The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Today we witness in the Gospel the second multiplication of loves and fishes that Our Lord performed.

Christ did not regularly feed the multitudes because then most people would only follow Him so that they may eat. God wishes us to ask for our daily bread for our bodies, but He wishes first that we seek to feed the soul. Seek first the kingdom of Heaven. Then, all the rest will be given to you.

On this occasion the people had been following our Lord for three days. He did not wish to send them away fasting because they would surely faint on the way for lack of nourishment.

Jesus does not Himself immediately feed the people but, He arranges this occasion so that it will not only be an act of charitable mercy for the people but will also be an instruction for the Apostles. Jesus makes the Apostles the ministers of His mercy in this case just as much as He did when He said to them: "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them."

It was God who provided the meal but it was distributed by the Apostles. It was the Apostles that bade the people recline on the ground. It was they that presented them with the food that was multiplied by the blessing of Christ. It was the Apostles again that gathered up the fragments that were left over.

We too must learn that all good things come from God, but that God seldom sends them directly to us. There is almost always a mediator, especially for the supernatural graces that are necessary for the well being of our souls.

Christ has established His Church and in that Church he has established His Apostles _ the bishops. If we wish to receive the great mercies of God we must go to His Church _ the bishops. There and only there will we receive what we are most in need of - sanctifying grace.

The Apostles too are being instructed in the solicitude and care that they must have for the souls that Christ has entrusted to them. The shepherd must have compassion and mercy for the sheep.

Another point of consideration is: Our Lord manifests Himself as both God and Man. We see the sublimity of His Divinity and the tenderness of His Humanity; so that those who ask of Him shall receive, those who seek of Him shall find, and to those who knock it shall be opened to them. Christ is the Word of God, Who speaks to men, not only with words, but also in deeds.

Let us also consider that in our one and same Redeemer, there are the separate activities of both His Divinity and His Humanity. We must detest with all our heart the errors of those who would put forward the false ideas that in Christ there is but one sole operation. For in either case, he who says that He was only man will deny the glory of his Creator, and he who says that He is God only will deny the compassion of the Redeemer. The Lord had compassion on the multitude, lest they faint of hunger or through weariness of the long way to their homes. He makes known to us that He possessed the tenderness and affection that belongs to human weakness; by the fact that He fed four thousand men from seven loaves and a few fishes, this was we believe a work of divine power.

God chose to reveal Himself in this manner to the Apostles to instruct and prepare them for the awesome responsibilities that He had in store for them. He has taken them step by step in the reasoning for His actions. He has compassion on the multitude. They have been with Him for three days and are hungry. How much do we have? (To emphasize the fact that it is truly a miracle worked by God.) Have everyone sit down to eat. He gives thanks and blesses the food. Then He commands the Apostles to give the food to the people to eat, and gather up the fragments, to show that there was more left over than when they began and it truly was a miracle.

In all these actions we see that Jesus is truly God and truly Man. We see that He wishes the Apostles not only to serve Him but to serve those whom He loves. And we see that the people are to learn to hear and obey the Apostles. He who hears the Apostles hear Christ Himself.

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