This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
18th Sunday of Ordinary TimeWe are…The twelve baskets!Is55:1-3; Rom 8:35, 37-39; Mt14:13-21Dear Sisters, Brothers and Children, we come to God’s dwelling place as a family and as a community. God called Israel as a community of people; He made a covenant with them. Jesus chose the community of Apostles. Our sacrament is celebrated as an event of the community. Our Eucharist is broken and shared in a community. We shall bring with us to the Altar all those who are deprived of this community experience, that they may allow themselves to be broken and become bread for others.The church was celebrating Communion. During the "children's sermon", the minister was talking about Communion and what it is all about. "The Bible talks of Holy Communion being a 'joyful feast'. What does that mean? Well, 'joyful' means happy, right? And a feast is a meal. So a 'joyful feast' is a happy meal. And what are the three things we need for a happy meal?" A little boy put up his hand and said, "Hamburger, fries, and a regular soft drink?" We are called to realize that we come on every Sunday to be part of this banquet, where we celebrate and share together around one altar with one faith. This brings abundance of blessings. We have a banquet here, but why there is still hunger. Statisticians report that for at least two thirds of the world’s population, hunger is a daily experience. Every hour of every day, at least 1500 people die of hunger or hunger-related causes, while farmers in some of the world’s wealthiest industrialized nations are paid not to grow certain crops and to relegate others to storage bins and warehouses. In both the first reading and the gospel the hungry were called to come and be filled at the banquet which the Lord freely provided. The world has 840 million chronically malnourished people, most of them women and children. Seven million children in the world under the age of five die each year from malnutrition. In every minute 13 people starve to death. Even in the U.S., there are 3.8 million families who experience hunger, and up to 12 million families are concerned about having enough food to feed their families. Hunger is real. How these people who remain in starvation do will survive, and when will they have banquet experience of abundance? The first reading assures us that the Lord makes His food available for the people of Israel. The Prophet Isaiah was with the people during the Babylonian exile. People were struggling and almost forgot their leaving of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea experience. They strongly felt that Yahweh had left them, so they were inclined to follow the voice of the ruler and his choice of religion. In such situations, Isaiah called them to say that Yahweh had not forgotten them, that He will offer water, milk, wine and bread freely; this free offering without cost reminds of food for all. It signifies that all are welcome to the banquet. It also invites us to connect with the food in the desert, which happened 600 years before. The People of Israel were fed with manna on their way to the Promised Land. How do our God of banquet and God of abundance tolerate starving people all around? Who is responsible for their hunger? The Gospel tells us that it is our responsibility; you and I are called to provide a banquet of abundance, and fill those who come in search of God. The Gospel about multiplication is the miracle which appears in the writings of all four evangelists. It has lots of symbolic meaning. 20,000 men are mentioned, so including others it might be between 20,000 to 30,000. It shows that it is 1/3 of total population of Galilee. Jesus and His banquet meal were well known. I want to draw your attention to the fragments remaining, which speaks about Eucharist and all of us. The 12 baskets are referring to us. We are those baskets from the great banquet of Jesus’ meal. We are the fragment loaves. We need be like the apostles who received from Jesus and passed it on to everyone. Every Eucharist gives us a reminder that we are part of those 12 remaining baskets. We can do this only when we follow the process of taking, blessing, breaking and giving, to fill others. The early Christian community especially cherished this story because they saw this event as anticipating the Eucharist. The way in which Jesus’ actions are described “looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples," connecting Jesus’ Last Supper and the Church’s celebration of the Eucharist. The miracle itself is a symbol of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of unity, and the sharing of the broken bread is a sign of a community that shares and provides in abundance for the needs of its members. They took their struggles and persecutions, they blessed God for their witnessing zeal, they broke their fears and finally they shared their faith and joy. They celebrated this on every Sunday. It sustained and increased the community every time. Jesus invites us to take our life and struggles, to bless God for His strengthening presence, to break all our fears and doubts, and finally accepting Jesus, believing you have a task: to give away the fragments. Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the Modern World, Vatican II Council says, “Faced with a world today where so many people are suffering from want, the council asks individuals and governments to remember the saying of the Fathers: ‘”Feed the people dying of hunger, because if you do not feed them you are killing them” We are the fragments left over in the basket to be Eucharist by filling the hunger of some one. People are hungry for support in their loneliness; people are hungry for your visit in their sickness; people are hungry for your comfort in their brokenness; people are hungry for your presence in their desert moments. Children without parents are hungry for your love. In St. Thomas More College in Canada, run by Basilian Fathers, there is a painting of the multiplication of loaves scene by a Ukrainian artist. Here it is depicted that Basilian fathers are carrying the basket and offering to the crowds. There are also a few students who receive the basket with fragments from the Fathers to continue the task of filling the hunger. Yes, we have a call and we have the task, it may be small yet it is part of the Basket of Kingdom. Someone may say I am a tiny piece, what I can do to fill the hunger of someone. Blessed Mother Teresa said, “What you are doing is just drop in the ocean, but if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”. We are those 12 baskets of fragments to be Eucharist for others-Amen. 
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