COMMENT ON THE LITURGY OF THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Collect
Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings
Rm 6:19-23; Mk 8:1-10
Comment
The apostle Paul states in his letter to the Romans that our lives can be loaned to God's sin or righteousness (i.e., his justifying grace). In the first case, the fruit of this loan is death; in the second case, eternal life.
Each of us will be asked to account for how we have administered the gifts received from God: our body, our intellectual abilities, our time, and our financial resources. The parable of the talents and that of the murderous tenants teach us that whoever has mismanaged what is received from the Lord will be subjected to severe judgment, instead, the Gospel account of the multiplication of the loaves shows us Jesus in the act of asking the disciples to place under his blessing what we have, even if totally inadequate to the needs we face.
Jesus could have created loaves out of nothing to feed the crowd that had followed him for three days, just as God rained manna from heaven to feed his people in the desert. But he chooses to give us a lesson on God's love and concern and the need to be his imitators by assuming the same spirit of service and communion. We see, in fact, that he requires the active participation of his disciples, who are called to share the little they have available and to distribute the loaves themselves to the crowd: "he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people" (Mk 8:6).
But first, he asks for an act of faith, or rather the overcoming of that earthly logic that forgets the power of God, expressed by the phrase attributed to the disciples: "where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?". We find Jesus' answer in his preaching: "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? (...) If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"(Lk 11:11-13). And again: "So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them." (Mt 6:31-32). It is in the moment in which the disciples have faith in Jesus and obey his word that the miracle takes place.
How often have we felt powerless and equipped with totally inadequate resources to meet the needs of the moment? How often have we felt tempted to work it out on our own, just as the disciples thought Jesus was asking him to go to town to buy bread for the crowds? This is the moment when our faith must answer the Lord's question - "How many loaves do you have?" (Mk 8:5) -, placing our resources, even if scarce, under the sanctifying action of the Spirit.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
