Peace be with you. Friends, we have a
great privilege now this week and the following three weeks: we're going to read from
the extraordinary sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. It's a wonderful way
to meditate upon the Eucharist. Can I recommend to everybody: break open your Bibles, and during these
quieter days of summer, do a prayerful reading
of the sixth chapter of John. Maybe spread it out
over these weeks. Read it a little bit at a time. It's one of the most profound
reflections we have on the meaning
of the Eucharist. You know, a peculiarity
of John's Gospel is there's no so-called
institution narrative —you find those
in the other Gospels— namely, an account of what
Jesus did at the Last Supper with the bread and the wine
and so on. You don't have that in John. You have the washing of the feet,
you have a long discourse, but you don't have
an institution narrative. But it doesn't mean for
a second that John isn't intensely interested
in the Eucharist because you find it
in chapter 6. So we're going
to read through this now in the next several weeks,
and we get to this wonderful discourse that Jesus gives
in the Capernaum synagogue. But chapter 6 opens
with John's account of the multiplication
of the loaves, and it's a wonderful way now
to get into this chapter because when we decipher
this reading —and remember, John is a
high theological master but also a great
literary master. And he composes these texts
so artfully, and they're meant to be read
at a number of levels. Historical, to be sure. This miracle of the multiplication
of the loaves, it's in all four of
the Gospels; it so deeply impressed
the first Christians. But as John lays it out,
it's also meant to be read at more mystical levels. And one of them is this:
it's an account of the Mass. Like the Emmaus story,
by the way; that's an account
of the Mass too. How do we best
understand the Eucharist? Well, in its proper
liturgical context within the context
of the Mass. So what I want to do
in this homily, real briefly, is just walk through
this account, and help you see how
it's a symbolic presentation of the Mass. We hear first that
Jesus went up a mountain with his disciples. Now, mountains in the Bible
are invariably symbols of the encounter between
human beings and God. Even the Garden of Eden is
a mountain because the rivers are flowing out from it. Whether it's Mount Sinai
where the Law is given, whether it's Mount Zion
where the holy city of Jerusalem and the temple are found. Mountains are places
of encounter. We go up, God comes down,
and the two meet in this heightened place. What's the Mass but the mountaintop
experience par excellence? The Mass is the place
where we go up, where God comes down so
to speak, and the two of us
now commune. It's a place of
heightened awareness, heightened consciousness,
heightened experience. Think of the story of the
Transfiguration —similar thing. We go up a mountain, and there the encounter
with God takes place. So the Mass is a
mountaintop experience. We then hear that Jesus sits
down with his disciples. Now, we're going to miss
this or say it's just a little tiny detail. But see, sitting down
in the ancient world was the attitude of the teacher. The teacher would sit in his
teaching place. Think of the bishop in the
ancient Church in his “cathedra,” in his chair. That's where he would teach. The disciples would be then
arranged at his feet. The Mass is the
mountaintop experience. What's the first
part of the Mass? We call it the
Liturgy of the Word, where Jesus speaks. The first reading
from the Old Testament —well, that's the
Logos of God, speaking through patriarchs
and prophets and the Psalmist. The Psalm —our response
to the Word of God. The second reading, whether
from Paul's epistles, or from John's epistles,
or Peter —it's the Word
continuing to speak. The Gospel
—now in a very heightened, personal way, the Logos,
Jesus himself, speaks to us. The homily is meant not
to be the private musings of the priest, but rather a continuation of,
an application of, the divine Word. The first part of the Mass,
the Liturgy of the Word, that's Jesus sitting down. We arrange ourselves,
so to speak, at his feet, and we listen to him. It's the first part
of the Mass. Then we hear in John's account: “The Jewish feast of
Passover was near.” In John's Gospel,
the Last Supper takes place on the
eve of Passover, the day when the paschal lambs
were slaughtered. Well, Christ himself
is the Lamb of God. That's why in John's Gospel, John the Baptist
when he sees Jesus says, "Behold, there's
the Lamb of God." He doesn't mean just a nice,
peaceable person. He means there's the one
who's come to be sacrificed. What's the second part of the Mass
after the Liturgy of the Word, but the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the climax of which
is the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Christ? Yes indeed, Passover is near
at every Mass. Every time we attend the Mass,
there's the slaughtering of this Passover Lamb —Jesus himself, offering
his Body and Blood for the salvation of the world. But listen now to
the description in John. Jesus sees the great
crowd gathered, and he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough
food for them to eat?” Andrew said to him, “There is a boy here who has five
barley loaves and two fish.” Could God feed his people
without any cooperation from us? Yeah, sure. He's God.
