A Homily for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

+ “How many loaves have you?” What resources do you have to feed these four thousand hungry people?
 
This question – the prelude to the miraculous feeding of the four thousand in today’s Holy Gospel – is risible. It must have been more than obvious that what was available was utterly inadequate to meet the needs of so many. And yet it prefaces one of the greatest acts of Our Lord, so great that it was recorded by all four Evangelists.
 
There are many elements upon which to ponder here, not excluding the profound Eucharistic symbolism in the actions of Our Lord in taking, blessing, breaking and giving the bread to the multitude upon which the Fathers of the Church speak eloquently. However this morning I would like to propose three elements of this passage for our consideration:
 
Firstly, our Blessed Lord says: "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat.” The Lord’s compassion for those who follow him is real. It is practical. And it is extraordinary, for it encompasses caring for the needs of four thousand people in a desert.
 
No matter what our needs, no matter how improbable or impossible it seems to us that they can be met, our Blessed Lord knows them and wishes to provide for them.

Secondly, the disciples asked him: "How can one feed these men with bread here in the desert?" Seven loaves and a few small fish are but nothing before four thousand hungry mouths: it is impossible.
 
How often have we arrived at this point – the point of giving up in the face of the sheer size of the task before us? “I simply can’t do it. I am inadequate. I don’t have the resources...”
 
In so many ways we can indeed look around and see the utterly enormous task before us. We can look at ourselves and be paralysed by our inadequacy, our weakness, our sins. In the light of these realities, progress in the growth of virtue, in pursuing my vocation, in making a positive contribution to the growth of the Church in the world, can seem at best unlikely. Daily perseverance can feel like an impossible burden.

Yet – thirdly – the four thousand ate and were satisfied; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. My friends, the Lord cares, the Lord provides. He accepts what we have to hand and – from the abundance of His grace – works miracles.
 
For almost a year now we have prayed the Divine Office and celebrated Holy Mass as richly as we are able in this ancient church. This has been possible only because many people from around the world have offered what they could to the Lord. And indeed, He has done the rest. He has brought to life these very stones and filled these walls anew with His glory in a way that not even we monks could have dared to imagine a year ago.
 
Our Blessed Lord teaches each one of us today that howsoever little we ourselves have or can do, if we offer that to Him in faith and trust, if we respond generously and wholeheartedly to His call and to the promptings of Divine Providence in our particular circumstances, He will multiply the modest resources we have and He will give us all that we need, in abundance. The key is our offering of ourselves and all that we have in faith and trust. Without that, His Providence will be frustrated and we shall remain hungry in the desert. It is up to us.
 
We could do no better than to ponder the words sung by the monk after his profession of vows, taken from psalm 118 (v. 116) which occur every Monday morning at Terce, and make them our own: “Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum et vivam et non confundas me ab expectatione mea.” Uphold me according to thy promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope!
 
The Lord will uphold us and we shall truly live, if but we offer Him ourselves to Him! In this Holy Mass, therefore, let us offer ourselves anew, with Him to the Father that all that Almighty God wills to be accomplished in us and through us may come to be, for His glory, for the salvation of our souls and for the ultimate good of others. +

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