This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
17th Sunday of Ordinary YearLeft-overs……..are part of wholeness..!!2 Kings 4:42-44, Eph 4:1-6, John 6:1-15Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, we shall welcome one another as we enter into this celebration of life, celebration of community and the celebration of banquet with the Lord. Sunday Eucharist reminds us that we profess one faith and one Jesus witnessing the unity of one Church. There are some who struggle to come into church after years of being away. All are remembered and included in good faith as a whole at the altar of God in every Eucharistic celebration. We shall thank God for His abundance of blessings in keeping us as one whole flock in God’s kingdom. We will make constant efforts to lift up the left-overs in our community and neighborhood and rejoice in our fullness of God’s grace.How can the 20 loaves of bread become food for 100 people? How it is possible to feed the 5000 with only 5 loaves of bread? I am starving…then how can I fill the hunger of others? We have a big family…how is it possible to support the children of another family? We live hand to mouth…so it is difficult to help anyone? I am without job for three years…so I cannot speak about filling others hunger. Is it possible to help and fill others in my struggle? Yes, it is possible. This is the challenging answer and invitation the readings offer us this Sunday. The left-overs are never too little food to fill baskets and to return the joy of the community. Left-overs can lift the attitude and heart of so many, because left-overs are part of the wholeness and fullness who we are. Two elementary school teachers at California planted a fresh tree on the school campus, naming it as free-food tree or left-over tree. The children were encouraged to bring in the remaining sandwiches and other snacks, instead of discarding them, and place them under the tree. Some children began to bring in extra from home to place it under that three. This left-over tree filled the hunger of all the children who didn’t bring anything and starve at lunch time. Within a few months, the food was more than enough, and efforts were taken to feed the homeless in the city park near the school. The left-overs united the whole school community and assured a sense of belonging, that each one is the part of whole joy and happiness. Every hour 1,500 of this world’s children die of hunger or hunger related causes. Studies reveal that in the world we have, there is enough food grain to fill every human person 3,600 calories a day. Over the past twenty five years, food production has exceeded world population growth by about 16%. This means that there is no good reason for any human being in today's world to go hungry. Yet even in a wealthy country like the U.S.A., one child out of five grows up in poverty, three million people are homeless, and 4000 unborn babies are aborted every day. While other countries experience the crush of poverty, hunger and such moral sin, there is a general struggle within the governments around the world to coalesce in order to establish a firm resolves to defeat these societal concerns and relieve those who are paralyzed by their conditions. “The problem in feeding the world’s hungry population lies with our political lack of will, our economic system biased in favor of the affluent, our militarism, and our tendency to blame the victims of social tragedies such as famine.” We are called to be and become the humble and generous instruments of Christ’s grace, in gathering the fragments, the left-overs, to fill and feed the rest of humanity, bringing equality and oneness in the light of Eucharistic celebration. Herein exists the wealth of faith in the messianic sign Jesus worked, in feeding so many with so little, in satisfying those gathered with common bread, and in his magisterial role as teacher offering rest to the crowd. Jesus sent the Apostles on the mission of gathering the left-overs so that every fragment is accounted for. In the first reading, the Prophet Elisha is part of this teaching about left-overs among the people in the Northern Kingdom. They were apostatized and banned from the right worship of offering sacrifices and visiting the Jerusalem Temple after the division of kingdoms. They lost the covenantal love of Yahweh as they found the alliance with other communities and kingdoms. This simple man from the first reading felt obliged from this region to offer the regular sacrifices and offerings, but he found no way then to the prophet Elisha. The first fruit of the harvest is offered on the Lord’s Day – Sunday. Covenant people were expected to offer grain or bread made of first fruits. Here instead of looking at the greatness of this simple person, the servant of Elisha commented that, ‘10 loaves from this man will not be sufficient for the hundred there.’ The Prophet responded that ‘all will be filled plenty and full and we will witness the left-over from this simple offering to show that all are included in the covenantal love of God.’ John’s Gospel is unique and special. Multiplication of loaves is shared by all the four Evangelists; thus it has been the powerful source in the early Christian community. Johns sees it as miracle and more as a sign of God’s Banquet in the kingdom. Fragments in Greek means “Klasma,” or left-over, indicating one whole. The Early Church Eucharistic prayer has the words: “As this broken bread was scattered over the mountains and then when gathered became one so may the Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom” –The Didache 9: Eucharistic Prayer -50/120 AD. It may also refer to the Israel who were scattered and gathered with the presence of Jesus, so does the Eucharist every time we gather to celebrate. St. Cyprian invites us to remember the experience that we belong to one holy priesthood. The Church Fathers see these fragments, or left-overs, as all gathered from the brokenness. We are part of the brokenness of Jesus on the Cross and the breaking at the Last Supper community. Among the attitude of the Apostles, the initiative of the small boy is interesting and inspiring! We need to have such smart boys around us in our communities and neighborhood. 5 loves signifies grace in the scripture. 2 fish refers to two broken kingdoms from the covenantal love of Yahweh. 7 is the fullness, wholeness and perfection that we belong to Him and His kingdom. It also speaks about the fullness of joy that we share one banquet as brothers and sisters, part of the Body of Jesus Christ. Gathering the left-overs is the message and experience of John that nothing will be lost as the scattered will be gathered, the discarded will be picked-up, and the fallen-away will be lifted-up around the Eucharistic altar for the complete sacrifice and celebration. It speaks of abundance for all. The remaining 12 baskets may be referring to the mission of 12 Apostles to the ends of the earth…or continuing the salvation history of the 12 tribes of Israel. It may be also sign of abundance and fullness. Blessed Mother Teresa served the slum dwellers of Calcutta (Kolkatta) with merely 20cents; when she died 49 years later, the Eucharistic Lord multiplied those 20cents into eighty schools, three hundred mobile dispensaries, seventy leprosy clinics, thirty homes for the dying and the abandoned children, and 40,000 volunteers from all over the world to help her. She freed the humanity as she experienced in the Eucharist. She shared their life, and filled their life. Our Eucharistic Lord continues to fill her life, as their society exists in 123 countries with 610 houses. Shall we gather the left-overs around the altar as one celebration of life and equality? Who and where are the left-overs around me and in my circle of friends… I might see what Jesus sees, looking for those who need the experience of joy, friendship, and community? “Eucharist is the place where fraternity becomes practical solidarity, where the last are the first in the minds and attentions of the brethren, where Christ Himself — through the generous gifts from the rich to the very poor — may somehow prolong in time the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves.”-Amen. 
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