OMELIE / Omelie EN

28 lug 2024

28/07/2024 - 17th Sunday in O. T. - B

28/07/2024 - 17^th Sunday in O. T. - B

Reading 1 2KINGS 4,42-44 Psalm 144 Reading 2 EPH 4,1-6 Gospel JN 6,1-15

The prophet Elisha's servant could not obey him. His master’s orders were too extravagant: if he had obeyed him, he would have ended up being shamed, the way He thought about it. He had to present a hundred men with only twenty loaves of barley bread: it was really a small amount. It was better to give nothing, even, letting everyone cater for themselves!

But Elisha repeats the order: the servant has to obey. So the glory of God can be revealed: God Himself obeys the loving words of His servant.

The sign of the Father’s love is repeated thanks to Jesus’ words. His disciples, finding themselves in an even more precarious situation than the prophet's, can only make calculations about money. Phillip first and then Peter do not even remember the story about Elisha, and they make calculations the first one about how much money they would need, the other about how empty is their purse: both are not confident they will be able to help those people. Jesus instead knows He is loved by the Father, and He knows that the Father does not take into account money, but only His love. Not only the Father loves His disciples, but also the whole crowd of five thousand men which has been following Him for days to listen to Him. He is certain the Father will take care of it.

Jesus climbs on the mountain, knowing that the mountain is the place where God’s presence and beauty will be shown to men: God will show Himself thanks to His faith and through the words with which He will thank Him, and through the simple but trusty actions born out of His confidence in the Father. To make the revelation of God’s presence and goodness happen, Jesus wants the men’s collaboration: of His disciples’, but also of a boy’s, who offers his very little things and entrusts them into His hands.

Five loaves of bread and two fish become the symbol of God’s miracles! When someone gives his everything, everything he has and everything he is, He can operate miracles, so to show us clearly what is His will for us: He wants that we share everything, we truly live as brethren, as true children of God who is love.

The apostle’s ecommendations to the Christians go in this direction too: you are brothers, so…you should live loving one another like brothers.

You are brothers, but not perfect: you are still sinners, so stand one another, do not let your defects or your sins have a bigger influence than your kinship. Be brothers, so be united, in peace, using tenderness, humility and mercy.

You are brothers because God is your Father, so do not let your sins or your brethren’s sins delete this identity of yours: forgive one another, have mercy on one another, live not to affirm your interests but to give glory to your Father.

Saint Paul insists on the fact we are united in one body thanks to Jesus, so we have no right or reason to destroy this unity. We think that other people’s sins or our own interests might be good reasons to quarrel, but in this way we ruin the best thing we have, our unity and, above all, we hinder the coming of the kingdom of God.

The material interest of men has pushed Jesus to distance Himself from that crowd fed by the bread come from His prayer and His hands. The people wanted Him as king, a king who was dispensing bread for free, a king who was obeying their desires and then their will. They did not understand that in order to eat the bread of joy they needed to be brethren and give up their own interests.

The people who had not recognised in Him the One sent by God, sent to take away the sin which divides. Jesus has retired on the mountain, this time by Himself, to help the people to take responsibility, meditating more deeply on the experience they had. He, on the mountain, by Himself, will have again the precious possibility to live the intimacy with His Father, to listen to Him, to gather strength in order to obey His will, to offer Himself more decisively to fulfill His plans. In this way, He wins again over the temptation of adopting the ways of the world He came to save from the selfish and mischievous lies of the tempter.

We follow Him: We retire with you in silence, Jesus. And from you we will receive light and strength to follow you, until together with you we will end up enjoying the fullness of our and your Father’s love.