Aug. 2, 2020: 18th Sunday A
Aug. 2, 2020: 18th Sunday A
On May 31 1982, on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope John Paul II made a papal visit to Scotland and addressed about 44,000 young people gathered in the stadium for Holy Mass with the Pope. It had been approximately a year since the Pope was wounded by a gunman in St. Peter’s Square. Some of you may remember that the early 1980’s was the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union with the threat of nuclear war on the minds of people around the whole world. To the young people gathered in the stadium, the Holy Father preached using the gospel we just heard today of the miracle of the multiplication of the five loves and two fishes. In the gospel when Jesus asked his disciples to feed the crowd of five thousands themselves, it was the Apostle Andrew who said to Jesus, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9) In reflecting upon this passage, the Pope said to the young people:
St. John Paul’s message to surrender ourselves into the hands of Jesus resonates with us today. Are we not also conscious of our inadequacy and afraid of what the future may hold for us? With the threat of the invisible virus and the economic downturn, we feel a certain paralysis of hope. We seem in the grand scheme of things powerless to do anything. The sight of the world in turmoil has shaken our confidence. As I read some of what the folks are posting on social media, I get the sense that people feel a kind of spiritual listlessness. It has been several months since the obligation to attend church has been dispensed, and while this measure has helped safeguard those who feel vulnerable from exposure to the virus, it has also created a general spiritual malaise. People have complained to me of an inability to pray, to read scripture, or to connect with God deeply. Some people have been following down the rabbit hole of end time prophecies and conspiracies. These dubious claims have done their damage; their supposed “gnostic” or secret knowledge has not lifted the spirit of the faithful. Rather, they have cast a deep fear and suspicion in the hearts of the Christian faithful.
We are not so different from the crowd that pursued Jesus on foot when he got into a boat with his disciples to be by himself. Perhaps Jesus needed time by himself to grieve after learning that his cousin John the Baptist was killed by King Herod. Once Jesus saw the vast crowd hungry for God, however, he had pity for them and began to answer their needs. He fed them by miraculously multiplying a few bread and fish to satisfy their physical needs as a visible sign that he would satisfy their deepest spiritual hunger. He fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, “All you who are thirsty come to the water… Come to me heedfully, listen that you may have life.” (Isa 55:1-3) Just as God provided manna to the Isaraelites in the desert pilgrimage, just as Jesus fed the five thousand in a deserted place, he feeds us with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist for our earthly pilgrimage.
Jesus goes one step further to call each of us to be like St. Andrew, to feed others generously and abundantly through our meager possession. Jesus directs us not to focus on what we do not have but what God has already provided. If we embrace a challenge, bringing forward what we have, no matter how little, then God will do the rest. As Mother Teresa often said, “It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put in giving. To God, nothing is small. Once we decide to give, God makes it infinite.”
As we enter the 6th month of the quarantine, there will be more people in our community in need of help suffering from the financial and emotional toll. Jesus asking his disciples to feed the crowd themselves is a reminder that individual Christians must never be so wrapped up in their own problems or concerns that they withdraw from the world and refuse to provide the help and support when others are in need. We can’t respond like the disciples in the gospel, ‘Send them away … they are not our concern.’ Rather Jesus calls us to be a compassionate Church which hears the cries of the people and responds to their needs by generously sharing. If they are in need we must respond.
(If you no someone who is afraid to attend a weekend mass due to the large crowd, please consider attending daily mass where our numbers are significantly small)
