A boy with food

Last week we saw Jesus arriving at a lonely place to spend time with his apostles and instead found a great multitude of people. He had compassion on them and began to teach them many things. When Jesus finished talking to them the apostles hoped that he was going to send them away. But instead, Jesus told them to feed the whole crowd first. After looking after their souls, now he looked after their bodies. Jesus gives us a good example. Our souls are more important than our bodies. Our bodies are recyclable; our souls are eternal. We normally think too much about our bodies. We assume that the body is the container for the soul, but it is the other way around: the soul contains the body.

The apostles had a problem: they had to feed a big crowd without resources. Phillip said they had only 200 denaries in the money box, not enough to give them a morsel each. Andrew found a boy with some food. We too come across problems in our daily lives. Some of them difficult ones. We use our talents to find solutions. We can ask God to help us but we cannot expect God to fix all our problems. Once a man was asking God to win the lottery; an angel appeared to him and told him to at least buy a ticket.

Many people among the crowd had a bit of food when the apostles tried to solve the problem, but only one boy offered them his lunch. These people thought that if they kept their food, at least they would have had enough for themselves. It was useless to offer what they had for a huge number of people. We don’t know the name of this boy. We only know that he gave his lunch to Jesus. The boy knew that his lunch wasn’t much, but he gave it to Jesus regardless. Without it maybe Jesus wouldn’t had performed the miracle.

Why did Jesus ask for some food if he could have performed the miracle out of nothing? Because he wants us to cooperate with him. Jesus wants to use our little humanity to perform his miracles. Even though we are nothing compared to God, and he doesn’t need us, he wants us to feel useful. It is like when a father asks his little son to give him a hand with whatever he is doing.

This is the only miracle described by the four evangelists. They were so impressed that they all wanted to tell the world about it. Food was very important in ancient times. I imagine the boy looking with curiosity at what Jesus was going to do with his five sandwiches of bread and fish. He put them in a basket, where people couldn’t see them, blessed them, and began to give them to the people. You could see the eyes of the boy, open wide without blinking, counting; they became big like plates, when more than five appeared. There were thousands of them! He ran back home shouting, to tell his mum: My bread! My fish! He brought her some samples, beautiful bread, just baked; fresh fish, still moving.

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Come away by yourselves

Last week we saw Jesus sending the apostles two by two to preach the Gospel, to announce the kingdom of heaven. Today we see them coming back, excited by all the good things that happened to them, the people they healed and the devils they cast out. They couldn’t stop talking about their adventures. They were all talking at the same time. Jesus realised that they needed a break. You can imagine the atmosphere of Jesus group, people coming and going all the time. We can see here the intensity of Jesus’ ministry. Such was his dedication to the souls that Saint Mark twice mentions that his disciples did not even have time to eat. The same should happens to us: we don’t have time to rest. Saint Josemaria says that “whoever gives himself to work for Christ, cannot expect to have a free moment, for even to rest is not to do nothing: it is to relax, with activities that require less effort.” We too are busy, fulfilling our duties, doing God’s work.

Benedict XVI likes to remember his favourite anecdote about John Paul II: “When the Pope was in Munich on his first trip to Germany, I saw what an incredible itinerary he had, that he was continuously busy from first thing in the morning till last thing at night. Then I thought to myself: This really shouldn’t be done! You have to introduce a little rest. I then ensured him there would be a nice lunch break. He had only just gone at lunchtime when he called me, saying I should come up quickly. When I came up, he had just prayed with his breviary. I said: ‘Holy Father, you simply must rest now!’ ‘I can rest in eternity,’ he said.”

We are busy doing many things, but sometimes we don’t do what we are supposed to be doing. We tend to be lazy and we spend our time doing the things we enjoy. Business’s collapse when people don’t do what it is important, but busy themselves in doing the things they like. We should tackle the difficult jobs first in the morning and leave the easy ones for when we are tired. We need to have our priorities right.

Jesus realised that the apostles needed to have a rest. From time to time Jesus used to take them away to have a break, to wind down, to be together by themselves and to pass his message to them. We too need a rest. Saint Augustine says that “a cord cannot endure constant tension, and an archer needs to loosen the ends of a bow if he wants to be able to draw it again later on.” We cannot forget that we have a limited amount of energy, and we all need to recover. God, after creating the universe, he rested on the seventh day to give us an example.

When they arrived at the place where they were going, they met a great multitude of people. We can imagine the disappointment of the apostles, looking forward to a few days with Jesus alone, when they encountered this big crowd. They knew what was going to happen. The Gospel says that Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.” It is beautiful to see Jesus reaction, how Jesus’ heart felt the need of his people. The apostles learned a good practical lesson they never forgot. All the readings of today’s Mass are centred on Jesus the Good Shepherd. He is the one who says to us: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.” Only with him we can find true rest.

