Apr 11, 2024
(Acts 5:34-42; Ps.27:1,4,13-14; Jn.6:1-15)
“I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord
in the land of the living.”
Seeing the vast crowd following Him up the mountain as He seeks to sit with His disciples, Jesus asks the one without guile, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat.” In honesty Philip answers, essentially, “It is impossible.” Ah, but nothing is impossible with God.
Brothers, is it not their seeing “the bounty of the Lord” that causes the apostles to leave the Sanhedrin and the whipping they received at their hands “full of joy that they had been judged worthy of ill-treatment for the sake of the Name”? And is not this bounty revealed most clearly here “in the land of the living” in the Bread of Life Jesus provides for us at His Eucharistic table? And so should we not rejoice every day in this miracle?
“Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord.” Are not David’s words the ones Jesus speaks to His children in the feeding of the five thousand? Should the apostles not but sing, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?” as they stand each with one of the “twelve baskets full of pieces left over” from the miracle brought about at the Lord’s hands? Does He not here convey their mission of feeding His sheep?
And filled by the food at their hands, should not our own reaction be in accord with the joy expressed by the people in that green field, “This is undoubtedly the Prophet who is to come into the world”? For does He not come into us each time we receive Him?
But king He shall not be made, not in this world. No, this world cannot contain His Kingship, for we have a greater than David here. The land of the living will ultimately be not upon this grass beneath our feet, but upon the clouds of Heaven. Thus the persecution comes, you see. Thus those who go about “fighting God Himself” scourge and crucify the Word they cannot bear and the messengers who bring it to their ears. But the ill-treatment that comes by their jealous hands brings no fear but only encouragement to the hearts of His apostles.
Brothers and sisters, let us be as they who “day after day, both in the temple and at home… never stopped teaching and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus the Messiah,” making always this world as one with the kingdom of God.
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O LORD, it is by faith we are fed,
and so let us seek you with all our hearts,
with our very lives.
YHWH, let us come to the Eucharistic banquet, that your Son may enter into us and we ever dwell as your temple in this world. Your bounty is revealed now, wrought by the hands of Jesus and brought to us by His disciples – let us partake of the Bread you provide and rejoice in all your blessings.
None can fight you, O LORD our God; none can destroy what you bring to life. And so, though whipped and ill-treated for the sake of the Name of our Savior, we can but rejoice indeed. For you cannot be overcome, nor those upon whom your Spirit rests. As we follow in the footsteps of your Son, we shall ever live with you.
In your House let us indeed make our home; you are our refuge, O LORD, and with you we are never afraid. For the destroying angel shall pass over all who eat of the flesh of the Lamb, all who are anointed by His blood.