A Miracle Greater Than
Feeding Five Thousand
If you look around Centerville, practically every other building
is a church. All these churches are visible signs of how seriously our
local area views faith in Jesus Christ. One of the great advantages of
living in the United States is religious liberty. Rather than stifling Christianity,
this freedom has actually encouraged Christianity to grow. As Americans,
we have the right to choose whatever religion we want to embrace, or to
practice no religion at all. As those who profess Christ, we have the
right to choose whatever church we want to attend and how we are going to be
fed in our faith. However, even though we can choose where
and how we worship God, the question should be asked: Is there a way that
He has given us by which Jesus wants us to worship Him?
Is there a way that He has established for us to be fed?
In today’s gospel, we hear the “Miracle of the Feeding of the
Five Thousand” (Mt 14:13-21). This miracle is recorded in all four
Gospels. (By the way, this was a miracle. To believe
that 5,000 men simply shared 5 loaves and 2 fishes might give
you mushy feelings, but logistically it would have been impossible unless
Christ had actually worked a miracle for them.) Our Lord miraculously
multiplied the loaves and fishes for possibly over ten thousand people when you
count women and children. The prophet Elisha prefigured this miracle when
he multiplied twenty barley loaves to feed one hundred men, with some bread
left over (2 Kgs 4:42-44). Look closely at the words the gospel passage
uses: Christ took the loaves, said the blessing, broke the
loaves, and gave them to the disciples (Mt 14:19).
Does that formula sound familiar? It should because that is the same
formula the priest says in the Eucharistic Prayer during the consecration of
the Sacred Host. The “Miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand” — of
the Lord meeting the bodily needs of his followers — is the prefigurement of
an even greater miracle, that is, the miracle of changing simple
bread and wine into His own living Body and Blood!
This is what makes our form of worship different from any
Christian denomination: The way we worship God and the way we are fed is not
something we Catholics invented. We have received this holy form of
worship, this sacred Food and Drink as a divine gift: “Do this in
memory of me” (Lk 22:19). We must approach this Mystery of
Faith with deep reverence and profound thanksgiving. Does this mean that
we believe other Christians are not worshiping God? No. Does this mean
that we believe contemporary, upbeat, entertaining, mega church, or cowboy
worship styles are evil? No. But objectively there is a deficiency
to these kinds of worship because they are in discontinuity with the essential
Form by which the Church has worshiped God and been fed for two millennia.
The novelty of our Catholic faith is that Jesus Christ instituted the Blessed
Sacrament out of love for us — not just to have us come together for a
community breakfast — but to feed us with Himself. He desires us to have
true Communion (true fellowship) with Him and therefore to establish solid
communion (solid fellowship) with one another. Holy Communion is more
authentic than just “feeling good,” or “enjoying the music,” or even “liking
the pastor.” These things change, and pastors come and go, but Christ
remains the same. The Eucharist is the way Jesus remains with us always,
until the end of time (Mt 28:20).
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