Gospel Reflection for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.
By The Benedictine Community
The hand of the Lord feeds us;
he answers all our needs. (Psalm 144)
This Sunday we begin five weeks of reading the Gospel according to John, each week unfolding more of his theology of the Blessed Eucharist. These Eucharistic passages fill out the gospel of Mark which was the earliest and shortest of the four gospels.
We see Jesus feeding the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish. He has already cured many of the sick and such Messianic signs draw many to follow him.
While the whole event prefigures the gift of the Eucharist - Christ's Body and Blood given to his followers down though the ages, we do well to simply imagine ourselves as one of the five thousand, on a hillside in Galilee two thousand years ago. We can sit and let ourselves be blessed, cured and fed by this beloved, charismatic village carpenter. Then when we participate in the rest of the Mass which follows what a wonderous Gift we are about to receive.