XVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

The essential food to live

Readings: Is 55:1-3; Rom 8:35,37-39; Mt 14:13-21

Jesus is constantly attentive to the material needs of those he meets. This is also revealed by his care in multiplying loaves and fish for the hungry crowds, a miracle that is reported to us by all four Evangelists, but which Matthew and Mark tell us twice (Mt 14:13-21; 15:32-39; Mk 6:30-44; 8:1-16; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-13). On that occasion Jesus urges the disciples: “Give them something to eat yourselves” (Mt 14:16; Mk 6:37; Lk 9:13): all of us must take on the suffering of those in need, it is everyone’s task to feed the hungry of this world. “It is a Christian duty, therefore, to point out the inhumanity of economic laws that even today prevent a large part of humanity from being able to feed, quench their thirst, and properly care for themselves” (A. Agnelli). Furthermore, Jesus teaches that it is coparticipation that works the miracle of solving everyone’s problem: the few loaves and fish offered to him are transformed by the power of his Word into the satisfaction of the crowd’s food needs. The “twelve baskets” (Mt 14:20; Mk 6:43; Lk 9:17; Jn 6:13) or, depending on the versions, the “seven baskets” (Mt 15:37) of leftover bread, are a sign of the miraculous superabundance that can derive from sharing.

Jesus always teaches that “material needs must be satisfied… All human, religious, and socio-economic laws that prevent access to the goods of the earth must be annulled” (A. Agnelli). What a warning for our economy, which places capital at its center and certainly not the person!

But, as Jesus recalls, “man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3). In the Old Testament, the Word of God is often compared to food, just as in today’s first reading (Is 55:1-3; cf. Prov 8:22-24; 9:1-6; Sir 24:1, 17-21). In John, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves in chapter 6 is followed by the great explanatory discourse on the Eucharist, a text in which exegetes struggle to understand what Jesus refers to his Word and what he refers to his Body.

The account of the multiplication of the loaves contains clear Eucharistic references: as in the Last Supper, Jesus “said the blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples” (Mt 14:19; cf. Mt 26:26). Already the paintings in the catacombs resort to the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves to represent the Eucharist, food for life: “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (Jn 6:35,48,51,55). Jesus is the Bread that does not perish (Jn 6:27): to this world that seeks a thousand loaves, the Gospel reiterates that there is “only one bread” (Mk 8:14), “the true one…, he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (Jn 6:32-33). Jesus, the Bread, is the great “sign” (Jn 6:30) given by the Father: to the Jews who, as we often do, polemically ask for wonders in order to believe (Jn 6:30; cf. 1 Cor 1:22), the miracle of a God who gives himself totally is offered, who lets himself be broken, who lets himself be eaten, who becomes “bread of life”. Christ satisfies our deepest needs, fulfills our expectations, dispels our fears, overcomes our creaturely limits. Every Eucharist of ours must truly be total adherence to Christ, so as “never to go hungry and never to go thirsty” for eternity (Jn 6:35), to be filled by his immense love from which nothing, the second reading tells us (Rom 8:35,37-39), will ever be able to separate us.

Furthermore, while when we eat normal food it is metabolized in our organism, becoming our flesh and our blood, in taking the body and blood of Christ it is we who are “assimilated” into him. By eating the bread and drinking the Eucharistic wine one becomes “Christified”, one is transformed into the Lord (Jn 6:53-54,56-57). “The Eucharist transforms the faithful into itself” (Maximus the Confessor): by feeding on Christ we become him!

Source

• spazio + spadoni