Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Ps 70 (69): 2, 6 O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me! You are my rescuer, my help; O Lord, do not delay.

Collect Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Jeremiah 28:1-17; Psalm 118; Matthew 14:13-21

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. Jesus replied, They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish, they answered. Bring them here to me, he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:13-21)

Power The emphasis in my school subjects was on the humanities, but I did do some science. Apart from mathematics, my main science subject was physics, although I did some chemistry. I remember very clearly the occasion when in my youth I read in my science text-book that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. For some reason that sentence stood out among all the subjects that I studied, even though my principal interests lay in literature and especially history. I have never forgotten it, and I always found it to be philosophically intriguing. Of course, the statement has a long history. An important idea in ancient Greek philosophy is that "Nothing comes from nothing." What exists now has therefore always existed, since no new matter can come into existence where there was none before. An explicit statement of this, along with the further principle that nothing can pass away into nothing, is found in Empedocles (ca. 490–430 BC): "For it is impossible for anything to come to be from what is not, and it cannot be brought about or heard of that what is should be utterly destroyed." A further principle of conservation was stated by Epicurus (341–270 BC) who, describing the nature of the universe, wrote that "the totality of things was always such as it is now, and always will be." The principle of conservation of mass was outlined clearly by Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) in 1789, who is often for this reason referred to as an initiator of modern chemistry. If, we might add, something is found to come forth where there was nothing before, then the agency for this must be beyond this world and of an entirely different order. Science cannot account for something coming to be from what is not. Philosophy can account for it, provided it has recourse to a Cause that transcends all the causes operative in the world. I say this by way of introduction to our Gospel text today. Our Lord takes five loaves and two fish, entrusts this handful of food to his twelve disciples, and commands them to distribute it to thousands of hungry people. The handful of food cannot explain the phenomenon that followed, nor the twelve baskets of scraps left over.

That is to say, something abundant came forth from what was absolutely minimal. Of course, it was a parable in itself. God was using a particle to bring forth a great quantity, just as he uses poor and limited man to bring his redemption to the world. But in terms of the action itself, it was manifestly a work of God. We are not provided with any details enabling us to visualize the process of multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Presumably as the five loaves and two fish passed from the hand of Christ to the Twelve, it was multiplying as the pieces went from hand to hand among them. Let us visualize the surprise of the Twelve themselves. Each of them found himself possessed of a quantity of bread and fish similar to that which had just been in the hands of Christ for his blessing. So they set out among the seated multitude. They set out in faith — faith in the word of Christ, for if they had relied on mere sight they would have felt foolish at what they were embarking on. So each began handing to the groups the bread and fish they had in their hands or held in their cloaks. The bread and fish simply was there, quietly and perhaps being hardly noticed, multiplying as the minutes and the distribution proceeded. Things were coming into being from virtually nothing before their eyes. It was a phenomenon that transcended anything of their experience, and anything the world displays. God was creating bread and fish minute by minute, and if we remember the beautiful wine that Christ created at Cana, we may imagine the bread and the fish thus distributed as being delicious, fresh and soft. The vast crowd was entirely satisfied. It turned out to be excellent food, and Christ commanded his disciples not to waste what was left over. Twelve baskets of this food were gathered up, which may have been distributed then to the needy among the crowd for them to take with them. The point, though, is that this was an act of creation. Christ created bread and fish, and his creative action continued effortlessly during the distribution among the crowds. Only God can create. Any agency that is merely of this world cannot create — ordinary science has long recognized this.

Perhaps the first thing man thinks of when thinking of God is his power. He turns to the gods above and asks for their aid because he regards them as powerful. They can help him in their need. Revealed Religion taught that there is but one God, and that he can do all things. Interestingly, not many religions perceived God’s power as extending to creation from nothing. He tended to be a supernatural organizer of things that were already there. I suspect that creation, strictly so-called, is a teaching distinctive to Revealed Religion — and perhaps peculiar to Christianity. The almighty Creator of all things became man. Jesus Christ is might and power incarnate, a power manifested in mercy. Our Gospel scene today is one instance of this Revelation, and it signaled the coming of the Eucharist.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A second Reflection: (Jeremiah 28:1-17)

The Church the Oracle of God In our passage from Jeremiah (28: 1-17) we have two prophets, the one false (Hananiah) and the other true (Jeremiah). The true prophet, Jeremiah, told the false one that the prophets before them told of unpleasant and unpopular things: "the prophets who preceded you and me prophesied war, famine and plague for many countries and for great kingdoms." We ought remember this in our own age. Time and again the Church teaches what appears to be unpleasant and unpopular to the age. The Church time and again must warn that if people do not repent, disaster will come.

The Church with her teaching is the oracle and prophet of God. Her head is Christ the Prophet long foretold and now come. Her teaching comes from God. It is life-giving and it warns. Let us love to receive it and to be the instruments of its transmission, for we are called to be the Church in the world.

(E.J.Tyler)

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