how little we have to offer Him. He knows our poverty - He has watched us all our fickle lives, breaking our promises to Him and losing our patience with one another.
Like the Apostles, we have very little to give to Jesus. What we do have, on its own, could not do much good. But we must not wallow in our own poverty like Philip. We must follow Andrew's lead and have faith that Jesus, in His mercy, can take what little we do have and multiply it a thousand-fold.
As St. Faustina says in her Diary, "The knowledge of my own misery allows me, at the same time, to know the immensity of Your mercy. In my own interior life, I am looking with one eye at the abyss of my misery and baseness, and with the other, at the abyss of Your mercy, O God" (56).
We must not dwell too long on the shame of our poverty, but rather, on the glory and mercy of our heavenly Father. He can turn next to nothing into more than enough.
View the previous Sunday Scripture Preview.
Sunday, July 29 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 KGS 4:42-44
PS 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
EPH 4:1-6
LK 7:16
Buy frequently used items in bulk? Stick to your grocery list? Only use coupons for things you need? Grow your own fruits and vegetables?
Smart little tricks like these can make your dollar at the grocery store go further. But no one can turn less into more like our heavenly Father, as we see in the readings this weekend.
Elisha's Miracle
In the first reading from 2 Kings, during the time of the prophet Elisha, the Israelites endure a famine. A man brings Elisha 20 barley loaves. Now, barley was cheap and likely baked into small loaves. But Elisha tells this man to give his small offering of bread to the 100 people present.
The man objects, stating the obvious fact that his 20 loaves could not provide nearly enough food for so many. Elisha, however, insists, "Give it to the people to eat. For thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and there shall be some left over'" (2 Kgs 4:43).
After they had eaten, there was, indeed, some left over. Elisha had performed a miracle.
Jesus' Miracle
Something similar, but more profound happens in the Gospel reading.
A crowd of around 5,000 traveled several miles, walking around the Sea of Galilee, to see Jesus.
Looking upon the crowd, Jesus tests the Apostle Philip, asking him where they could buy enough food for so many. Philip answers practically that it would take two hundred days of wages to buy enough for each person to have just a little. In other words, Philip thinks it would be impossible.
But the Apostle Andrew has a bit more faith. He notifies Jesus about a boy present who has five barley loaves and two fish (likely enough food for this boy alone, according to Scripture scholar William Barclay). Andrew qualifies the meagerness of his discovery, saying, "but what good are these for so many?" (Jn 6:9). He realized that what he presented in this child to Jesus did not mean much.
Still, something inside him believed that maybe this tiny bit of food could somehow make a difference.
The Lord took this little offering and revealed His great power with it, feeding all 5,000 people with 12 baskets left over. He fed many more than Elisha with even less.
Jesus does not consider how little we have to offer Him. He knows our poverty - He has watched us all our fickle lives, breaking our promises to Him and losing our patience with one another.
Like the Apostles, we have very little to give to Jesus. What we do have, on its own, could not do much good. But we must not wallow in our own poverty like Philip. We must follow Andrew's lead and have faith that Jesus, in His mercy, can take what little we do have and multiply it a thousand-fold.
As St. Faustina says in her Diary, "The knowledge of my own misery allows me, at the same time, to know the immensity of Your mercy. In my own interior life, I am looking with one eye at the abyss of my misery and baseness, and with the other, at the abyss of Your mercy, O God" (56).
We must not dwell too long on the shame of our poverty, but rather, on the glory and mercy of our heavenly Father. He can turn next to nothing into more than enough.
View the previous Sunday Scripture Preview.
BCBB
