Meditations
There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves
The Gospel for Sunday, August 3, 2008
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 14:13-21
The Eucharist bears the “mark of universality” and prefigures in a sacramental way the time when “all who share one human nature, regenerated in Christ through the Holy Spirit and beholding the glory of God, will be able to say with one accord: ‘Our Father’” (Ad Gentes, 7). In this way, while the Eucharist helps us to understand more fully the significance of mission, it leads every individual believer, the missionary in particular, to be “bread, broken for the life of the world.” Humanity has need of Christ “broken bread.”
In our day human society appears to be shrouded in dark shadows while it is shaken by tragic events and shattered by catastrophic natural disasters. Nevertheless, as “on the night he was handed over” (1 Corinthians 11:23), also today Jesus “breaks the bread” (cf Matthew 26:26) for us in our Eucharistic celebrations and offers himself under the sacramental sign of his love for all mankind. This is why I underlined that “the Eucharist is not merely an expression of communion in the Church’s life; it is also a project of solidarity for all of humanity” (Mane Nobiscum Domine, 27); it is “bread from heaven” which gives eternal life (cf John 6: 33) and opens the human heart to a great hope.
Present in the Eucharist, the same Redeemer who saw the needy crowds and was filled with compassion “because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36), continues through the centuries to show compassion for humanity poor and suffering. And it is in his name that pastoral workers and missionaries travel unexplored paths to carry the “bread” of salvation to all. They are spurred on by the knowledge that, united with Christ “center not just of the history of the Church, but also the history of humanity (cf. Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:15-20)” (Mane Nobiscum Domine, 6), it is possible to meet the deepest longings of the human heart. Jesus alone can satisfy humanity’s hunger for love and thirst for justice; He alone makes it possible for every human person to share in eternal life: ” I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:51). The Church, one with Christ, becomes “broken bread.”
When the ecclesial Community celebrates the Eucharist, especially on Sunday the Day of the Lord, it experiences in the light of the faith the value of the encounter with the Risen Christ and is ever more aware that the Sacrifice of the Eucharist is “of many” (Matthew 26:28). We who nourish ourselves with the Body and Blood of the crucified and risen Lord, cannot keep this “gift” to ourselves; on the contrary we must share it. Passionate love for Christ leads to courageous proclamation of Christ; proclamation which, with martyrdom, becomes a supreme offering of love for God and for mankind. The Eucharist leads us to be generous evangelizers, actively committed to building a more just and fraternal world…
...Still today Christ urges his disciples: “Give them some food yourselves” (Matthew 14:16). In his name missionaries all over the world proclaim and witness to the Gospel. Through their efforts there resound once again the words of the Redeemer: “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35); they too become “bread broken” for their brothers, some even to the point of sacrificing their lives. How many missionary martyrs in our day! May their example draw numerous young men and women to tread the path of heroic fidelity to Christ! The Church has need of men and women willing to consecrate themselves wholly to the great cause of the Gospel…
May the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, help us relive the experience of the Upper Room so that our ecclesial Communities may become authentically “Catholic”; that is Communities where “missionary spirituality” which is “intimate communion with Christ” (Redemptoris Missio, 88), is closely related to “eucharistic spirituality” of which the model is Mary, the “woman of the Eucharist” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 53); Communities always open to the voice of the Spirit and to the needs of humanity, Communities where believers, missionaries in particular, do not hesitate to offer themselves as “bread, broken for the life of the world.”
Excerpted from Pope John Paul II’s Message for World Mission Sunday, February 22, 2005.
