The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Christ fed the four thousand people with simple but substantial food, bread and fish. Please note that He did not present them with dainties and luxuries. All too often we expect God to give us the best, and like spoiled children we are tempted to complain when we are not given something better than our neighbor. God's most precious gifts come to us in the humblest and most meager clothing. We must learn to appreciate the simple things that God gives us, if we are to reap the tremendous benefits of His goodness.

The seven loaves and the seven baskets represent to us the sacraments. And in each of the sacraments we see that God uses common and substantial things to bring us uncommon and great spiritual gifts. If we consider only the Holy Eucharist we see that God hides Himself under the appearances of bread and wine. We must call upon our faith to see and appreciate His presence and the value of this gift that He has made to us. In denying what our senses tell us and believing what our faith tells us we open ourselves up to receive tremendous graces from this Sacrament.

We are not receiving mere bread for our bodies, but we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, to feed our souls. This most awesome gift God has chosen to hide in plain site before our very eyes. The proud the vain, and the haughty cannot see this because their vices blind them to the simple truth. They behold those with faith as simpletons, or fanatics, etc. but, they in truth are the simpletons and fanatics because they will only believe what they can see and understand. They obstinately deny everything that they cannot understand or that depends upon faith. And if they could follow this premise to its logical conclusion they would see that they cannot accept anything, even that which they clearly see and feel, because they can never know and understand everything about anything.

Faith sets us free because we can see the limits of our senses and our understanding and we can accept that there are truths and realities beyond us. We do not have to see or understand to know that certain things exist and thus be able to work within the framework of true reality. The unbeliever is constantly running into walls because of his lack of faith. He bumbles around thinking that he is making progress and boasting of his "achievements" when in truth he has not even scratched the surface of the truth.

Christ, His Apostles, and most of the saints lived in poverty, and were looked down upon as of no significance. The rich man dined on grand suppers and dinners and poor Lazarus, was not permitted to even appease his hunger with the crumbs from the rich man's table. But in eternity we see that Lazarus is filled with heavenly delight while the rich man suffers an eternal hunger and pain.

God gives His grace to the meek and humble of heart. Those who are content and happy with the simple and meager things find the greatest reward and happiness both in this life and in the next.

We should note from the Gospel today that the fragments were gathered up. Nothing is wasted — every crumb is precious because it is a gift from God. How careful they were with mere crumbs of bread, and how careless so many "Catholics" are with the Blessed Sacrament.

The poor receive every small gift with the greatest appreciation and gratitude, the rich distain almost every gift as beneath them or unworthy of them. The Holy Eucharist is likewise accepted, loved, and treasured by the simple, meek, and humble of heart; whereas the proud and the vain reject, distain, and mock the Holy Eucharist. Jesus thanked His heavenly Father that He had hidden these things from the high and the proud, but has revealed them to the lowly, meek, and humble.

There was more left over after everyone had eaten. Here we plainly see how liberal God is in distributing the gifts of mercy and of love. St. Bonaventure says: "If you prune a tree, it will grow the more; in like manner the wealthy become wealthier if they prune their riches i.e. give alms to the poor." The same is true in this Sacrament: God gives us Himself to be our food; if we receive Him correctly the Sacrament does not grow less but increases within us. God's grace grows and multiplies within us so that we are transformed into Him. We receive Him under the appearance of bread and wine but His graces grow and increase in us without bounds. We can never number the graces which have come to us through this sacrament worthily received.

Let us learn to love and treasure everything that God has given us, even the most small and apparently insignificant things. But, most of all let us love and treasure the Sacraments in which God gives us His most tremendous graces hidden behind the veil of apparently insignificant, simple and common things.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?