homily notes: 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

There is a stereotype out there that Catholics don't read the Bible. I don't know if you've ever heard this, but it is out there. 


First, I would like to say that, this is not true. Lots of Catholics read the Bible. Second, even if a Catholic doesn't read the Bible too often, if they go to Mass regularly and listen, they hear quite a bit of the Scriptures. The Mass is soaked with the Scriptures - besides the readings, the vast majority of the prayers come from the Bible.


But, to dispel this stereotype, I would like to issue a challenge to you today. I would like you to read one chapter of the Gospel of John - chapter 6. The reason that I want you to look at that particular chapter is that, from this weekend until the last weekend of August, our Sunday gospel readings are going to be coming from John 6.


To understand why chapter 6 of John is so important that we spend a month on it, we have to understand how the gospel of John is different than the other three. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, which means they take mostly the same view of the story of Jesus: they tell the same stories.
John stands alone. This gospel tells some different stories that don't appear in the others and it doesn't contain the same major sermons, like the Sermon on the Mount. John is highly structured and looks at things through a different lens. But most importantly for us today, John does not contain an institution narrative. The institution narrative is the story of Jesus instituting the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Instead of the story of Jesus taking bread and wine and commanding his disciples to "do this in memory of me," John tells the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.


But that doesn't mean that John doesn't write about the Eucharist. That's where chapter 6 comes in. This chapter is where John relates Jesus' teaching on the Eucharist - and it starts with the feeding of the five thousand.


Everything about this story says to us as Catholics that this is about the Mass. Jesus uses this real world situation to teach a deeper lesson.


The people are gathered around Jesus on a mountain - mountains are the place where God meets his people. Think of all the mountaintop stories in the Bible: Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac, Moses receiving the Law, the Sermon on the Mount, the Transfiguration, and, finally, Calvary.


With the people gathered around Him, Jesus does some very particular actions: he takes the bread, gives thanks to the Father, and gives the bread to his disciples. That sounds familiar, right? It should, because these are the same things he does in the other gospels at the Last Supper and it's what he does for us today in the Mass.


The symbolism doesn't end there. Jesus instructs them to collect all the fragments of bread that are left over, and the leftovers fill 12 baskets. In the bible, twelve reminds us of the tribes of Israel. Jesus is starting a new kingdom, a kingdom where all the nations of the world will be welcome and there will be enough bread for everyone. We eat that bread here today.


So, I encourage you, read John 6. Read it several times. And as we journey through this rich story, let's ask the Lord that we can come to a deeper appreciation of the most precious gift he's given us - the Eucharist.