17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Lord will provide.  It’s a phrase we hear often, especially when we find ourselves in situations of need.  But for as often as we may hear it, how often do we honestly, sincerely, believe it?  Or when we find ourselves in need, how many of us find the strength to turn those needs over to God?  Our readings this week show us how faith in the Lord can lead to his answering of our needs:

The Word for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
Ephesians 4:1-6
John 6:1-15

Our first reading is a story of the Prophet Elisha from the Second Book of Kings.  Elisha, as we remember, was apprenticed to the great prophet Elijah, and served in the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the period of the monarchy.  He is known for his many works of wonder, including this week’s passage about the barley loaves.  A man from some distance away came to Elisha to give him twenty barley loaves made from his first harvest as an offering to the prophet. As the people around Elisha are in need, he orders that the loaves to be given to the people, but as there were over a hundred of them, his servant feared this was not enough.  Here Elisha repeats the instruction, telling the servant that the Lord has said they shall eat it and there will be some left over.  And so it was.  Our Psalm reflects what may have inspired Elisha, “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”

This miracle of Elisha’s is repeated in an even grander scale in our Gospel from John.  This week we hear the story of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves.  Picking up the story from where we left off last week, a large crowd has followed Jesus as he continues to teach and minister to them, but the day is growing late, and the Apostles fear they do not have enough food to feed everyone.  Jesus has the crowd of 5,000 recline while asking the Apostles to distribute what they have, 5 loaves and 2 fish.  After everyone had their fill, they gather 12 baskets of what remained.  All the people present (most of whom were familiar with the story of Elisha) came to see him as the Prophet who would save the world and were eager to carry him off and make him king, but Jesus instead withdrew to be alone.

Our second reading, continuing our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, has the evangelist reminding them to live in a manner worthy of their call:  With a love and unity of Spirit reflective of our one Lord, one faith, one baptism.  Not only does it support Paul’s message that we are bound together no matter how far we are separated, but it’s poetic rhythm and message of love and unity makes this reading a popular selection for weddings.

Final Thoughts:
Our Gospel tells us that Jesus was testing his Apostles because he knew what he was going to do when faced with the task of feeding such a large crowd.  Of course Jesus knew.  Even by putting aside his divine nature, Jesus the rabbi knew the scriptures and knew what the prophets through all the ages had said about the Messiah.  Not only had the prophets provided a roadmap for Jesus to follow, but they also provided the means by which the people would recognize the Messiah.  

But while the point of the story is to have us recognize Jesus for who he was through this miracle, we can sometimes miss the other important lesson from these readings – as our Psalm says, “the hand of the Lord feeds us, he answers all our needs.”  There are times where we all need to “let go and let God.”  That’s not to say that we ourselves don’t have some responsibility in the matter.  We can’t expect God to do all the work, but neither should we forget that God is there for us and that there are those times when we need to summon up the courage to ask.  If we to turn to him, he will be there to feed us and see us through.