Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 2, 2026: The hand of the Lord feeds us...

The hand of the Lord feeds us...
What feeds you? 

    Our readings this Sunday all focus on the ways God provides for our needs, feeds us, in other words, in ways we can perhaps only begin to appreciate… First, the prophet Isaiah reminds the people of Israel that God has never failed to meet their physical needs, sending water, wine, and milk for the thirsty and grain for the hungry and poor, those who have no money. 

   More importantly, though, God meets their needs with food that nourishes the soul, in the deepest sense: Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life, he says. In other words, take in my Word, digest it, let it fill you and feed you entirely… for the Word is more satisfying than any tangible food; it is our means to an ever-renewing covenant with God. These sentiments are echoed in Psalm 145, in which the psalmist stresses God’s loving willingness to give us our food in due season, again, with a focus on meeting our spiritual needs with God’s justice, grace, and mercy. 

     It is perhaps not surprising, then, that this week we hear Matthew’s version of the Loaves and Fishes, the quintessential example of Jesus providing for the people with overwhelming love. Taking bread, blessing it, breaking it, giving it: the point is not just that Jesus did this, once or twice, but that he does it, every day, through Eucharist, entering fully into relationship with us, every day, though we may not be ready for it. And the implicit message to the disciples – his intermediaries in the distribution of this communal meal – is that they too are sent forth (as are we!) to feed others with God’s Word, with God’s infinite love, finding their need and healing that need with grace. 

    What can separate us from the love of Christ?, Paul asks the Romans. His answer? Nothing – nothing on heaven or on earth – can stand between us and the love of God. We may struggle to live this love; that is our challenge is a world that is afraid, a world whose defenses against anguish, distress and persecution are high. But with open hearts, we are capable of true justice. Filled with the love of God present to us in Eucharist, we ourselves are not only fed, we are able also to feed others, capable of being life-giving to those we meet, capable of being food for the world. 

    What feeds you? God’s love.
 Allow it to fill you, so that you might feed others in turn! 

This “vintage” post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 28, 2024: The hand of the Lord feeds us...

The hand of the Lord feeds us…

And we are to feed one another! 

    God has always provided for God’s people. When, in the Second Book of Kings, the people of Israel are faced with a famine, the prophet Elisha knows that a meager offering of twenty barley loaves along with fresh grain in the ear will be enough. Give it to the people to eat, he tells his servant Gehazi, and when the servant protests that it can’t possibly be enough for a hundred people, Elisha shares God’s own words on the matter: You will eat and have some left over. The prophet knows that, as Psalm 145 reminds us, The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs. God will always give us food in due season, because God works to provide, no matter what barriers we might erect to stop him. 

    Jesus feeds a much larger crowd in John’s Gospel, but, while this miracle would surely have recalled to the people the work of the prophet Elisha, Jesus offers so much more than food to satisfy their physical hunger. Even the disciples see the situation as hopeless: There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many? Andrew asks. When Jesus provides more than enough food for the crowd, they immediately see in him the fulfillment of the ancient prophesies: This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world. Jesus’ ability to do what, to the human mind, is impossible causes them to want to come and carry him off to make him king. Jesus speaks to their hearts. 

    Like our Lord, we are called to be aware of others’ needs and to provide for them. This is integral to what it means to be church, as Paul reminds the Ephesians: in order to live in a manner worthy of the call we have received, we must bear with one another through love, allowing love to be what guides us in all of our relationships, that we might remain in union with Christ and in union with one another. We encounter Christ in Eucharist, of course, but we also encounter Christ in community, a unity that shares one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all. We can only provide for all if we are one in him, that we might be the hand of the Lord that feeds all through the power of his love. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 29, 2018: The hand of the Lord feeds us...

 The hand of the Lord feeds us… 

 Whom do we feed? 

   In the Second Book of Kings, the prophet Elisha is faced with a crisis:  famine has afflicted the land and the people of Israel are starving.  So when a man comes from Baal-shalishah bearing twenty barley loaves, Elisha doesn’t keep them for himself, though it is his right as temple prophet to do so.  Instead, he instructs his servant to give the loaves to the people to eat.  Now, generally speaking, twenty loaves might barely stretch far enough to feed a hundred people, and yet when they have eaten, there is some left over, an observation that points to God’s abundant providence in their lives.  The story confirms the dictum of Psalm 145:  The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.  But the psalmist realizes that God feeds God’s people with more than tangible food:  God also gifts them with justice, holiness and truth.

   When, in John’s Gospel, Jesus feeds over five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fishes, he too is feeding them with tangible food, to be sure, and in generous abundance, abundance far exceeding that witnessed in Elisha’s time.  But Jesus is about so much more than the tangible; he is, as the gospel will reveal over time, the Bread of Life, food for body and for spirit.  The crowds in this story are not ready to understand this truth yet, although they recognize Jesus as the Prophet who is to come into the world.  They do recognize the abundance of food Jesus provides; they are not as quick to recognize the abundance of grace he embodies, or the sacrifice he will undertake for their sake. 

   After Jesus’ death on the cross, Paul reminds the Ephesians that they too, as the Body of Christ, must carry on in generous abundance, bearing with one another through love, coming together in community to meet each other’s needs.  If the hand of the Lord does indeed feed us, we, like the Ephesians, must in turn feed the world as Jesus fed it, not in tangible ways only, but in the Lord’s way, feeding hearts, feeding souls, with all humility and gentleness and patience, sharing the love that is our hope.

Image source:  www.wordle.net