God Provides Through Us, The Body of Christ
Homily on “God Provides Through Us, the Body of Christ” based on the Gospel of Matthew 14:13-21; Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8:35, 37-39:
The readings today speak to one of the deepest realities of human existence.
Every human being is hungry. We hunger not only for food but we hunger also for love, meaning, acceptance, peace, forgiveness, hope, and ultimately, we hunger for God himself.
The tragedy is that people seek to satisfy eternal hunger with temporary worldly things. Wealth cannot satisfy the soul. Success cannot heal loneliness. Pleasure cannot remove guilt. And technology cannot replace love.
The first reading taken from the prophet Isaiah gives us one of the most beautiful invitations from God: “Come to me who thirsts. Why spend your money for what is not bread and your labor for what does not satisfy?”
Never in history has humanity possessed so much and yet, felt so empty as in our time that we live in. Every advertisement promises happiness and says “now you will finally be satisfied.” But satisfaction quickly disappears. Like drinking sea water, worldly pleasures often increase thirst rather than quench it.
Only God can fill the infinite emptiness of the human heart. St. Augustine said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
In the Second Reading - St. Paul wrote a letter to the Romans who faced rejection, persecution, and even death, St. Paul asks a powerful question: "What will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?" He mentions suffering, hardship, persecution, hunger, danger, and the sword that many
believers, including Paul himself, had endured. Paul's answer is clear: nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. What an incredible hope.
Christ does not promise a life free from suffering. Instead, he assures us that God's love remains constant in every circumstance, good or bad. Even when life is painful, confusing, or unfair, Christ does not abandon us. His presence gives us the strength to persevere. When Paul says that we are "more than conquerors," he means that our victory does not come from escaping the difficulties of life but from remaining united with Christ through suffering.
The greatest triumph of a Christian is not avoiding the cross but discovering that God's love is stronger than every trial. This passage invites us to examine where we place our security. Unfortunately, we often trust our health, success, relationships, or possessions, but these can all change.
The gospel today begins with Jesus withdrawing to a lonely place after hearing the heartbreaking news of the death of John the Baptist. Jesus needed time to grieve. This reminds us that even Jesus experienced human sorrow. Yet when the crowds found Him, He did not turn them away. Instead, "He had pity on them.” He had compassion on them. Sometimes, you may not have noticed or know, the people who comfort others are themselves carrying hidden burden or pain themselves without us knowing it. Even in His grief, Jesus remained available to those who were suffering.
As evening approached, the disciples saw only the problem. Thousands of hungry people stood before them, and they wanted Jesus to send them away.
When we see poverty, when we see a need, loneliness, broken families, or young people searching for meaning, our first response is often, "Someone else should do something about this problem."
My brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps the most challenging words in today's gospel are not the miracle itself, but Jesus’ command, "Give them some food yourselves." Jesus was teaching the disciples and is teaching us to take responsibility instead of passing it on to someone else. True discipleship is not about just enjoying the honor of following Jesus; it is about sharing in the mission of Jesus.
We cannot claim to love God while remaining indifferent to hungry people around us. As St. John Chrysostom said: If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find him in the chalice.
God never asks us to solve every problem. He simply asks us to offer what we have…little it may be. Small acts become extraordinary when placed into Christ's hands.
St. Francis de Sales said, "Great occasions for serving God are actually seldom, but little opportunities to serve God surround us every day."
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta often reminded her sisters, if you cannot feed a hundred people to feed, then feed one.
The feeding of the five thousand points directly toward the Eucharist. Matthew, the gospel writer, carefully chooses his words. He wrote: “Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples.” These are precisely the actions Jesus repeats at the last supper. The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish points towards the Eucharist. The Eucharist is God's answer to humanity's deepest hunger.
St. Thomas Aquinas beautifully has called the Eucharist the bread of angels becoming the bread of pilgrims which is us… we are pilgrims on our journey to heaven.
The miracle of multiplication has never stopped. It happens on every altar. The miracle happened not because the disciples had plenty, but because they placed whatever little they had into the hands of Jesus. God often begins His greatest works with our smallest acts of faith.
We come to the Eucharist – the table of the Lord - to be fed so that we can become food for others. The One who fed the hungry crowd continues to nourish us today in the Eucharist with His very life… that is the miracle happening at every Mass.
Whenever we place our gifts, however small, in the hands of Jesus, He multiplies them beyond what we could ever imagine. If we offer Jesus even our little, He will make it enough—not only for us, but for many others.
There is a profound liturgical action that takes place at the ordination of a deacon. After the bishop lays his hands on the candidate and says the prayer of ordination, and after the deacon is vested, the bishop hands the new deacon the Book of the Gospels and says, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” “Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”
Meaning - No one can proclaim the gospel unless he believes in the gospel and unless he lives these gospel beliefs. This is fundamental to all Christians – the message is for all of us – not just for the clergies.
“Believe what you read” – meaning - believe the Gospel – but of course – first of all – we need to spend time reading the Scriptures through which God communicates to us in a personal way. Second Vatican Council document put it this way: “In the Sacred Scriptures, God the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and talks with them about His great love fulfilled in Christ. In reading the Scriptures, we therefore encounter Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.” St. Jerome said: “Ignorance of Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
“Believe what you read” - “Teach what you believe” - Everyone of us is called by Christ to proclaim His Gospel by our very life… share the Good News of God’s love, grace and mercy with others.
“Believe what you read”, “Teach what you believe” “Practice what you teach.” – meaning – We need to walk the talk. A father was giving a sermon or lecturing his teenage son who was in trouble. The teenager replied to his father: “Father, what you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying.” Let us hope and pray that our children or anyone will not say or even think of saying that to us… meaning – we have to be consistent with our words and our actions… the way we live.
There is a phrase that goes, “You cannot give what you do not have.” It applies to all of us.
When we live our lives in relationship and in communion with God, who gives of Himself to us, we become conformed to God’s grace and so we become channels or instruments of God’s grace and we ourselves become grace and when we in turn give what we receive, we find it multiplied beyond what we can ever imagine.
We are all called to give ourselves in loving service of God and others as a continuation of Christ’s mission. The word Christ means Anointed and we were all Anointed at our baptism and confirmation – We are the Body of Christ.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, may we go from this eucharistic celebration (that is why at the end of the mass, we say: “Go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life” ) – may we go from this Mass, the Eucharistic celebration - convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And may we become – by the grace of God – bread, broken and shared for a world that hungers for God.
Amen.
