Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memorial of Martha. She welcomed the Lord Jesus into her home.

First Reading

2 Kings 4,42-44

A man came from Baal-Shalishah, bringing the man of God bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain still in the husk. 'Give it to the company to eat,' Elisha said. But his servant replied, 'How can I serve this to a hundred men?' 'Give it to the company to eat,' he insisted, 'for Yahweh says this, "They will eat and have some left over." ' He served them; they ate and had some left over, as Yahweh had said.

Psalmody

Psalm 144

Antiphon

Let us praise your name, O Lord, for ever and ever.

I will give you glory, O God my King,
I will bless your name for ever.

I will bless you day after day
and praise your name for ever.

the Lord is great, highly to be praised,
His greatness cannot be measured.

Age to age shall proclaim your works,
shall declare your mighty deeds,

shall speak to your splendour and glory,
tell the tale of your wonderful works.

They will speak of your terrible deeds,
recount your greatness and might.

They will recall your abundant goodness;
age to age shall ring out your justice.

The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
and your friends shall repeat their blessing.

They shall speak of the glory of your reign
and declare your might, O God,

to make known to men your mighty deeds
and the glorious splendour of your reign.

Yours is an everlasting kingdom;
your rule lasts from age to age.

The Lord is faithful in all in words
and loving in all his deeds.

The Lord supports all who fall
and raises all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all creatures look to you
and you give them their food in due time.

You open wide your hand
grant the desires of all who live.

The Lord is just in all his ways
and loving in all his deeds.

He is close to all who call him,
who call on him from their hearts.

He grants the desires of those who fear him,
he hears their cry and he saves them.

The Lord protects all who love him;
but the wicked he will utterly destroy.

Let me speak the praise of the Lord,
let all mankind bless his holy name
for ever, for ages unending.

Second Reading

Ephesians 4,1-6

I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called. With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love. Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

Reading of the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 6,1-15

After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee -- or of Tiberias- and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he had done in curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside and sat down there with his disciples. The time of the Jewish Passover was near. Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, 'Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?' He said this only to put Philip to the test; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, 'Two hundred denarii would not buy enough to give them a little piece each.' One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, 'Here is a small boy with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that among so many?' Jesus said to them, 'Make the people sit down.' There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were sitting there; he then did the same with the fish, distributing as much as they wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, 'Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing is wasted.' So they picked them up and filled twelve large baskets with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.' Jesus, as he realised they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, fled back to the hills alone.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Homily

Surrounded by his disciples, Jesus is on a mountain and, seating, as is the custom of every teacher, he teaches to those around him. John writes, "When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him." Jesus does not settle for self-directed contemplation or with his immediate work. He came upon this earth and became like us in every way. But he ascends the mountain to be just a little bit higher, closer to God, and from there he can see men and women who come to him better. Only by having God in his heart (and this is what is meant by his ascension up the mountain) and by welcoming his compassion, is it possible to look at the people with new eyes, intuit their questions and understand their needs.
People were staying with Jesus gladly. Sometimes they were so completely captivated by his words that they had even forgotten to eat (how different from we who often tend to hurry through the things of God). And, in fact, it was he, not the disciples, who noticed that the people needed bread. Jesus calls Philip (who was from Bethsaida and therefore knew the area) and asked him, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" After making a quick calculation, Philip responds that it would be nearly impossible to find an adequate amount of money to purchase a sufficient quantity of bread for all the people. In effect, Jesus' request was completely unrealistic. Andrew, present to the exchange between Jesus and Philip, gathers some information and enters into the conversation to inform them that he had just found a boy with five barley loaves and two fish. But, with sad realism, he adds, "But what are they among so many people?" To him, as it did to the rest of the disciples, the discussion seemed over. The disciples' correctness, realism, and practicality and concreteness see winning.
Jesus, who trusts completely in the Father, knows very well that "all is possible to God." Jesus orders the disciples to have the crowds sit down on the grass. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures," Psalm 23 sings, almost anticipating this splendid scene. When they are all seated, he takes the bread and, after having given thanks to the Father, distributes it to everyone. Different from the Synoptic Gospels, in which the disciples are given the task of handing out the bread, here Jesus himself takes and distributes the bread.
However, Jesus does not act out of nothing. He needs those five barley loaves (barley was the bread of the poor, for it was not the best bread nor the most flavourful). And it is with these poor loaves of bread that he fed five thousand people sitting on the grass. What little we have (the little love and compassion we have, the few material possessions we own, the little free time we have) is enough to overcome hunger, both the hunger of the heart and of the body. The problem is putting that "little" we have in the Lord's hands, and not to turn it over in our hands to hold on to it for ourselves. The evangelist notes that, after having eaten, the crowd admired Jesus for what he had done for them and wanted to proclaim him king. But once again, he draws away back up the mountain; he did not want to devalue the urgency of their hunger for a never-ending bread, that is, the need for an affectionate and lasting relationship with the Lord. And with Jesus on the mountain, we can continue to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread!"