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This Sunday begins what I would call a five-week seminar on the Eucharist given by Jesus himself from the 6 h chapter of John’s Gospel. It provides an opportunity for us to ponder and reflect on this extraordinarily rich and complex sacrament – the fullest expression of our Catholic-Christian faith and yet one that has become so commonplace, so ordinary, for us. Note, I said “seminar” not “course” or “class.” The difference being that in a seminar we participate, contribute our own insights, rather than just listen.
Our seminar takes us through August. In September we go back to Mark’s Gospel and Jesus contending with the pharisees. Those contentious political battles in Mark are all too familiar to us. But here in John, Jesus is struggling with his own disciples and we will find at the end of August that many of them could not accept this teaching.
So, what does our seminar begin with? Well, hunger! In the reading from Kings, the prophet Elisha had returned to Gilgal, where there was severe famine. In the Gospel, a large crowd followed Jesus, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. They too were hungry for food. Two hundred days; wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.
In both instances, Gilgal and Galilee, the available human resources are ridiculously insufficient to satisfy the hunger, 20 loaves for a whole tribe, 5 loaves for the hundreds (thousands maybe) on the hillside. Yet, God provides an abundance – leftovers. Hence, the first lesson. We, God’s people, are hungry. Our own resources are drastically insufficient. God
feeds us with lavish abundance.
So, what is our response to this first lesson? Few of us today experience lack of food. If anything, our problem is more likely to be the opposite, we have too much food. But we do experience hungers and thirsts. What are they?
Looking back over our own life experience when have we been most “hungry” most aware of our inadequacy – experienced a yearning, a need for something we could not provide for ourselves? If that hunger was satisfied, how did it happen? Has faith, the community of the church been any part of that?
It may help to consider our second reading today. Paul urges us: to live in a manner worthy of the call we have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. Do any of these words stir a hunger within us? If so, where do we go to address it?
It’s important to pay attention to the communal nature of this first lesson. It is the hunger of the community -- the tribe or the multitude -- that God addresses. If you think about it, there are just a few elements of our bodily self-maintenance: bathing, toileting, and eating. Except when we are very young or very old, we manage the first two for ourselves, alone. But eating, except in extraordinary circumstances, is almost always done in community. Especially, when we are younger, we hunger and thirst for self-worth, for meaning and purpose, for intimacy, for affirmation, for community. When and how has your faith and the community of the Church addressed those hungers? Have you experienced the abundance?
So, these are the elements of the first session of our seminar on Eucharist: hunger, community, satisfaction, abundance. Let’s make our own contribution to the seminar by reflecting on our own experience of each.