17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

A great prophet has appeared among us;
God has visited his people. LK 7:16

2 KINGS 4:42-44

My Soul's Beloved,

My Lord and my God, my God and my all. You O Lord are our plenty. You O Lord satisfy the deepest hunger of our soul. You O Lord are enough. When we offer You the little that we have, You receive it, bless it, multiply it, and give it back to us so we may share the abundance generously with everyone around us.

You want us to trust in You and not in what we possess. You ask us to have faith and to act in confidence knowing that You will supply us with everything we need when we need it. Nothing offered to You is in vain, You return generously, in full measure, shaken together and overflowing. Our faith is small. Our fear and anxiety keep us from being as generous as we ought. Our selfishness and our self-centredness cramps us and makes us close in on ourselves as we shrivel and die. But when we are magnanimous and give freely just as we freely have received the jar of flour will never be empty and the jar of oil will never run dry.  

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing Elisha, the man of God, bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain in the ear.’ ‘Give it to the people to eat’, Elisha said. But his servant replied, ‘How can I serve this to a hundred men?’ ‘Give it to the people to eat’ he insisted ‘for the Lord says this, “They will eat and have some left over.”’ He served them; they ate and had some left over, as the Lord had said.

PSALM 144(145):10-11,15-18

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,

  and your friends shall repeat their blessing.

They shall speak of the glory of your reign

  and declare your might, O God.

The eyes of all creatures look to you

  and you give them their food in due time.

You open wide your hand,

  grant the desires of all who live.

The Lord is just in all his ways

  and loving in all his deeds.

He is close to all who call him,

  who call on him from their hearts.

You open wide your hand, O Lord, and grant our desires.

EPHESIANS 4:1-6

My Soul's Beloved,

You do not make impossible demands of us. You have loved us with an everlasting love. You poured Your life and Your love for us on Calvary and You have shown us what authentic love is - it is willing the good of the beloved. Following Your example, the Apostles and all holy men and women have shown us that even though many of them were once great sinners and have lived lives that were in contradiction to God's law, after their conversion, with the help of God's grace and the Holy Spirit, they lived lives of heroic virtue. 

We cannot be holy or perfect without Your help but we need to desire to be holy and perfect before the Holy Spirit can make us what God always intended us to be when He first created the human race.

Today, in his epistle, St. Paul teaches us what is pleasing in Your sight. Give us O Lord all we need today to delight You by being selfless, gentle, and patient with everyone we meet today. Fill us with Your peace and help us never to forget that we are members of Your Body. The health of each member affects the entire body so Lord, keep us holy and enkindle in us the fire of Your love.

There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

JOHN 6:1-15

My Soul's Beloved,

The Eucharist is the supersubstantial bread that we ask for when we pray the prayer that You taught Your Apostles and disciples - the Our Father. This miracle of the multiplication of the 5 loaves and 2 fish is a foreshadowing of the true miracle that occurs from the rising of the sun to its setting all over the world - at the Holy Mass when the priest takes the host in his hands and says the prayer that You prayed at the Last Supper and the host is transformed in Your Body and the wine into Your Blood. This is the food that wells up to eternal life in us.

In today's Gospel, St. John gives us a detailed account of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Large crowds followed You seeking to touch You, be touched by Your, and be healed of all that ailed them in heart, mind, soul, body, and spirit. It was near the feast of Passover. Around this time You would soon institute the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper when the Sacrifice of Your Life would be consummated on the Cross at Calvary.

Looking at Philip You said, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ Philip focusing on the vast crowd before him and forgetting who it was that asked him the question, gave the practical response, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ Andrew on the other hand, revealed that there was a boy present who had five barley loaves and two fish - but he too, focused on the meagre quantity of food and the impossible task before them. He too overlooked that You were in their midst despite witnessing all the signs and wonders You had worked.

You asked both of them to get the people to sit on the grass, the Shepherd was about to lead His sheep to green pastures where He would feed them. Taking the five loaves and two fish You gave thanks to Your Father in heaven and asked the disciples to distribute it to the crowds. They did. Five thousand people not counting women and children ate until they were satisfied. Having eaten enough, You instructed 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. 

Lord Jesus, we thank You for the gift of the Holy Mass and the Holy Eucharist - Your precious Body with which You feed Your people, nourish us, and give us strength for the journey from this life to the life that is to come. 

Thank You, Lord Jesus, thank You Father for the gift of Your Son in the Holy Eucharist, thank You Holy Spirit for Your power that makes the miracle a reality. Thank You for Your Church and for Your priests and grant us many more vocations that we may always have holy men consecrated as priests to minister to us until You return in glory. Maranatha! Lord Jesus, Maranatha!