THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her Doctrine and Morals

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

9 July 2023

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The Sunday

Sermon

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Dear Friends in Christ,

In today's Gospel reading (Saint Mark 8, 1-9), we see that a multitude of people followed Jesus, and many of them "came from afar off." The more we give into sin, the farther we stray from Jesus; but every sinner returning to Jesus came from afar off. This spiritual distance between God and humanity is the very reason that the Son of God came to this earth. He came, and He called us to be united with Him. If we refuse the spiritual food He offers, we will faint and even die in the way of a sinful life.

God has given us everything we need to obtain our salvation. He has given us much more than is required, but none of His graces will help us if we refuse to hold out our hands and receive the spiritual food that He offers us. We must be willing to come to Him no matter how far we must travel — or how many or significant the changes we must make in our lives. The physical difficulties are not worthy of being compared to the spiritual rewards that await us. We must be willing to sacrifice worldly things to obtain spiritual ones. We must deny ourselves and embrace our cross out of love for God to receive eternal life and happiness.

This multiplication of bread and fish was the second one recorded in the Gospels. Jesus could have fed the people all the time and everywhere, but He did not because He did not want them to follow Him for bodily food. He worked this miracle now because their physical lives were in danger. Above this, Jesus wants us to understand that what He does for our physical lives represents what He does for our spiritual lives if we let Him. His greatest desire is to feed, nourish, and heal our souls. He also does all this for our bodies so that we may understand the importance of our souls and spiritual lives. We should observe the material gifts God gives us so that we can see and appreciate His spiritual ones.

Jesus dispensed the food for the people through the hands of His disciples. Likewise, He distributes our spiritual food through His disciples. Those who refused to accept these gifts from the hands of the disciples would have gone hungry. Those who reject the Sacraments God dispenses through the True Catholic Church must also remain spiritually hungry. Many are often distracted by the human instruments that God uses and refuse to receive God's graces because of the human instruments (apostles and disciples/bishops and priests) He uses.

When we are physically hungry, we become less concerned with the presentation of our food and more concerned with receiving the food itself. The humblest food given to us by the lowliest of people is thankfully received. When we recognize our spiritual emaciation, the unworthy minister seems like an angel from Heaven. We must, then, consciously remind ourselves that God is the source of our souls' spiritual healing, nourishment, and health — not His priest.

We need to concern ourselves with the physical food we eat because many foods are not good for us. These cause illness and disease rather than life and health. The same is true for our souls. Many manmade religions are often sweeter or more palatable to our fallen natures. The "empty calories" in much of our food remind us of the empty graces preached in false religions. Just because something is sweet or palatable to our fallen nature does not make it good. We must beware of devils that appear as angels of light. The many demonic-inspired man-made religions also strive to appear as coming from God. If we look closely, we will soon discover the wolf in sheep's clothing or the devil hidden in the guise of holiness and truth.

Jesus did not give us an "easy or pleasurable" religion. The faith that He teaches us is one of self-denial, mortification, and the cross. Pleasure and happiness are held out as the reward for self-denial and sacrifice. God gives us joy and sweetness in our cross when we embrace it daily for the love of Him. We must recognize and reject anyone attempting to provide us joy and sweetness without a cross. We must especially reject any promise of complete happiness here and now. True happiness is reserved for us in Heaven as a reward for following Jesus through the desert and mountains (self-denial and sacrifice of this life.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!