Homily for the Week of July 29, 2012

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), 2012 Readings: 2 Kgs 4:42–44; Ps 145:10–18; Eph 4:1–6; Jn 6:1–15 The Church has three cycles of Bible readings, A, B, and C, and each new cycle begins on the First Sunday of Advent, or usually the first week in December. This year we are in Cycle B, which features the Gospel according to Mark. However, there are occasional changes. This weekend and for the next three weekends we will depart from Mark and turned our attention to the Gospel of John. Last Sunday we read from Mark's Gospel about Jesus and the Apostles trying to get off to a quiet place, but they were followed by the crowds. Jesus noticed that they were very hungry and tired. If we had kept reading, this weekend we would have read from Mark's version of the feeding of 5000 people with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish. But St. John also has a version of this event. The Church is asking us to use St. John's version of this event. What is different? Why John's and not Mark's? The difference is need. In St. John's story today there is no stated need to feed the large crowd! The story doesn't even say the people were hungry! Jesus just chooses to feed them. It is also important to note that in John's version this miracle takes place in the context of the Jewish Feast of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. It is also important to notice that the boy had 5 loaves of barley bread. The fact that was barley is important. Barley had been grown for food and beer and whiskey for about 17000 years in Palestine and Iraq. Barley can also be harvested before wheat. Jews each year always gave the best of the barley harvest call the ''first fruits'' of the barley harvest, as an offering to God. Barley also reminded the Jews of an important event in their lives. The first remembered was when the Jews had to leave so fast they had to make their bread from barley as the wheat was not yet ready. The second remembered event was the first harvest in the Promised Land when they made bread undefiled by anything, including yeast. This feast and Passover celebrated both what had occurred -- so that no one would forget what God had already done -- and it celebrated something God would still do. It is also important for us to understand that the people following Jesus were not following because of their faith. They were following Jesus ''because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.'' They knew that Jesus could heal and perform miracles. This crowd was looking for more healings and more miracles for family or friends or just for themselves. They were not concerned with Jesus' message. Those of you who use computers have undoubtedly search for information on the Internet for a particular subject or topic. As sometimes happens in your search, you find some information on a related topic of which you were not aware. Years ago such happened, maybe not as quickly, when you went to a library and used a card catalogue to find a book on a particular subject. The people who came to see Jesus today were searching for one thing and something far more interesting popped up. Of all the things that they wanted from a Saviour, they got none of what they wanted, but they got exactly what they needed. They were not hungry, or at least not hungry for what Jesus had to offer, but they had a certain hunger within them that needed feeding. John said that Jesus took the loaves and ''gave thanks.'' The word John uses for thanks is ''eucharisteo,'' our word ''Eucharist.'' John is teaching us about the Eucharist, which is the Bread of Life. And this is precisely why you and I are here today. We are here because we are hungry. When I am hungry for food, where do I go? I go where I can find food: the refrigerator, the grocery store, the restaurant, the cafeteria. When I am hungry for spiritual bread, where do I go? I go to Mass to receive communion. Throughout the Mass we are preparing for Eucharist. Jesus takes our faults and our gifts. He then makes it possible to receive again our lives as gifts, and our gifts as forms of “bread” as food for others. So often there are things we want so badly that we miss what we have and worse, we miss what God really desires to give us. These crowds never asked to be fed, but they were. They did not get miraculous cures, but they did get healing. While we should always ask for what we want, we should allow God to give us what we need. Today we have a special remembrance of persons who live in Northern Alaska in the Diocese of Fairbanks. I had planned to invite Sister Ann Hogan, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph to be with us to talk about the spiritual needs of Catholics in that area. She spent 20 years there as a missionary. A few weeks ago she had to have an emergency heart operation in Syracuse. The Diocese of Fairbanks stretches from the Canadian border to Russia to the Arctic Ocean. It has 14,500 Catholics, out of a general population of 161, 000, many of whom are Athabascan Indians andEskimos. Many peoples from many cultures, and live in a land of extremes, spread over several hundred thousand square miles. It is a Missionary diocese which means it relies on the kindness of benefactors from around the world for the support of the majority of our parishes and programs. About 130 years ago men and women of the Society of Jesus came to live among these persons to teach them about Jesus. They built small churches. Today there are 20 active priests working in the diocese, roughly one priest for every 20,000 square miles. Many of the parishes and missions see a priest every other month. Celebrations of the Word with Holy Communion replaces Sunday Mass when a priest is unavailable. Only a small number of parishes are able to support themselves financially. Nome is the farthest North city. While Nome is a city it has only 3500 persons on the Yukon River. Their newspaper is called the Nome Nugget as a sign that many came to that region in the early nineteenth century, not only to fish for salmon but also to pan for gold. Only a small number of parishes are able to support themselves financially. Some give by going to the Missions Some go by giving to the Missions Without both there are no Missions