A Word for the Eighth Sunday After Pentecost (13)

Today’s Sunday, in the order and course of time, is the eighth from the day of Pentecost, or from Trinity Day, and in the order of the Church is called the eighth Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Gospel proclaims the miracles of the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, among them, His wondrous feeding, with five small loaves and two fish of the same kind, of five thousand people in the wilderness.

What does it teach us? First, that Jesus Christ is an abyss, a fathomless deep, of mercy; at every step we see Him doing good and working wonders among people in distress, or sinning yet repentant. Second, it reminds us that Jesus Christ is the Creator and Provider of all creatures, the Creator of all the fruits of the earth, and, at the same time, the righteous King and Judge of all people, who, for the sins of lawlessness and for people’s impenitence and persistence in sin, punishes them, among other ways, by destroying the fruits of the earth with excessive and prolonged heat, or drought and excessive dampness, or hail, or various insects, such as the caterpillar or grain beetles. Third, the Gospel teaches us always to take our food with prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord God (1Cor 10:31), who, by His mercy alone, abundantly feeds us with every fruit and every kind of drink.

Before the wondrous distribution of the wondrously multiplied loaves and fish, the Lord looked up to heaven, to His heavenly Father, and then blessed the loaves and the fish; and by this He wished, among other things, to teach us too, always, before taking food and drink, to turn to God with a prayer—for example, this one: «the eyes of all look to You, O Lord, and You give them their food in due season: You open Your bountiful hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing»; or to say the Our Father—and, after taking food, to say: «we thank You, O Christ our God…» Fourth, the Gospel teaches us to take food and drink to the glory of God, not for overindulgence, or drunkenness, or for the sake of pleasure and gluttony, but with moderation, food blessed by the Church—for instance, in a fast, food that keeps the fast, except in the case of infirmity, sickness, or poverty, for the Church permits the infirm, the sick, and the destitute to eat non-fasting food even during a fast. Fifth, the Gospel teaches all of us mercy and compassion for those in distress.

The Lord’s disciples propose to their Teacher that He send the people away into the villages to buy food, but the Lord says to them: you give them something to eat; they need not go away. They say: we have only five small loaves and two small fish; what does this mean for so great a multitude of people? And the Lord, in answer to this, commands that everyone be seated on the grass, and works the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, teaching us too, by this, to share even our small possessions with those who have none—possessions which He, as the almighty Creator, can always multiply: «he who gives to the poor will not lack» (Prov 28:27), according to the word of Scripture. Sixth—since man consists of body and soul, and the soul is incomparably more important than the body, as the image of God—and for it a corresponding spiritual food and spiritual drink is necessary, namely the most pure Body and the most pure Blood of the Lord, and also the Word of God, by which the Christian soul is fed and strengthened—the Gospel teaches us to care more for the imperishable food that strengthens the soul: for frequent Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord, for the fulfillment of the will of God and the cutting off of our own whims and lusts, for instruction in the word of God and the fulfillment of the righteousness of God. The Lord Himself says in the Gospel: «labor not for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you» (Jn 6:27).

«It is good that the heart be established by grace, not by foods, which have not profited those who have walked in them» (Hebr 13:9).

«Food for the belly, and the belly for food; but God will destroy both it and them» (1Cor 6:13), says the Apostle Paul.

This summer, it seems, the Lord is crowning with His blessing, and is granting, for the most part, an abundant and rich harvest, and has brought forth in plenty every fruit of the earth for our delight and our food. Let us be thankful to Him for this, as for all His mercies; let us love Him with all our heart, with all our mind; let us prove our love for Him by keeping His commandments, by amending our life, by sincere and continual repentance, by love and compassion for our neighbors, by uprightness of heart and every virtue—that we may be found worthy in time to come, by His all-good providence, of every gift of soul and body. Amen.