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Two by two apostles

Last week Saint Paul told us about the thorn in our flesh, a reminder of our fallen nature. This week in his letter to the Ephesians he tells us about our dignity: “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” There is always the danger of falling into one extreme or the other: to think that either we are hopeless or we are another god. Our Christian faith help us to keep the balance: we are inclined to evil, but God can help us to become holy. We are all called to holiness and if we don’t achieve it, it is because deep down we don’t want to, or we want to follow our own devices or desires.

Pope Leo the Great reminds us of this reality: “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom. Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.” Through our Baptism we have become a new creation, we belong to God. He reminds us all the time: “You are mine, you belong to me.”

In today’s Gospel we see Jesus sending his apostles two by two, to preach the Gospel, heal the people and cast out devils. The same thing he has done with us. He has placed us in this world, appointed us apostles through our Baptism and sent us to share our faith with others. The Gospel of today is a reminder of our responsibility to bring others to Christ. It is a good moment today to ask ourselves how we are fulfilling this task: Do we think in our daily lives in these terms? Are we aware that through our example we are giving witness to our faith?

Jesus gave specific instructions to his apostles: “He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick.” Why is this? Because there is no time. We have to be on the move. We come from God and we are going back to God. We are pilgrims, travelers, we are passing by. When you look at Jesus in the Gospel, he is always moving from one place to the other. He never stays in one place for too long. He wants to reach as many people as possible, to share the good news with the crowds, with every person. The same should happen to us.

Nothing should separate us or distract us from our mission. We need to feel the sense of urgency the Gospel give us. We were born naked and we cannot take anything with us. Nothing should slow us down. We cannot go to heaven alone. We need to bring with us the people God has placed close to us. Let us pray to see how we can become better apostles, to discover the obstacles or the barriers that don’t let us see what God wants us to do now.

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Thorn in my flesh

Today, in the second reading, from the second letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, the Apostle talks about a thorn in his flesh. After talking about his vision of heaven, he says that God gave him a thorn not to become proud. Even though he managed to have a glimpse of eternity, he couldn’t forget about his human nature. He says of himself: “it kept me from being too elated.” It happens to us too. We have in our hearts a desire for an everlasting happiness, but we touch every day our limitations, our daily shortcomings. We go from knowing that we are called to holiness, to our experience that only God can make us holy.

We call it original sin. You can call it what you want, but we all have the experience of our fallen nature. We do what we don’t want to do, and we don’t do what we ought to do. We are lazy, proud, selfish, too concerned about ourselves, full of insecurities, anxious, easy to lose our temper, prone to react wrongly. Saint Paul calls it a thorn in his flesh. We can relate to that. We don’t know the specific affliction the Apostle is talking about. Some people say it was a physical malady, others the tribulations caused by the continuous persecutions to the Church, and some say a temptation, especially lust. Lust makes us humble because we touch in our own flesh our feeble nature.

There are two areas where human beings, normally fall down, and both begin with “ch”: charity and chastity. It is a common experience that we all have to struggle in these two virtues, against ourselves and against others, or to put it another way, integrating our sexuality and loving others as Christ did. We are going to bear these two thorns till the end of our lives. We need to be patient. As long as we are aware of them and we ask for God’s help, we are on the right path. Better the devil you know.

Saint Paul asked God three times to get rid of his thorn. How many times we have asked God to ease the pressure of our sins, to put a chain on the devil? We too would like to have no temptations, not to have to struggle against our limitations. We think that we would have a better life if we had control of our flesh. But God answered the Apostle three times: “My grace is enough for you.” God is telling us: “You have sufficient power from me to resist any temptation.” We know that, but we keep falling down. Why is it? Why is it so difficult to live without sin?

The answer comes also from on High: “Power is made perfect in weakness.” Precisely, God’s action is manifested when we experience our weaknesses, and we touch his omnipotence. God Almighty can lift our fallen human nature to amazing heights, even to become a bit like him, because his only begotten Son became man, for us to become like him. That thorn we feel in our flesh, so deeply ingrained, impossible to extract, can become the rocket which propels us towards holiness. Then we can say with Saint Paul: “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

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Sick woman

We can imagine the scene. We have seen it on the tv news from the Middle East, a religious leader surrounded by men, people trying to touch him, to get some power from him. The apostles were shielding Jesus, pushing people away. They say that when people try to touch a person in this way, the arms and hands are scratched, specially by women with their fingernails. It must have been hard for her to touch Jesus. She was a weak person, losing blood all the time. The Fathers of the Church see this woman as the Gentiles, who through faith were saved. We are represented by this woman, sick and in need of healing, losing our blood through our sins.

