Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072824.cfm

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Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
John 6:10-13

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Today’s readings are about being fed – not only in a physical sense, but also in a spiritual sense. Jesus’s miracle with the loaves and fishes fed a lot of hungry people, but it more importantly opened their eyes to his power to redeem them. It gave them hope, the spiritual food for which we all hunger.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We realize that the same Lavish Mercy which fed those on the ancient hillside feeds and transforms us throughout our lives. As Paul indicates in the second reading, it makes us one in the infinite abundance of God’s grace and call.

May we therefore “live in a manner worthy of the call we have received.”

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Poetry: When a Little Was Enough – Irene Zimmerman, OSF

“Send the people away from this deserted place
to find food and lodgings,” the
twelve urged Jesus,
“for the day is advanced and it is almost evening.”

Jesus looked at the crowd (there were about five thousand)
and looked at his disciples, still excited and tired
from their first mission journey.

What had they learned from
the villagers of Galilee
who shared bread and sheltered
them from cold night
winds?
What had they learned of human coldness
on the way?

He remembered the pain in his mother’s voice
as she told of his birth night when
they found no room
in all of Bethlehem, House of Bread.

 “You give them something to eat!” he said.

“We have only five loaves and two
fish!” they protested.
“How can we feed so many with so little?”
He understood their incredulity.

They had yet to learn that a little was enough
when it was all they had—
that God could turn these very stones to bread.

“Have the crowd sit down in
groups of fifty,” he said.
Jesus took the food and looked up to heaven.
He blessed it, broke it, gave it to the disciples
to distribute to the new-formed churches.

Afterwards, when everyone was satisfied,
 the twelve filled twelve baskets
of bread left over—
as faith stirred like yeast within them.

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Music: I Am – by Finding Favor

While you were sleeping
While the whole world was dreaming
I never left your side
And I can promise I won’t be leaving

I watch you breathing
And I hear you singing
I feel your heart beat and I know every pain
That you’re feeling

And I am the comfort when you are afraid
I am the refuge when you call my name
I was, I’ll be, I am

I know you’re broken
You’re busted wide open
You’ve fallen to pieces and you feel there’s nothing left
You can hope in

But I’ll hold you together
We’ll stand the weather
Cause I paid the price for you
And I won’t let you go, no never

And I am the comfort when you are afraid
I am the refuge when you call my name
I was, I’ll be, I am

And I am the future, and I am the past
I am the first and I am the last
I was, I’ll be, I am

I am the Father, I am the Son
I am the Spirit, I am the One
I was, I’ll be, I am

And I wore the thorns and I took the nails
I am love, and love never fails
I was, I’ll be, I am
I am, I am, I am