This is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary time. The Gospel of Mathew today follows or continues that of last Sunday wherein Jesus performed the miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves and two fish with which to feed a multitude of people. Following this occurrence, at nightfall, Jesus left the other disciple to go up into the hills and pray while the others got into a boat. A storm came up in the night and Jesus saw their predicament and came to them walking on the water.
When Peter saw it was Jesus, he called out to him to command him to come to Him. Jesus said, “Come.” Peter getting out of the boat began to walk on the water but when he recognized how strong the wind was, he became frightened and began to sink.
We remember that when the disciples first saw Jesus they thought he was a ghost. But He said to them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid.” These words have meaning for each of us in our personal contest for salvation, eternal life.
Sinking into the sea, Peter cried out: “Lord, save me.” And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught Peter and said to him, “O you of little faith. Why did you doubt?” Faith, our most precious gift must be guarded in the face of the trials of this life.
In the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel the sequence of events is almost the same but the majority of the 73 verses in that chapter take place at Caparnuam the day following the feeding of the five thousand and the nocturnal incident on the water. Jesus was there and the disciples and the others came looking for Him. He begins a lengthy teaching on the Eucharist for which the miracle of the loaves and the fish was a prelude and a sign.
Jesus begins in vs. 26 by saying “amen, amen I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen signs but because you have eaten of the loaves and have been filled. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for that which endures unto everlasting life which the Son of Man will give you.” That is if we seek him with all our heart. –The first commandment.
Today, we are strengthened and reconfirmed in our faith in Jesus, who is the only Son of God, a Divine Person, the Word become flesh who dwelt among us. We are to take courage. Do not be afraid- to harbor no doubts about Jesus words or actions, as they are made known to us in our lives and by the church.
The disciples came looking for Jesus because they had had their fill of bodily food and they wanted to continue to have a ready supply. But Jesus is leading them to a higher meaning, to a supernatural reality. In John 6, He reminds them that although their ancestors in the desert had received the manna from heaven they died none the less. “I am the true bread come down from heaven.” If anyone eats of this bread he will not die. The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Conversely, he said, “Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.” And we must do this worthily and in union with the Lord, and in his divine purpose.
The most holy Eucharist issues forth from Christ’s passion and suffering, His death on the cross and His resurrection and ascension into heaven, body and soul. Christ Himself is the church which was brought forth from the wound in his side from which issued both blood and water, the signs of eternal life in the water of Baptism and the flesh and blood of the Eucharist. The loaves and fish of the miracle of multiplication are themselves signs of the Eucharist. But these are only signs when compared to the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Old Testaments accounts are pointing to the source of our salvation which is Christ’s death on the cross which is the font of sanctifying grace re-experienced in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The first story in Genesis of God’s testing of Abraham in the command to sacrifice his only son Isaac, which was withdrawn when it was clear that our Father in Faith Abraham would obey. In Leviticus 16 is the high holy day of the atonement wherein the sins and faults of the people are laid on the head of a goat who is led out into a desert place.
Then there is the Passover of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. In Exodus, they are commanded where the angel of death passed over the houses where the blood of the lamb had been put on the door posts. To secure a one year old male unblemished lamb, slaughter it and eat it hastily. And finally in Lk. 22 is the last super, the Passover meal at which Jesus becomes the designated Lamb of sacrifice of the next day for the life of the world.
God the Creator and Father of all is a mystery. His ways are mysterious. He says in Scripture, “Your ways are not my ways and my ways are not your ways.” However, when we see and hear Jesus we can know God the Father. Jesus said in answer to Philip’s statement, “’Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ ‘Phillip, have I been with you so long and you have not known me? He who sees me sees the Father, for I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The Father and I are one.’”
The Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Baltimore Catechism and the recent Catechism of the Catholic Church all have the same thing to say about the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from which comes the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation, the most Holy Eucharist, the most Holy Sacrament of the altar.
Jesus Christ is our Passover, the Lamb of God. At the Passover in the upper room in Jerusalem the Lord took bread gave it to the disciples saying, “This is my body.” and taking the cup he said “this is the cup of my blood in the new and everlasting Covenant.” As Christ had the power to multiply the five loaves and two fish, He has the power to change the substance of the bread and wine into His body and blood. He, Jesus, who will submit to immolation on the cross the following day and as God said, “come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy and my burden light.” His yoke is the cross given to each of us to carry.
Our salvation, the judgment we receive, will be subject to God’s mercy, but also to His justice. Did we truly believe in Jesus Christ? Did we obey and observe the commandments and the precepts of the Church which contain the fullness of the moral and the natural law? And did we love God as He loved us from the cross? If we died with Him, we will live with him. If we suffered with Him, He will raise us to new and eternal life on the last day.
People should have a clear understanding of the Holy Mass as the sacrifice of Calvary. The idea of a community meal and fellowship gathering has crept in to the action of the most holy and sacrificial work of the Lord, the perception that a priest acting as a presider blesses bread and wine for the people to partake of as a celebration. This latter is a wrong perception.
At the consecration, it is Christ who speaks the words through His priest who stands at the altar in personae Christi. He says, “This is my Body.” And likewise, “This is the cup of my Blood.” The Church teaches that this occurs by way of transubstantiation. The changing of the substance of the species. Bread and wine are no longer present but have been replaced by, or transformed into, the divine Person of Christ, into His body, blood, soul and divinity. Through our carrying of the cross, the obedience of Abraham and by means of the worthy reception of the Eucharist we can be transformed into Christ. The Church has a Latin Phrase:
Lex Credende lex Orandi
Lex orandi, Lex Credende
As we believe so shall we pray and as we pray so shall we believe. We must be firmly established in the absolute truth of our holy Catholic faith.
Jesus says, “Do not work for the bread that perishes. But rather for that which endures unto everlasting life.” “Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice and all these other things will be given you beside.” “Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven".
Sanctifying Grace is the coin of the heavenly realm of which Jesus is the king and judge seated at the right hand of the Father. He says to us today, “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.”
Please God, we will not falter and sink through fright or hear the words addressed to Peter, “O, You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
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