There is one thing I ask of the Lord, to live in the house of the Lord! Yes sisters and brothers in Christ, is this not our deepest desire? So how wonderful it is to stand together with you and cry out in prayer our response to Psalm 26 (27)
As we walk hand in hand on our pilgrim journey back home to Him, we are assured that He, our Risen Lord walks with us. Come what may, we advance unafraid, for God with us who can be against us?
We are reminded in Today’s Gospel of the great and enduring love the Lord has for us. He does not wait for His flock to cry out to Him in hunger, He lovingly seeks to nourish all who walk with Him. The foreshadowing of Holy Eucharist in His feeding of the five thousand. Ah such love! “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
And just like a mother does not need her daughter’s help to bake cookies or a father who does not need his son’s help to replace a light bulb, Jesus invites us to participate in His salvific plan. ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’
Here I am Lord, I come to do Your Will. Amen Alleulia!
First reading
Acts 5:34-42 ·
They were glad to have had the honour of suffering humiliation for the sake of the name
One member of the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee called Gamaliel, who was a doctor of the Law and respected by the whole people, stood up and asked to have the apostles taken outside for a time. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin, ‘Men of Israel, be careful how you deal with these people. There was Theudas who became notorious not so long ago. He claimed to be someone important, and he even collected about four hundred followers; but when he was killed, all his followers scattered and that was the end of them. And then there was Judas the Galilean, at the time of the census, who attracted crowds of supporters; but he got killed too, and all his followers dispersed. What I suggest, therefore, is that you leave these men alone and let them go. If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human origin it will break up of its own accord; but if it does in fact come from God you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find yourselves fighting against God.’
His advice was accepted; and they had the apostles called in, gave orders for them to be flogged, warned them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them. And so they left the presence of the Sanhedrin glad to have had the honour of suffering humiliation for the sake of the name.
They preached every day both in the Temple and in private houses, and their proclamation of the Good News of Christ Jesus was never interrupted.
Gospel
John 6:1-15
The feeding of the five thousand
Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee – or of Tiberias – and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.
Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself.
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