THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Sixth Sunday after Pentecost 30 June 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

The Gospels record two instances when Our Lord multiplied bread and fish to feed the people. In the earlier account, He fed five thousand men with five loaves; here He feeds four thousand from seven loaves.

The first occurrence relates to the Israelites the second one to the Gentiles. In the first, we see the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) symbolized. The Israelites were near at hand and were fed from the five books. In this first place we see they rested upon grass. The Israelites were given a great many blessings from God throughout their history, but they were still clinging to this earth and the pleasures of this life. We see that this life is as beautiful and pleasant as the grass and flowers of the field, but it soon fades away or is burnt up. The Israelites had a very difficult time in rising above the earth and this flesh. Christ came to these first. He performed many miracles for these people, yet they could not or would not lift their hearts up to higher spiritual realities and love. They were still eager to form an earthly kingdom and followed Christ in the hope of entering into an earthly kingdom where they would rule over all other people. Their fickle hearts Christ tried to lift up to Himself and to a spiritual life rather than the temporal life that was spent adhering to laws and regulations only for the earthly benefit while they neglected the heavenly one. Christ fed them first and many returned only for the feeding of their bodies or the healing or benefit of their bodies. For this reason, we see that Jesus then approached the water and got in a boat so that these people could not reach Him. He was still trying to impress upon them the idea of a spiritual reality and something above the physical world. In drawing away from them physically they were being led to establish a spiritual connection. We likewise are called upon to connect or reconnect in this spiritual relationship to God. Many are forced by physical circumstances to unite themselves spiritually with the Mass and Sacraments and in this way hear the voice of God from a distance. They are forced to no longer rely upon the earthly food and blessings that God sends us in this world, but rather to raise their minds to spiritual realities and to look deeper into the true faith and therefore the true life.

This second occurrence symbolizes the Gentiles. They have come from a great distance and they too are quite earthly, but they are more inclined to have faith in God without the confusion of an earthly kingdom. The seven loaves show us the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.” (Is, 11, 2) This is a much greater gift than the Pentateuch. Though the Gentiles came from a distance and have not been following the Law, they have nonetheless made great strides of spiritual progress. We see that this group sat upon the ground and not the grass. In this manner, they tread down the things of the earth.

In the first, there were twelve baskets filled with the Holy Spirit; in this one there are seven baskets or seven Churches or the seven golden candle-sticks. (Apoc 1. 4, 20). In the first, there were two fishes symbolizing the prophets, and the preaching of St. John the Baptist; in the second there is an undefined number which are the gifts of grace, as the Apostle says: “To one, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another prophecy, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of speeches, But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh” (I Cor. 12, 8).

St. Maximus (bishop) says: “We who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, not through the Law but by faith, who are redeemed, not by its works but by grace itself; who are filled, not from the five loaves, that is, from the Five Books of Moses, but by the seven-fold grace of the Holy Spirit, as blessed Isaias had prophesied, saying: ‘The Spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge, and of piety; And he shall be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord’ (Is. 11), let us continue in this grace of the Sevenfold Spirit, in which we were called, being filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 38) through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns in the Unity of the Holy Ghost God for ever and ever. Amen.”