Homily: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 28, 2024
Dearest brothers and sisters, in the gospel reading of today, we read about the miracle of the multiplication of loaves where Jesus fed five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fish. The first reading also closely resembles this miracle, Elijah fed a hundred men with twenty barley loaves and fresh ears of grain and there were leftovers. Over and above quenching the hunger of these multitude of men and women, these readings present an image of God to us as the Supreme One who can satisfy forever the hunger of our hearts. We remember the word of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 6: 35, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
It is an undisputable truth that humanity is so hungry, hungry for peace, hungry for justice, hungry for truth, hungry for love, hungry for honesty. This hunger cannot be satisfied when God is kept aside. When Jesus is neglected, modern man would be like this biblical multitude of men trapped in the deserted area and confused about which way to go. When we are focused on Jesus, Jesus would shed light in our path, Jesus will make a way where there is no way.
Jesus needs us Christians to be able to perform the miracle. We can see the hero of this miracle is this young boy that gave up his five barley loaves and two fish. Most probably, these five loaves and two fish were his picnic lunch but he readily gave them to Jesus. Even the way these loaves and fish sounded, they appeared too small, too infinitesimal and meaningless when compared to the size of the crowd before Jesus. It was just a meal for a boy. However, it is with this seemingly worthless sacrifice that Jesus saved thousands of men and women. Had it been that the young boy proffered a lot of arguments and reasoning why Jesus should not interfere with his little food, thousands of persons might have perished.
Brothers and sisters, this miracle is a strong encouragement to us not to be deterred from making continuous efforts in our spiritual life even if the efforts are little. Jesus needs us, He needs what we can bring, they may not be much, but Jesus needs them. It may well be that the world is denied miracle after miracle and triumph after triumph because Christians have said no to bringing themselves to Jesus, bringing what we have and what we are to Jesus. When we surrender ourselves to Jesus, Jesus can do wanders with us and through us. Andrew led this young boy to Jesus and by bringing the boy to Jesus the miracle became possible, the outcome became unimaginable. We may not imagine what Jesus can do when bring that our grandson or granddaughter or friend or children to him. The outcome at each point in time would be unimaginable.
