“CHRIST FEEDS”
Saint Mark 8.
1-9
7th Sunday after Trinity: 3 August Anno
Domini 2014
Fr Jay Watson
SSP
In The Name + of
Jesus
A favorite sentimental hymn of many people
goes: “I love to tell the story, twill be
my theme in glory, to tell the old, old, story, of Jesus and His love.” The
problem is the hymn never actually gets around to telling the story—proclaiming
the Gospel of The God/Man. Warm fuzzy
feelings are no substitute for the work of Law Keeping and the payment of sin
by blood shedding and substitutionary suffering and death. Fluff is always fluff and junk food is always
junk food.
The reason people get bored with church
isn’t so much that church can be
boring at times as much as it is that sin causes boredom. Sinners are bored.
Hell will be boring and endlessly tedious. Eve was seduced by Satan to boredom,
hard to believe I know, but bored nonetheless with the food that God had given
her and her husband. Eve lusted for
novelty and the “Burger King” diet of
disaster “having it her way,” or, “you can be like God!” Eve rejected the
food of faith the Edenic feast with the Trinity for the forbidden fruit of the
murdering prodigal.
Are you hungry? If you’re not hungry either
you’re dead or you have already eaten. Are you healthy? If you eat the wrong
things there will be consequences. If a child, or someone who has not grown up despite their calendar years, is
constantly snacking on chips and sweets they won’t be hungry for healthy meals
of meat and vegetables. If someone constantly drinks the fructose laced big
gulps and liters of lies they won’t be thirsty for pure water.
Heard the miracle of Christ’s multiplication
of loaves and fishes too many times? No
you haven’t. Been embraced by your dear Father’s loving arms too many times;
had the wounds cleansed, disinfected,
and dressed too many times by your Mother; had the tears wiped away too many times by
your protecting big brother? No, no you
haven’t!
The reason one is hungry in the morning for
toast or in the evening for piping hot
filleted trout is that…they are hungry!
Man was made to enjoy eating healthy and tasty food. But after the fall, man needed and required food,
and in the Lord’s mercy and grace, food still tasted good. No matter how many
breakfasts and dinners you’ve already had in your life, if you haven’t eaten
all night long that fresh warm and buttery toast will be wonderful again upon
rising.
The multitude which surrounded Christ was “very great” but it wasn’t everybody.
The large throng was not every Jew much less every living human. Jesus loves
all men and came for all men. Jesus suffered and died for all men and forgives
all men. But, only those who stand, or sit, in His presence are fed with His
miraculous food. Yes He sends rain to all men and indeed gives all humans their
daily bread; but the true bread of life comes only from His hands through the
hands of His Apostles in His house.
The Christ fed that crowd with real bread
and real fish because they were famished and He had compassion on their real
physical needs—YES! The plenteous, indeed copious—cornucopias and overflowing,
foodstuff was a miracle—a Divine sign done by Jesus’ Divine power as God. But,
like the Samaritan woman He once met at the well, the one who He told would be
thirsty again after drinking only regular
water, He gives the eternal Water of Life eternal and He gives the very Bread
of Heaven.
This event with the few small fishes and
seven loaves did happen. It was not the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar; it was
Jesus feeding hungry bellies. It was a supernatural God-worked miracle. And yet
He did not continue to feed His own special “12”
this way. He provides food to the world and to you through the agency of man
(farmers, wholesalers, markets, and grocers) and family. One works at a
vocation to pay for many items needed. But, this historic event does indeed
point to a mystical, sacramental reality of life with/in/under Christ the
provider of all good things. For where there is forgiveness of sins there is
not just forgiveness and salvation but ALSO life! Life is meant to be filled with joy and peace
and family feasting. Church life at its apex is a Eucharist Feast which is the
foretaste of an even greater Heavenly Feast to come!
Jesus wants to feed you. Jesus wants you to
eat the goodness of His Grace; the goodness of Himself. He never runs out of
nourishing life. He may start with seven loaves but He will end with seven
baskets full if He desires: unbroken circles and alphas & omegas! Seven is a perfect number: the six days of creation
and the day of rest. The flock of Christ will always be provided for by its
Good Shepherd. The sheepcote will be protected in His presence and given all
that it needs to satisfy its hunger, thirst, and health unto eternity.
Even as the fish and bread did not “run out” since the very Word made Flesh
was speaking and distributing, so too in the Sacrament of The Altar the actual
and true Body and Blood of Christ are present in as many parishes every Mass
day—every Sunday—as have the Words of Institution spoken by Christ’s appointed
pastors.
His Grace imparted in His Flesh and Blood
never runs out, or diminishes, or ceases to be. Take eat and take drink as He
invites; and so you do. You are filled.
Not hungry? Why would that be? Are you busy
sleeping in ignorance or sloth? When one sleeps one is not hungry and does not
build an appetite. Wake up! Repent! Be vigilant and alert for your enemy prowls
about seeking whom he may devour. Be fortified and strengthened on The Word of
God and the Sacramental Body of God the Second Person.
Are you not hungry because of inactivity and
lack of combat? Repent! Pick up your arms, that is, your cross, and follow your
Captain in the fight. After a day on the front lines you will be weary and very
hungry and He will attend to your bruises and feed you even more of Himself!
As you daily feast on Holy Scripture you
will find yourself ravenous for the comfort absolution which comes only from
the New Testament of His Body and Blood here at the High Banquet table of the
Altar of God. You will never be sent away with nothing to eat for Jesus has
spent three days in suffering, death, and the grave, to feed you His
Calvary-victorious Body and His Commandment-keeping Blood. Not loaves but
Jesus. Not fish but the very Paschal Lamb Himself. The wilderness is pushed
back and a glimpse, a glimmer of heaven itself, opens up here at the rail. The
fast is over come and be filled with God.
In The Name of
The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
No comments:
Post a Comment