JUNE 2^nd 2013. FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Gospel: Luke 9:11-17

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

GOSPEL                   Luke 9:11-17

Jesus made the crowds welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured those who were in need of healing.

It was late afternoon when the Twelve came to him and said, 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here'. He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves'. But they said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these people' For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, 'Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty'. They did so and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd. They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps remaining were collected they filled twelve baskets.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Hunger and eating are ancient themes in Scripture and the liturgy. Humanity needs external sustenance in order to stay alive. In the face of this need, we have two options: we can be filled with burning anxiety about how our hunger will be satisfied; or we can use this hunger as an opportunity to enter into relationship with God, trusting in his loving providence. In the Gospel, the crowd is hungry and the disciples do not want to have the burden of trying to feed them. Jesus presents a remarkable solution to the problem of the anxiety of the disciples and the hunger of the masses. In order to satisfy the hunger of others, it is not a question of possessing enough food to feed them. It is a question rather of trusting in the providence of God. I, poor as I am and possessing nothing, must give what little I have to the Lord. He will transform it into a feast for others. And it is in satisfying the needs of others that my own hunger is finally satiated. On this feast of Corpus Christi, may the hunger for bread in our souls become an opportunity in which we entrust our needs to the loving providence of God. Once we make that leap, entering into relationship with him, then his power will intervene, transforming our poor offering into a feast for others.

The theme of hunger and eating are central in Scripture and in the liturgy. The first sin was a sin that involved eating. Jesus’ first temptation arose from his hunger. In Matthew’s Gospel we are exhorted not to worry about what we will eat and to trust instead in the providence of God

On this Feast of Corpus Christi we are presented with Luke’s account of the multiplication of loves and fishes. The theme of the Gospel is the problem of how to satisfy the hunger of the crowd. What does humanity need if its hunger is to be satiated? It is interesting to note that this basic need of humanity to eat and drink has a central place in the liturgy and in the sacraments. We have been created by God with this necessity of having to eat, with the requirement for external sustenance in order to survive. Hunger was the first temptation of Christ in the desert, and it had a central place in the first sin recorded in Scripture. Adam and Eve ate that which was not supposed to be eaten. They sought to satisfy their inner anxiety with a form of sustenance that was inappropriate. This is a perennial theme of the human being: our anxiety to find a source of sustenance for our lives. We have a constant, burning,  worry about where we will obtain what we need for life. This necessity gives rise to a terrible anguish within humanity, but it is ultimately a question of relationship with God. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus exhorts us not to worry about what we will eat, drink or wear; it is the pagans who worry about these things. God has given me life. Do I continue to rely on him for the source of my life, or should I take things completely in my own hands and look after that business myself?

In the Gospel the disciples are confronted with the hunger of others. They shrink from the needs of others and ask Jesus to send the crowd away

This theme is taken up by the Gospel from the point of view of how the disciples are to deal with the hunger of the crowd. The disciples are wary of this hunger and encourage Jesus to send the crowd away so that they can look after themselves. In any relationship with another, the moment always arises when the other’s needs come to the fore! It is pleasant to be with other people, to be polite and politically correct, but it is not so comfortable when the other’s genuine needs emerge and call on us for a resolution. If I have not resolved the issue of my own internal anxiety, then how am I to resolve the issue for others? My natural inclination will be to distance myself from the needs of others, to flee, and this is precisely the reaction of the disciples: 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here'.

Jesus presents a remarkable solution to the issue of how we are to satisfy the hunger of others, and, ultimately, our own hunger as well.

How are we to confront the needs of others? In this beautiful text, we see the strange and remarkable solution revealed by Jesus for this problem. He does not resolve the problem directly. His power is certainly present, and his action is of fundamental importance, but he needs us to participate in order for the solution to become concrete. What a curious thing! We are hungry ourselves, but he calls us to satisfy the hunger of others. It is in satisfying the hunger of others that our own hunger is satiated. How strange! We naturally think in completely different terms. For us it is a simple question of mathematics: “If I have, then I can give. If I do not have, then I cannot give”. This seems simple and logical, but things do not work like that with God! With Jesus, I give, not because I have, but because I trust. It is not the case that I find myself in a position to give only when I already possess that thing. Rather, I am in a position to give when I am in a relationship with God. It is not a question of possessing enough so that I can satisfy the hunger of this crowd. It is a question, rather, of giving what little I have to the Lord Jesus. We, poor as we are, possessing nothing, must first enter into relationship with Jesus. The crucial step is not to have projects, plans, and grand designs that make eminent sense for resolving other people’s problems. What is essential is that we make the leap and enter into relationship with God.

“Hunger” can become an opportunity to trust in the providence of God and enter more deeply into relationship with him

It is often the case, when families are confronted with serious difficulties, that we pursue mistaken solutions that only serve to increase the anguish felt by all. We have a tendency to try to work out plausible, reasonable solutions to problems, whilst forgetting to nurture the primary attitude in life of trusting in the providence of God. In the present economic climate, many families seek solutions to the crisis that confronts them. But our “solutions” are often worse than the original crisis and only complicate our problems. The point is that in every problem that faces us we must be impelled to enter more deeply into relationship with God. We then discover that the very thing that caused anguish for us now becomes an opportunity for growth; it becomes a place where we enter into relationship with the Father; it becomes a moment when we offer what little we have to Jesus. As in the Gospel, we then experience the intervention of God’s providence. God’s providence does not eliminate the precarious nature of our existence, but it permits us to live in peace, fully conscious of the ever-present paternal love of God.

Jesus too entrusts Himself to the Father before blessing the bread

Jesus Himself raises His eyes to heaven before blessing the bread and distributing it to the disciples. He too, in order to resolve the problem of the hunger of the masses, entrusts Himself to the Father, to the invisible, to His relationship with heaven. The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is a feast in which we see an opportunity to deepen our relationship with God in something as concrete as a piece of bread. Everything that confronts us in life must impel us to enter into relationship with the Father, to see the invisible, to rely on His providence, to trust in Him and experience His bounty.