Even though the Gospel today comes from the Gospel of John it flows on from that of last week which was from the Gospel of Mark. The people having followed Jesus around the lake and been taught by him are now in need of food. The intention of Jesus is not just to feed the people with his Word but also to meet their physical needs. He also wants his disciples, who have been taught by him, to be attentive to the people's hunger. This structure echoes that found elsewhere in both the Old and the New Testaments. On Mount Sinai Moses reads the Book of the Covenant and then the elders ate and drank (Ex 24: 9-17). On the way to Emmaus the risen Lord teaches the two disciples and then feeds them (Lk 24: 13-35). Likewise, this is the case in the liturgy of the Mass: "Blessed indeed is your Son, present in our midst when we are gathered by his love, and when, as once for the disciples, so now for us, he opens the Scriptures and breaks the bread." (Eucharistic Prayers for Masses for Various Needs) We need to be fed both by the Word and the Sacrament to equip us for God's purposes. We have to attend to bodily needs as well as looking to the spiritual. It is also not enough that we listen to the Word we also need to embody it and put it into practice: "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, not being hearers who forget but doers who act - they will be blessed in their doing." (James 1: 22-25)
No comments:
Post a Comment