We don’t know how many times she tried to touch Jesus. She persevered, over and over again, without getting discouraged. She knew that Jesus was her last hope. She had spent all her money on physicians and only got worse. It is a veiled criticism of doctors. The apostles pushed her away time after time. She tried from different angles, for the apostles not to recognise her. She gives us an example of perseverance, of stubbornness. We need to begin and begin again all the time. We need to try to touch Jesus through the Eucharist, through the sacrament of confession, through our prayer. We need to find the way, the button to push. He is there and we need more faith to reach his mantle.

Eventually she only managed to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak. But this was enough; she was immediately healed. Jesus is so powerful that even his garments give away grace, energy and power. Imagine his flesh when we go to Communion. Many people were touching him, but only she was healed. Why? Because she touched him with real faith, knowing that Jesus was very holy. Saint Ambrose says that we should touch Jesus not with our fingers, but with our faith, knowing that he is the Son of God. If our faith is weak, we don’t have anything to touch him with. We need to ask him to increase our faith, so that we can be strong, so that we can reach the depths of his heart.

Blessed Bishop Alvaro used to bring this Gospel to his prayer just before Mass. She touched him, we eat him; she touched his garment, we eat his flesh; she was losing blood, we drink his blood. We need to approach him from behind, with fear and reverence. We only need to take what we need; don’t be greedy. We are touching the infinite power of God, be careful, we can blow up easily. It is a bit like touching an electric cable, or putting our hand into the lion’s mouth. Our sins are like insulators; they don’t allow us to experience his power.

Jesus stopped and asked: “Who has touched me?” The apostles were puzzled: “Everybody is touching you.” Jesus answered: “Power has gone out of me.” Why did he have this reaction if he knew what had happened? It was for us to know the miracle. If he hadn’t asked this question, we would never had known. A lot of things happened around Jesus that we don’t know. Most of the important things occur in the center of people’s souls. They will never appear on the news. All of us can talk about the little miracles that happened to us.

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Calming of the storm

I love this Gospel. We can see ourselves in the boat with Jesus, surrounded by a beautiful lake. It is still there; these natural elements don’t change. But it can become ugly. It is our experience of life. The sea in the Bible represents man depending on God’s mercy; anything could happen, we are not in control. We all have experienced good days and bad days. Why couldn’t life be good and beautiful? Because we are passing by; this is not our homeland. We are crossing the lake of life from one shore to the other, from the beginning to eternity. We don’t know how long it is going to take; we cannot see the other side. In any moment a storm can break out and we need to be ready. We cannot grow complacent and let the boat take its course. The devil is surrounding us like a roaring lion.

But we cannot forget that Jesus is in our boat. Or even better, we are with him. Even though many times he looks like he is asleep, he is always with us unless we push him out of our boat. We allow him to stay when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. But many times, when the storm comes, the wind blows and the waves beat against the hull of our boat, we push him away without thinking. No matter what happens, we cannot afford to sail without Jesus.

This scene in the Gospel of today is the only one where we see Jesus sleeping. He was so tired that he fell asleep and the storm didn’t wake him up. The apostles were so afraid that they woke him up. They didn’t allow him to rest. Saint Therese of Liseux has a beautiful quotation about letting Jesus keep resting: “Far from experiencing any consolation, complete aridity - desolation, almost - was my lot. Jesus was asleep in my little boat as usual. How rarely souls let Him sleep peacefully within them. Their agitation and all their requests have so tired out the Good Master that He is only too glad to enjoy the rest I offer Him. I do not suppose He will wake up until my eternal retreat, but instead of making me sad, it makes me very happy.” We are too quick to wake him up, to complain about what’s happening to us. Every storm in our lives has a meaning; we need to pray to find the clues. We either collapse mentally or we grow.

Jesus stood up and calmed the storm in one go. He complained about us, not letting him rest, and about our lack of faith, our lack of trust in him. With one word he can calm any storm in our lives. He knows what we are going through, and normally lets things happen. We need to trust in him, knowing that he is in our little boat with us. Once a man crossed the Niagara Falls walking on a cable pushing a wheel barrow. When he arrived at the other side people cheered him. He asked them if he should do it again. All encouraged him. He asked if anybody wanted to travel on the wheel barrow. You could hear a pin drop. We find it difficult to trust others.

The Gospel says that the apostles were very impressed with Jesus, saying: Who is this guy? Even the wind and the waves obey him. The four Gospels include this scene; it made a big impression on them. We know who he is and what he can do. We go to Mary our mother, Refuge of Sinners, Ark of the Covenant.

