Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of John (6: 1-15) in which Jesus enables five loaves and two fish to be shared among a very large crowd on a hillside near the sea of Galilee.
Over the last days, Fr Paul says, we have heard Jesus conversing with Nicodemus and what they talked about was being born again of water and the Spirit, which we as a church do through Baptism. In this Gospel, the focus changes to another sacrament, the Eucharist. It, too, is life giving.
In the other Gospels Jesus is seen as the shepherd looking after his sheep, feeding them, and caring for them. John has this too, but he goes also goes back to Moses and how he fed the people in the desert. Jesus climbs the mountain, just like Moses did. Jesus feeds the people, just like Moses did. People immediately see Jesus as another Moses, as a prophet, but Jesus is a greater prophet than Moses or Elijah because he feeds vast numbers of people; five thousand with five loaves.
The lesson of today’s Gospel is that God wants to care for us and satisfy our needs. Fr Paul says, we might be mindful of this as we continue our day.
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