Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Jn. 6:22-29

[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Saint Augustine once wrote, “Our hearts are restless, O LORD, until they rest in you.” 

Augustine’s words ring true throughout the centuries. Regardless of where a person is born or when, how much fame, fortune, or lack thereof they may have, there remains a restlessness in the human soul which the world cannot satisfy.

Another author described it as, “a piece of night inside, which can never be filled – not with all the good food or sunshine in the world.”

We all know it. 

Some fight it. Others ignore it. Still others stuff it with things.

Christians seek to fill that void with Christ.

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In today’s Gospel, thousands of people are looking for Jesus. The Lord just fed them with five loaves of bread and two fish. Now they’re looking for more.

Peering into their hearts, seeing that their minds remain fixated on physical things, the Lord gently rebukes them, saying, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.”

Otherwise, more will never be enough.

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Are we satisfied with only the things of this world? Or do Augustine’s words resonate?

We may have the best of marriages, the best of friendships, all the creaturely comforts we need. While these are blessings – and can help draw us closer to the Divine – they cannot bridge the gap.

We need Jesus himself. 

As the Psalmist prays, “Hear my voce, LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me. ‘Come,’ says my heart, ‘seek his face’; your face, LORD, I seek.”

May Christ reveal himself to us in the still, silent moments of prayer … and in this Eucharist which we are about to receive.

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Image credits: (1) I Still Haven’t Found, LinkedIn, U2 (2) Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford, WordPress, Quotefancy (3) Digital Songs and Hymns

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Gospel: Luke 24: 35-48

The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way,
and how Jesus was made known to them 
in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish; 
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Have you ever wondered what heaven is like? What the body of Jesus is like now that he’s been raised from the dead? Or, even what our own bodies will be like in the resurrection?

Today’s Gospel provides some answers to these questions, even if it leaves us wanting to know more.

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It begins with the disciples hiding behind locked doors in Jerusalem. The grim reality of Good Friday is still fresh in their minds and hearts. Jesus is gone, leaving them with no real plan moving forward. They’re terrified. 

Stuck. 

What once seemed like a bright and promising future has come crashing down on them. The only strength they have is in numbers; if they are to shiver and grieve, then they will do it together.

Suddenly, the Lord appears in their midst and says to them, “Peace be with you.” 

This is the first word that Jesus says after being raised from the dead – a word he repeats multiple times – peace.

In Hebrew, shalom.

Shalom means, “harmony, wholeness, stillness.” Things the disciples feel totally deprived of. Yet the Lord appears to reassure them that he has, in fact, been raised from the dead! All will be well.

Gently, our Good Shepherd begins leading his friends out of their fears – and eventually out of that locked inner room – into a place of freedom and peace, showing them his glorified body.

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Since his resurrection, the Lord has already demonstrated his ability to locate his disciples and to walk through walls, suddenly appearing in their midst. 

Now Jesus reinforces the physical nature of his body. “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 

I imagine a few of them poke at his skin, then marvel and joyfully weep as they gently slide their fingers into his wounds. 

The disciples grieve and celebrate. 

They grieve the death of their ideas; Jesus is not who they thought he was. He is far more. Meanwhile, they also celebrate his triumph over death, as they slowly begin to understand.

The Lord is physical, yet spiritual. Human, yet divine. Once dead, now alive. Seeing him allows them to see what their own future holds. 

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In his book, Surprised By Hope, the renowned biblical scholar NT Wright argues that, in the resurrection, God has redeemed all of creation. 

He echoes what Saint Paul says, “All things were created through Christ, all things were created for him… in him everything continues in being.”

Meaning, everything, and hopefully everyone, God has created – even our favorite pets – will enter into eternal life, making heaven a place that will be utterly familiar… yet utterly new.

Imagine the bluest waters. The brightest sunrise – orange kissed in pink, red, and gold. A place where the lion lays down with the lamb, the deepest valleys are covered in lush green grass, the highest mountains tower over us – yet we can climb them all. 

Heaven is a place where our bodies are no longer bound by aches, age, or death. As the prophet Isaiah foretells, “They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not grow faint.”

As the Apostle John describes in the Book of Revelation, heaven is, “radiant and clear as crystal, a city with twelve gates and high walls, protected by angels.”

A place where every tear is wiped away; where there is no more wailing, pain, or death. A place for the poor in spirit, the merciful, the peacemakers, the clean of heart, those whom Jesus calls in his first public sermon, “blessed.”

“Peace be with you,” he says. “You have faith in God. Have faith also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places.” 

There’s a place for the Apostles now weeping joyfully in Jerusalem. A place for you. A place for me. A place where we shall, “run and not grow weary. Walk and not grow faint.”

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Perhaps these thoughts leave more questions than answers. 

Still, today we’re urged to rejoice in the words of Saint Paul, “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him.”

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Image credits: (1) The Bible Study (2) The Doubting of St. Thomas, Caravaggio (3) AM FineArtPrints

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Gospel: John 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples. 
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.”
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” 
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. 
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” 
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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The multiplication of the loaves is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. Why did it make such an impression upon the disciples?

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The answer can be lengthy – too much for a short, morning reflection. But here’s just one reason why.

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The multiplication of the loaves reveals two different reactions to human need. 

When the disciples see the large crowd, they realize just how many are tired and hungry. Overwhelmed, they try to dismiss them. “Send them away,” they say to Jesus, as if they don’t have enough to make a difference.

That tired, hungry crowd is symbolic of our world at large. 

Often when we turn on the news (or even look around at our own community), we see people suffering from long food lines, empty bank accounts, hatred or discrimination.

Like the disciples, we can be tempted to close our eyes or change the channel, subconsciously thinking, “send them away,” as if one person cannot make a difference.

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But Jesus leads us to a different perspective. He urges us to recognize the crowd, then to do something about it. 

Take what little we have – five loaves and two fish – and start feeding.

Somehow, it will be more than enough; by grace, even one person can do more for God than they ever thought possible.

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If we all had a proactive attitude, if we pitched in to solving the world’s problems, then we’d not only feed five thousand for a day; we’d feed them for a lifetime.

Who, then, is one person I can feed, either with bread or with love?

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“Give them some food yourselves,” Jesus says.

It’s what Christians do.

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Image credits: (1) Medium (2) Heralds of the Gospel Magazine (3) Tasting Table