Videos from selected homilists; Transcript excerpts from Fr. Hawkswell, Fr. Fleming, Fr. Chama, Msgr. Pellegrino, Fr. Sigma, Fr. Kavanaugh’s homilies; Bishop Barron podcasts; Life Issues; Doctrinal Homily Outlines
KUALA LUMPUR | 2018
In the Gospel miracle, Scripture scholars have identified another level of meaning in the multiplication of the loaves and fish: a Eucharistic meaning. The early Christians definitely recognised the connexion between the multiplication of the loaves and the Eucharist. In second-century catacombs, we find artistic representations of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves to symbolise the Eucharist. Already in the four Gospel accounts of this miracle, we see a strong Eucharistic motif. We find the same verbs used describing Jesus’ action at the miracle, as are used in the account of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper: He “took the loaves (bread), gave thanks, and gave them out (distributed).” The verb in Greek for giving thanks, “eucharistein”, became the word the Christians used for the sacrament: Eucharist. When the people had their fill, Jesus told the disciples to gather the fragments that were left over so that nothing would be wasted. There was also in the early Church, great care taken with the Eucharistic fragments that were left over. Unlike many Protestant churches, the consecrated host left over from Holy Communion is never just simply discarded as if they no longer have any significance. They are carefully and reverentially conserved and reposed in the tabernacle of the Church, because they continue to be truly, really and substantially, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ…
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B.C. CATHOLIC | 2021
This Sunday, we hear how Elisha fed 100 people on twenty loaves of barley and ears of grain and how Jesus fed 5000 people on five barley loaves and two fish, with twelve baskets of food left over. It is the first of five on which we hear Jesus promise to give us his body to eat and his blood to drink. (This year, the Solemnity of our Lady’s Assumption takes precedence over the fourth one.)
Most of Jesus’ contemporaries did not believe that he could transmit God’s life to us by giving us his flesh to eat, and not even his apostles knew how he would do it. Most people do not believe it today. Even we who do can grow careless about it.
A CONCORD PASTOR COMMENTS | 2018
Think about this for a minute: of all the people in the history of humankind, is there a person you wish you might have been? Well, I could name several people I wish I might have been but certainly in the top ten would be this little boy with 5 loaves and the two fish.
Of course, when Jesus and his followers first took the loaves and fish from the little boy I’d guess he was pretty upset: they were, after all, taking his lunch. And since he had much more food than he needed himself he might have planned on selling some of it to make a little pocket money.
But it wouldn’t be too long before everyone saw what Jesus could do with just a little food in the face of thousands of people. I’d like to be that little boy because he could now proudly announce: “Did you see what he did with MY bread? with MY fish! If it wasn’t for me – you’d all be hungry right now!”
Related Homily
Do You Believe in Miracles (2009)
SINGLE HUMANITY | 2018
In the readings of this Sunday we find a situation that can be stressing; the kind that quite a good number of people are going through: confronted by so many needs but very limited means to respond to them. However, in the end everyone has more than enough bread to eat. How, then, does the word of God exhort us to face such struggles of our daily life?
Looking at the readings of this Sunday, I can’t help evoking this psalm: “Bless the LORD, O my soul…
Fr. Chama’s homily is divided into the following sections:
Bless the Lord my soul…never forget…
First Fruits
Breakthrough in a Christian Community
Bread for common person
I’m called to be a blessing for my neighbour
DIOCESE OF ST. PETERSBURG | 2021
This Sunday we begin a five week focus on the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John, the chapter on the Bread of Life. That the Church should spend five weeks on John 6 demonstrates that this is one of the most important sections of the Gospels. A little background: the Gospel of John was most likely the last Gospel completed, with the finishing touches being applied at the end of the first century. By then the primitive Church had developed a deep understanding of the Eucharist. This understanding is inspired by the Holy Spirit, as all scripture is inspired. The actions, discussions and even debates presented in John 6 reveal the depths of the Lord’s Gift of Himself to us in the Eucharist and on the Cross, two aspects of the same salvific event.
John 6 begins with the multiplications of the loaves and fish, our Gospel for this Sunday. Why is this miracle retold so often in the Gospels? There are two accounts of the multiplication in Matthew and Mark, one in Luke and one in John. In each passage phrases are used that are repeated at the Last Supper. “He took, He blessed, He broke.” Each passage refers to God’s continual gift of the one food we need, the Eucharist.
Related Homilies
Justice and Integrity (2018)
Sharing the Presence of the Lord (2012)
We Have Enough for Them (2009)
God Provides More Than We Could Ever Imagine (2006) – PDF
CATHOLIC PREACHING | 2000
In today’s Gospel, there is a marked change from previous weeks. We have been reading from the Gospel of Mark ever since Corpus Christi. Now we turn for the next five weeks to the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, which is referred to as the Bread of Life discourse. It is the most developed chapter in all of Sacred Scripture on the Eucharist, God’s greatest perduring gift among us. We will have time over the next several weeks to look at this chapter, and look at Jesus in the Eucharist, with great detail, but today we turn to the beginning of the chapter and the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves.
