Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
II Kings 4:42-44
Ephesians 4:1-6
John 6:1-15
It is summer, and we are to be relaxing and enjoying ourselves, but this week I got together on two separate occasions with some good friends. As soon as I saw them from across the room, I could tell that both of these men were under a tremendous amount of stress. As I spoke to each of them, they shared the demands of work and how stressed they are, and how they are losing sleep because of the stress. All the strain at work is now leading to stress at home, and they both said something like, “This is all I am right now. I know it is not enough! I do not know what to do?” Our readings today help us to know what to do when we say, “This is all I have. It is not enough!”
In our first reading from the Book of II Kings, there is a famine in the land, and a poor farmer brings Elisha 20 loaves of barley bread to feed 100 people. Elisha’s servant says, “Is this all you have? It is not enough!” Elisha does not listen to his servant but listens to God, who blesses what the poor farmer has brought and made it into abundance.
In our Gospel, Jesus has 5000 people to feed, and he turns to Philip and says, “Where can we buy enough food for these people to eat?” Philip responds, “Two hundred-day hundred days wages would not be enough to feed this many people!” A little boy steps forward and says, “I have five barley loaves and two small fish.” Andrew responds, “Is this all you have? It is not enough!” Jesus takes the loaves, and the fish blesses it, and he gives it to the people to eat, and they now have food in abundance.
Here is the pearl within our readings today. In both stories, we heard about bread made from barley. In ancient times barley was food for the poor or was food for animals because it germinates quicker than wheat. So what you have in both cases is bread thought to be of little value, and not enough becomes a blessing to all! This is why Jesus tells his disciples to pick up the leftover fragments because the bread has been transformed and is blessed.
My friends in Christ, as we gather when we are feeling, “This is all I have. It is not enough!” We need to get to the Eucharist, where simple bread and wine are transformed in the Body and Blood of Christ. When this happens, we will be made into what will be enough for Jesus Christ!