Scripture commentator, Patricia Sanchez does a very nice job of introducing us to the next five Sundays in the following piece. By the way, Patricia, whose commentary on the readings I often use has a M.A. in literature and religion of the Bible is a joint degree program at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York. She also spent three years as a missionary in Africa.

On Extended Eucharistic Encounter

On this Sunday and for the next four Sundays, the praying assembly will be the honored guests at a summer "picnic" hosted by God. There, on the mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee, all who wish may gather with the multitude that was fed by Jesus for an extended eucharistic encounter. As the picnic encounter progresses, those present will also be nourished with the truth and wisdom of the Joannine Jesus' teaching about his life-giving death and the gift of his very self as food.

As Gail Ramshaw (Treasures Old and New, Images in the Lectionary, Augsberg Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN: 2002) has pointed out, food is the most common of all the biblical images. God gives all things living food; God feeds the church at Eucharist; Christ is called Bread-Living Bread. Feeding the hungry is a basic responsibility for the Christian. In the scriptures, God's beneficence is described as feast, God's displeasure as famine and our penitence as fasting.

On a literal level, food is a necessity for human life. On a symbolic level, food-good and plenteous food-has become an image for everything humankind needs from God. Canaan was described, not as a picturesque and pleasant land, but as one flowing with milk and honey. In other words, says Ramshaw, it was to be a land for Israel in which good foods, both staples (milk) and treats (honey) were abundant.

Throughout the Jewish Scriptures, the sharing of food is featured as a significant event. Because food was regarded as God's gift of life, those with whom one shared food became important. Sharing food meant sharing life in food; those who are together became bonded to one another in an everlasting union. Of particular significance was the shared meal at Passover, whereby the Israelites celebrated their God-gained freedom, their identity as a people and their covenantal relationship with their Liberator and Lord.

Having acknowledged the role that food played in Jewish life, the more readily we can understand the significance of food in the New Testament. Born in Bethlehem, i.e., in the village called "house of bread," Jesus challenged his followers to be food for others, salt in the world (Matthew 5:13), without which humankind cannot survive. Six times the four evangelists have portrayed Jesus as multiplying bread in order to feed the multitudes. Through Jesus' actions, the miracle of the manna was reprised and the gift of the Eucharist was anticipated.

Because of their extended reflection and focus on John 6, these next five weeks of "picnicking" with Jesus and the multitudes will bring home to us the realization that Jesus does not just provide bread; rather, Jesus is the Bread. Eating this bread, comes from God. In acknowledgement of this, Jesus taught his followers to pray to God for the gift of bread, i.e., all we need for life-daily.

Ramshaw also encourages those preachers who may find five full weeks devoted to the Johannine discourse (John 6, Jesus as Bread) a burden or a challenge. He invites them to turn to the complementary Old Testament readings; these related texts also offer rich fare and food for thought (pun intended). In today's first reading, the narrative of Elisha multiplying barley loaves provides the background for John's stipulation that the bread Jesus multiplied was barley bread- the food of the poor. Next Sunday, the first reading will focus on the gift of manna (and quail) in the desert, thus setting the scene for acknowledging Jesus as the new manna. On the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, the praying assembly will hear the story of Elijah being fed and prepared by God for his 40-day trek to Horeb (Sinai); this reading is paired with that section of John 6 wherein Jesus offers himself as bread from heaven-the bread that nourishes those who would journey with him in this life and who would live forever with him in the next. A Proverbs text on The Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time describes the rich banquet Wisdom prepares for those who seek her and sets the scene for the gospel in which Jesus invites believers to feed on him and so to have life. On the final Sunday (Twenty-First) of this extended eucharistic meditation, the covenant renewal at Shechem Joshua prepares the praying assembly for the conclusion of John 6. Therein, the fourth evangelist details the varying reactions and responses to Jesus' compelling yet challenging eucharistic invitation. Some find it too shocking to endure; their faith was shaken, and they would no longer remain in Jesus' company. Others, represented by Peter, pledge their faith in Jesus as God's Holy One and commit themselves to him, just as Joshua and his people committed themselves to God. "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).

Today, the challenge of believing and the choice of remaining with Jesus are set once again before each of us. Like Peter and all those other believing disciples, it is ours to decide whether or not we shall continue to find food in Jesus and be nourished with the Bread of the Eucharist and the Bread of his Word. Lord, to whom shall we go? By whom else shall we be fed? You have the bread; you have the words of eternal life.

