The meal as an encounter.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time year B
Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd

Turkey, cranberry sauce, pumkin pies, and sweet potatoes? Mmmh! Friends can you guess what I am thinking about?

Food is such an integral part of our lives as humans. We need it for nourishment and energy,
but unlike animals, for humans, food is also a means to an end and not just the end itself.

You all might remember the famous scene from the movie, Lady and the Tramp, where Tramp offers Lady the last meatball and a shared piece of spaghetti becomes an occasion for a kiss.

Living with Fr. Sullivan, or rather should I say, living with his golden retriever Mave I know for a fact that dogs don’t share this unique human ability to make food an occasion for communion. Mave has a one track mind when it comes too food: MORE!! Give me More! But as people, we often eat for more profound reasons!

Think about all the occasions that are touchstones in our lives that focus on food: 1st dates, weddings, birthdays, baptisms

For most of us, the shared meal, no matter how good, or bad, it is, is only an excuse to be with the ones we love and share fellowship with them! This is why Jesus chooses food and drink to be the center and heart of the Faith He reveals to the Apostles, and to us.

John’s famous 6th chapter on the Eucharist. Begins today with the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. In the Gospel today Jesus starts, as always, with what we know, and then uses the things of this world to point us toward the mysteries of God, to what lies beyond!

Jesus goes off with His Apostles to a secluded place to rest a while, but the people don’t let Him get away, realizing they had found something special in Jesus.

They follow Him, and so He sits down among them and begins to teach them. He begins to reveal the word of God to them to reveal, Himself, who He is, and who God is for us. And the people are captivated by Him, so much so that they go all day without eating.

Naturally they finally get hungry, and so in the midst of this encounter with Jesus! The Word of God, which has been feeding them spiritually feeds them physically, with a food, that seems to come from nowhere, so that we can prolong this experience, this encounter with God!

Notice how closely this multiplication of the loaves resembles the Mass, which is the perpetual celebration of the Eucharist! This is no accident, because the Mass has always been at the center of our faith. It is a singular key to interpreting scripture

Jesus starts His public life by turning water to wine, and today He ends this first part of His public life by feeding thousands with a few loaves. This miracle and the subsequent teaching about the bread of life marks a turning point in John’s Gospel, a turning point which ultimately leads to the Cross. After the discourse on the Eucharist, the crowds turn away from Jesus and Jesus’ relationship with the leaders of the people becomes increasingly more adversarial.

Jesus feeds the crowds and in doing so reveals Himself as the only Son of the Father, the source of all nourishment, and the only Way to the Father.
This will become clearer and clearer as we make our way through Chapter 6 of St John's Gospel, and as Jesus reveals His life, His Body and Blood, as the bread of Life.
The result of Jesus’ teaching about the Eucharist, then, as today, was disbelief! Disbelief based on a fundamental rejection of Jesus’s Divinity! Jesus is not just giving the crowds a free lunch to show them God's generosity and concern; he is also getting them ready to understand his coming discourse about the Eucharist. Jesus gives us the Eucharist because we need it, for the same reason that He feeds the crowds today!

We need it to be fed, we need it to grow, and ultimately we need the Eucharist to be the occasion for encountering, knowing, loving, and servering God! This is our ultimate purpose in this life!
In the Eucharist, our lips touch the lips of God in a kiss! In an embrace, that is meant to satisfy our heart, and eventually last forever!

Today, our God is here, through me His unworthy servant and through the holy Gospel. He is teaching you just like he taught the crowds. When He tells us—I am the bread of Life. Unless you eat by flesh and drink my blood you will not have life within you.

How will we react?

Will we be scandalized like the crowds and abandon Jesus? Or will we become angry, and persecute Him. Or will we say with the Apostles: Lord You have the Words of ever lasting life and we belief and are convinced that You are the Son of God!

As we go to the Altar of God and approach our Eucharistic Lord let's make an effort to live this reality more deeply:
• by paying attention to the sacred words of the liturgy,
• by stirring up sentiments of gratitude and faith in our hearts,
• and by remembering the reality that what we eat and drink is the Body and Blood of Christ, that unites us to Catholics throughout the world and throughout history who have gathered around the same altar and received the same Holy Communion, obeying our Lords' command: "Do this in remembrance of me."