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The mustard seed

Today Jesus tries to explain the kingdom of heaven through two parables, using a comparison about seeds. He loves using natural images from the fields, from the human experience of farmers of that time. Unlike us, seeds were very important to them. We don’t normally buy seeds and plant them in the ground, unless you have a vegetable garden. But for those people seeds were the future. They had to plan how they were going to eat during the months ahead. We have supermarkets; all we need is money.

Seeds tell us about how things grow. It is a mysterious process that escapes our control. It shows us the power of nature; things grow in the most amazing places. It is the same with God’s things. He has his plans and has the power to produce fruit whenever he wants, wherever he wills. You learn a lot reading the history of the Church. How things are born small, grow to an amazing size and then they disappear. It is a circle that comes and goes. It is easy for us human beings to become proud of the achievements of God. We think that we are doing something, and all we do is to be a spanner in the works. Once pride comes in, God runs away. It is very important for us not to think that we are indispensable, that we are at the same level as God. We are just little children being more of a nuisance than any help.

Sometimes we doubt that God is in control. We can hardly notice the seeds sprouting, we don’t see the fruits, the actions of God in society. On the contrary, we touch more the machinations of the evil one, the hand of the devil clearly present among us. From our point of view we see only a flat terrain. John Paul II used to talk about the new evangelisation, a new spring in the Church. He could see it from his vantage point. We cannot see it with our large egos.

Pope Francis commenting on this parable says that “Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a small grain of mustard seed. It is a very small grain, but it grows to become the largest of all plants in the garden: unpredictable growth, surprising. It is not easy for us to enter into this logic of the unpredictable nature of God and to accept it in our own lives. But today the Lord exhorts us to have an attitude of faith that goes beyond our projects, our calculations, our forecasts. God is always the God of surprises, the Lord always surprises us. It is an invitation to open ourselves more generously to God’s plans.”

God normally works in this way, like the mustard seed. Things always begin small, with few people, sometimes with just a holy person, with a slow gradual process, quietly growing under the soil, with time to mature. God’s kingdom keeps growing. How did the Franciscans begin? Through a voice to a young man: rebuild my Church. It is something amazing, to look at the hand of God working through history. You cannot see it at a particular moment, but you notice it in the long run.

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Jesus’ relatives

It was very difficult for Jesus’ relatives to understand him, to figure out what had happened to him. For thirty years he had been the carpenter’s son, a good worker, a bit introverted, maybe shy, never married and liking going out on his own to pray in solitary places. Suddenly Jesus began his public life, preaching the Gospel, performing miracles and surrounding himself with twelve men, called apostles, going around villages and towns, with crowds following him. Why didn’t he show his talents before? Why didn’t he use them with his relatives and friends? They thought that either he had become mad, lost his mind, or an evil spirit had possessed him.

It happens to us when we take our faith seriously, when we have a conversion, when suddenly we find out what God wants from us. Our life takes on a new course, a bright star has been lighted and we see things with different eyes. People around us who haven’t seen our new light are left behind and don’t understand our new outlook. They think we have become fanatical, self-possessed or even a bit weird. They try to help us, to change our mind, to bring us back to reality. But we know where they are; we have been there before. And we know they cannot see what we see, they are not ready to experience what we are going through. We don’t want to change back and we would like them to discover what we see now. Sometimes by pushing our faith on them, we can make things worse. All we can do is give them a good example, to show them the strength of our faith, the promises of our hope and the warmth of our love.

Jesus’ relatives thought he was mad, and they were right; he was crazy for us. We cannot help being moved, realizing what Jesus did for love of us. Many saints, following Christ’s example, have been taken for madmen, because they were mad with love, mad with love for Jesus Christ. The Cure of Ars used to say: “To be holy, you need to be mad.” To follow Jesus you need to be out of your mind. Saint Francis was called the mad man of Assisi. Love is crazy and whoever is in love does crazy things. It is amazing what the saints have done for the love of God.

The other accusation against Jesus is that he was possessed by the devil. Jesus defends himself with a simple logic: if someone expels the devil this means that he is stronger than the devil. We are not to be afraid of the devil. Jesus uses his power to free us from the enslavement to Satan, which means “enemy”. His dominion has come to an end: the prince of this world is about to be cast out. Jesus’ victory over the power of darkness, shows that the light has already entered the world.

“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Saint Thomas Aquinas says that by saying this, Jesus gave preference to the eternal generation over the temporal one. Our Lady has an outstanding position in both. She was his mother on earth by generation, and his mother in heaven by obeying her Son above everything else. But Jesus obeyed her first, by being the best Son ever.

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