Comments on the Gospel

The miracle of the loaves and fishes is the only miracle related in all four gospels. It is told twice in Mark and Matthew. That tells us how important this story is. Only John calls the story a sign. In fact, all seven miracles in John's Gospel are seen as signs pointing to the identity and mission of Jesus. Commenting on this gospel, Patricia Sanchez writes:

At their very basic level, the signs have an objective marvelous character, revealing the lordship of Jesus over matter, space, time, nature, suffering, life and death (John 2:11, 23; 4:53-54; 6:14, 9:38, 11:27, 45). On a deeper level, the signs point to specific aspects of the person and mission of Christ. The fourth and fifth signs (both of which are included in John 6, i.e., the gift of bread for the many and Jesus' walking on the water) identified Jesus as the one in whom a new exodus will be accomplished. As God fed the Israelites in the wilderness with manna, so Jesus feeds his followers with barley bread (John 6:1-15). Just as God manifested power over the waters of the Nile (plagues) and the Sea of Reeds, and just as God had power to bring forth water from the rock to provide for the thirsty desert travelers, so Jesus, in walking on the water (John 6:16-22), manifests power comparable to God's indeed, it is the very power of God at work in Jesus-a sign for all to see-a challenge for all to believe.

Besides reprising the event of the manna, the sign of the loaves anticipated the gift of a new and sacramental manna, the Eucharist. Although he chose not to include the institution of the Eucharist in his lengthy Last Supper discourse, the Johnannine evangelist has, nevertheless, included all of the eucharistic theology in John 6. Like his synoptic colleagues, John made use of distinctive and readily recognizable eucharistic language in the telling of his narrative, viz., he took the bread, gave thanks or blessed it and gave. In a departure from the synoptic gospel, however, John alone tells his readers that Jesus himself gave (passed around) the bread. Clearly, this was intended as an allusion to the last meal shared by Jesus and his own wherein he gave them the eucharistic bread (and the wine). This he identified as his body and blood soon to be broken and poured out for the forgiveness of sins and the forging of a new and eternal covenant with God.

The twelve baskets of leftovers point to the abundance that would characterize the messianic era.

Jesus question to Phillip: "Where shall we buy enough food for these people to eat?" Brings out the social implication of the Eucharist in a world where thousands of adults and children die each day in a world of plenty. The obvious answer to Jesus' question is that the hungry will be fed when those of us who have plenty will share. The only thing that stops us from solving the world hunger problem is lack of motivation and the greediness of the developed nations. Recently, I read the following piece:

One estimate puts the total cost of the Iraq War at $600 billion. How much is that? Let's start with just $1 billion in currency. Could you fit 1 billion in your car? If you took it in $100 bills, you would have a total of 10 million pieces of currency. A brick-size bundle of $100 bills would only be $100,000. If you packed 10 bundles into your briefcases it would contain one million dollars. You will need 999 more briefcases to contain the first $1 billion. Can you get 1000 briefcases into your car? It would take the entire car and a U-Haul trailer to hold all 1000 briefcases. Line up 599 other cars and trailers, each loaded with $1 billion in cash. The line of vehicles would be four miles long. That's $600 billion.

At a recent conference in Rome, the World Food Program said that chronic hunger in the world could be cut in half for just $24 billion. Could we not divert just 24 cars and trailers from this long caravan of 600 lined up to pay for the war? Better yet, 48 cars, and no one will go hungry.

Jesus tells us in today's gospel that no one who comes to him shall ever be hungry. Jesus fed the multitudes. As followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same.

I was one who said that I believed that the war in Iraq was the lesser of two evils. I now wonder especially when I think about how much more money we will have spent on Operation Freedom and how better the Iraqi nation will be ten years from now. Can you imagine a willingness to spend $600+ billion on a war in contrast to what we spend on world hunger.

Andrew in response to Jesus' question says that "there is a lad here with five barley loaves and two fishes". The young boy could have said: What use are my few loaves and fishes in the face of 20,000 people?" (Remember 5,000 men, not counting women and children). Nevertheless, the boy shares the little bit he has. Then Jesus blesses it and multiplies it beyond all imagining. Often in life we feel we have very little resources to offer, but when we offer the bit we have, we can trust that God will multiply it to bless others. As the saying goes: "it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." Sharing the little we have is one way for us "to live a life worthy of our calling". (second reading.)

Story

Mother Teresa told us once in India she came across a family that hadn't eaten for days. It was a Hindu family. So she took a small quantity of rice and gave it to that family. What happened surprised her.

Before she knew where she was mother of a family had divided the rice into two halves. Then she took half of it to the family next door, which happened to be a Moslem family.

Seeing this she turned to the mother and asked: "How much will you have left over? Are there not enough of yourselves?" And the woman replied simply: "But they haven't eaten for days either."

"That," says Mother Teresa, "takes greatness." Her greatness consisted in being able to look beyond her own need.

A Prayer

"Jesus, our faith teaches us that you are truly present in the Eucharist. Deepen our appreciation of this special gift and help us to be Eucharist for others in need of nourishment in body and spirit." Amen.

A Quote

"Full and active participation in the liturgy is the aim to be considered above all else." Vatican II

A Chuckle

After church on Sunday morning, a mother commented: "The choir was awful this morning." The father commented: "The sermon was too long." Their 10-year old girl added: You've got to admit it was a pretty good show for the dollar we put in the collection."

A pastor was talking with the children of the church, and asked one little boy if he believed in God.

"Yes, I do!" the boy exclaimed.

"Well," the pastor asked, "why do you believe in God?"

The boy pondered the question for a long time, then replied, "Gosh, I don't know. I think it runs in my family."