The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

In today's Gospel we read how Our Lord multiplied five barley loaves to feed five thousand and there remained twelve baskets of fragments left over after all had eaten.

There is no doubt about the effect this had upon the multitude. They all saw this and were ready to make Jesus their King. But, this was not to be, because the Gospel tells us that He fled again into the mountain Himself alone.

This undeniable miracle was just the beginning of Christ's instructions for the wonderful miracle that He would leave with men for the rest of time. Jesus is gradually preparing the people to see and accept the miraculous wonder of the Holy Eucharist.

Just as the barley loaves fed so many and were not decreased in quantity by this, but were on the contrary increased, so it is with Our Lord in the Blessed Eucharist. In the Gospel narrative Jesus gave the people bread for their bodies, but in the Holy Eucharist He gives us not bread but Himself to feed our souls.

Those who receive bread feed their bodies for a short while but then soon again become hungry, and are constantly in need of renourishing their bodies. The bread is consumed and transformed into their bodies. For those who receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist they feed their souls with a food that leaves an eternal imprint upon them. They nourish their souls for eternity with the Eternal Bread from Heaven. Instead of them transforming the Holy Eucharist into themselves, the Holy Eucharist is transforming them into Him. This Eternal Bread from Heaven makes us like unto Jesus.

And through this process Jesus is not lessened but increases as the bread was increased even though so many had eaten from it. The very life of Christ now not only lives in Him and in the Holy Eucharist, but now lives in all those who have worthily received Him in the Sacred Species.

There is a beautiful example given in the "Dialogues of St. Catherine of Siena". God explains that the Holy Eucharist is as a fire. Fire is always complete, it has light, heat, and color. The Holy Eucharist is always complete It has the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Just as many can come and receive fire from one flame, and each take away true and complete fire (light, heat, and color) so many can come and receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and each take away true and completely Jesus Christ Himself.

And just as the original fire is not diminished by giving of itself to others, so Jesus Christ is not diminished by giving Himself to all who will receive Him.

Our Lord further develops the metaphor: "Suppose that there are many who bring their candles, one weighing an ounce, others two or six ounces, or a pound, or even more, and light them in the flame, in each candle, whether large or small, is the whole light, that is to say, the heat, the color, and the flame, nevertheless you would judge that he whose candle weighs an ounce has less of the light than he whose candle weighs a pound. Now the same thing happens to those who receive this Sacrament. Each one carries his own candle, that is the holy desire, with which he receives this Sacrament, which of itself is without light, and lights it by receiving this Sacrament. I say without light, because of yourselves you can do nothing, though I have given you the material, with which you can receive this light and feed it. The material is love, for through love I created you, and without love you cannot live."

The Eucharist is divided, but yet Jesus remains One. He is the Light that we are to carry with us. And the more who carry this light away the more of this light there is to give. Christ is the light of the world and we receive and carry Him with us when we receive this Light in the Holy Eucharist. We become a light to the world. And by sharing and giving this light freely and generously we lose nothing because this in no way diminishes the light that we have, on the contrary it increases the light, for now there are even more who are carrying and spreading this light. Thus, have we all been called to be lights unto the world. As the world is once again covered in darkness, it is ever more pressing for us to do our job to bring this Light to the world.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?