Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – a reflection on the Sunday readings

by Br Julian McDonald cfc

“There is a boy here who has five barley loves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” John 6: 1-15

Given that the gospel-readings for the Sundays of this year have been consistently taken from Mark, we might justifiably have expected today’s gospel-reading to be Mark’s account of Jesus’ first miracle of the loaves. Moreover, last Sunday’s gospel-reading clearly seemed to be preparing us for that. However, those who compile the lectionary have inexplicably turned our attention this Sunday and next to John’s account of Jesus’ miracle of the loaves and its sequel.
If there is one conclusion we can reliably draw from the way in which John wrote about Jesus, it is that John saw nothing small-minded, mean or stingy about the way in which Jesus did things. He was not into half-measures. In fact, one of the characteristics of John’s Gospel is the theme of abundance. In his very first chapter, John describes Jesus as the one “from whose fullness we have all received, grace after grace” (John 1: 16). John’s very first sign pointing to Jesus as the Messiah was the miracle at the wedding-feast of Cana where Jesus turned between 120 and 180 gallons of water into quality wine for the wedding guests to enjoy. At the conclusion of his lengthy Gospel, John stated there was so much more that could have been said about Jesus that, had it been written down, there would not be enough space in the world to store all the books (John 21: 25). Earlier, in his farewell address to his disciples, Jesus had told them of his Father’s generosity: “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14: 1-3)
If we were to be asked what role might we take on in this story, where might we place ourselves? Essentially, that is a question about the measure of our faith in a God whose love for us is boundless and whose creativity is nothing short of extravagant. Our faith is very much like that of Philip and Andrew whose faith in God was mirrored in their cautious approach to life. Philip immediately calculated that it would take a couple of months’ worth of his wages to give even a small amount to eat to everyone in the crowd and Andrew noted that a youngster’s five barley loaves and two fish would go almost nowhere. Would we have been any different?
We live in times when even our scientists are expressing concern about the earth’s dwindling resources. We are nervous about the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink. With the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, there was widespread panic about the possible breakdown of the food chain; supermarket managers reported scuffles among customers who were bickering over toilet rolls and consumables that were in short supply. Following a recent outbreak of avian influenza in Australia, there have been reports of people hoarding eggs. Self-interest has rapidiy risen to number one priority.
We even begin worrying about our inner resources. Conversations about our health are on the rise, coupled with concerns about the adequacy of our health insurance policies. As we age, we worry about our memory lapses and wonder if we are on rhe edge of dementia. We ask who might be there to care for us as we become increasingly dependent on others. Holding on to a firm belief that there is someone who constantly cares for us is called faith.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus gives us yet another object lesson in what it means to put our faith and trust in God. He teaches that lesson with the help of two cautious, nay-saying disciples in Philip and Andrew. Like them, we have a tendency to focus on what we don’t have and on what we fear we might not have in the future and end up forgetting how God has already blessed us abundantly.
Yet, when we closely read the Gospels and reflect on other books of the First and New Testaments, we will begin to trust in a God who models extravagant generosity and commit ourselves to walking in the footsteps of Jesus. That will give us responsibilities and take us into places and situations of which we have not even dreamed.
It’s important to note that, unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke, John does not directly relate the feeding of the crowd to the Eucharist. John’s teaching on Eucharist was in the context of the Last Supper at which he related Eucharist to service, using the symbols of basin and towel and the example of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples (see John 13: 1-15).
Despite the reservations of Philip and Andrew, we are told by John that: “Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted.” (John 6: 11-13). When the left-overs were collected, they filled twelve hampers. We may take the feeding of the five thousand as a direct miracle or see it as an illustration of how the generosity of Jesus inspired the crowd at his feet to open their bags and begin sharing with one another whatever food they had brought with them. The message of the story that Jesus clearly wanted to convey is that the God he called Father is a God of boundless generosity, who blesses us with abundance. That same message was clearly stated in today’s first reading from the Book of Kings in which we hear how the Prophet Elisha, despite the doubts of his servant, fed a hundred people with twenty barley loaves. The generosity of God, demonstrated in action by Jesus, will be enough to free us from our fears of insufficiency and inspire us to give generously to others in need from the little of abundance we have.

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