He can do whatever he wants. But one of the great master
themes in the Bible is God delights in drawing forth
our cooperation. At every Mass, Christ speaks
to us, and we listen. At every Mass,
the great sacrifice is made. And at every Mass,
Christ feeds his people. That's the
Liturgy of the Eucharist. Christ feeds his people
with his Body and his Blood. But he invites us to present
to him the little that we have, so that he might take it,
elevate it, multiply it, transubstantiate it, so that we might be fed
with the Bread of Life. There’s a moment at Mass —and I want all the Catholics
now to pay special attention— the moment at Mass when after
the prayers of the faithful, everyone sits down;
usually a little music is played; and then the ushers go around,
and they collect a monetary offering
from the people of God; and then that little
offering of bread and wine and maybe a little water
are brought up to the altar. Sometimes I think,
for many Catholics, that's like a little
pause in the action. So, we've had the
first part of Mass, and now we're just kind of
pausing for a moment while the ushers collect the money. And then we're going to resume
Mass once all that's over. No, no, no, no; that's an integrally
important part of the Mass. Why? It's Christ calling upon us
to give him the little that we have. So then he looks out,
and there's the great crowd. “I have to feed this crowd
with the Bread of Life.” But first he says
to his Apostles, "Well, what do you have?
What can you find?" And they find this little
offering. And so we at every Mass
offer to Christ the little that we have: these monetary gifts and
this little offering of bread and wine and water. But then he
transfigures it. He elevates it so that
it becomes food unto eternal life. Listen now as
John goes on. “Jesus took the loaves”
and “gave thanks.” How does this
elevation happen? We speak of the
Eucharistic Prayer, at the heart of which
are these words of Jesus the night before he died. "Take this, all of you,
and eat of it: for this is my Body.” “Take this, all of you,
and drink from it: this is the cup
of my Blood." The Eucharistic Prayer —it just means the prayer
of thanksgiving— is the moment when
the little we have offered is elevated and transfigured
for the feeding of the multitude. The priest at every Mass
is not operating in his own name or with his
own authority. That's one reason,
by the way, the priest wears vestments. It's meant to cover up his
individuality and personality because he's operating not
in his own person, but we say “in persona Christi,”
in the very person of Christ. So the priest takes these little gifts
that the people have offered, and then acting and speaking
in the very person of Christ, speaking these words
of the Last Supper, the transubstantiation
is effected, the transfiguration
of these elements. Jesus took the loaves
and gave thanks. That happens everybody
at every Mass in the prayer
of thanksgiving. And then we hear this: he distributes the
multiplied loaves, and they had as much
as they wanted. Something physical
being described there? Sure. In this historical instance,
Jesus literally fed them. But read it mystically. We're all hungry for
the Bread of Life. We're all hungry
for eternal life. Nothing in this world can
possibly satisfy the deepest longing of our heart. The only thing that can
satisfy us is Christ himself. And that's why, again, they
had as much as they wanted. That's you and that's me
at every Mass. I mean, the literal bread
and wine brought forward would never satisfy even
a mild physical hunger. But now those elements
transubstantiated into the Body and
Blood of Christ fill up the soul at
the deepest level. We had all we wanted. And then beautifully —Catholics will get
this right away— after the multiplication
and the feeding of the enormous crowd, it said they gathered
up fragments —twelve baskets. Twelve, of course,
a figure of fullness —the twelve tribes
of Israel. After the distribution
of Communion, we do indeed gather
up the fragments, don't we. We preserve them
in the tabernacle. We bring them to the sick. It signals now the twelve,
the figure of fullness, the feeding, yes,
of the whole world. That's what the Mass
is meant to embody. Everybody, take a look
this week at this very beginning
of John 6, and see in this scene,
in this description of an ancient miracle,
see the miracle of every Mass. Isn't it tragic,
by the way —every time we do this,
when we think about the Mass profoundly— isn't it tragic that
the overwhelming majority of our own Catholic
brothers and sisters stay away from
Mass on a regular basis? This mountaintop experience
par excellence, this place where we hear
the words of Jesus, this place where we are
fed at the deepest level of our souls. Take a look at the beginning
of John chapter 6. It's a good preparation now
for a deeper and deeper appreciation of the Eucharist. And God bless you. Thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video,
I invite you to share it and to subscribe
to my YouTube channel.