In the back of our beautiful Church of Espirito Santo, the second stained glass window from the on the left, close to the confessional, there is the beautiful image depicting this miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. We see Jesus in the top window with five of his disciples around him. Then we see the startling image of the young boy with his five loaves and two fish, one of the loaves of which Jesus has taken and is now giving thanks, before he would give them to the crowd. Underneath this scene there is a basket in which we find the five loaves and the two fish.
Related Homilies
Good Shepherds and Good Sheep (2003)
Jesus’ Triennial Five-week Eucharistic Catechehesis (2015)
BUILDING ON THE WORD | 2003
There are times when life seems unfair. When someone we love is hurt, when we need to deal with a serious disease, when someone we trust betrays us, it is easy for us to say, “Why is this happening to me? I don’t deserve this.” The anger and the depression of those times leads to question our ability to continue. In those circumstances it is easy to doubt whether there is enough strength, enough wisdom, enough hope for us to go on. That is why today’s Gospel is so important, because in the Gospel Jesus tells us that when God is active, there is always enough. God can find life in our darkest moments. If Jesus was able to feed five thousand people with a few barley loaves, then certainly we can count on God to be present in our time of need. But if we are to believe that and see that, we need to let the flow of our life play out so that we can understand the specific way that God is directing us and guiding us.
Kevin was twenty-five years old when his doctors told him that he had bone cancer and the only way he could survive would be to have his right leg amputated at the hip. He agreed to the procedure and it was successful. But it left Kevin an angry and depressed young man. He couldn’t understand how life could be so unfair to take away his leg at such a young age. He bore a deep resentment against people who were well and had use of all of their limbs.
Related Homilies
A Dangerous Truth (2006)
Looking for Miracles(2009)
The Advantage of Giving (2012)
The Most Popular Miracle (2018)
THE REASON FOR OUR HOPE | 2018
When you and I get to the end of our rope, there’s nothing left. I got nothing left. Faith isn’t faith until there’s nothing left to hold on to. Correct? That’s what faith is. So, I give it all. Lord, it’s all yours. Everything is yours. Now He can do some miracles in our lives. So we sit there and give to God everything. Lord, EVERYTHING; every dime in the bank-it’s yours, everything in my house-it’s yours, my family-they’re yours. EVERYTHING is at your disposal. I believe that you will take care of my family, and me and I will dispose everything to your will. Isn’t it amazing that with so little the boy had, He multiplied and fed 5,000 and had leftovers? What happens is when you and I surrender everything with faith, then there will be enough not only for you, there will be leftovers for you and for everybody else too. You see why there are so many people in our world who don’t believe in miracles? Because they don’t have the faith or they don’t have the generosity. You need both and miracles will happen. And if I was to ask people to come up here now and start witnessing to the miracles that have happened in your life, I bet you we would be here for a while. There are great miracles He has blessed us with, and if we want more, the two things we need are faith and generosity. Faith + Generosity = Miracles.
SUNDAY WEB SITE | 1997
This week’s scripture begins a series of Eucharistic controversies that will haunt the Gospels over the next four weeks. I wonder if it is a strategic gift of providence.
A few years ago the New York Times reported that almost two-thirds of American Catholics believed the consecrated bread and wine to be “symbolic reminders” rather than the body and blood of Christ. This seems a little startling, even if it was unclear what the respondents actually meant by “symbolic reminder” or “body and blood.”
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS | 2021
Our God is a personal God who is concerned about each and every one and takes care of his people. He is like a benevolent Father caring for the needs of his children and planning a future of each one. The Bible presents us the story of a benevolent God who took care of his chosen people in the Old Testament leading them through the desert and being with them when they were attacked by their enemies. He gave people the bread sufficient to satisfy their hunger and made them comfortable. In the New Testament we have the love of God manifested in Jesus. He leads them to faith and gives them his own body and blood as proper spiritual nourishment. He promises them that he who eats his flesh and drinks his blood will never die. The Gospel of today begins with the narrative that Jesus is being followed by a very large crowd as he came to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The people had heard his teaching, had seen his miracles and had experienced his personality. He realized that they were all hungry and took upon himself the responsibility to take care of them and fed five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish. In the first reading we hear the prophet of God feeding many people from just a few loaves of bread, indicating that there is no limit to God’s resources. All the people had enough to eat and there was extra food remaining. In the second reading Paul a prisoner of the Lord, urges the community to live as one. They have to bear with one another in love and strive to live in peace. He invites them to do all they can to preserve the unity in spirit.
THE MYSTERY OF THE MASSby Bishop Robert Barron . July 29, 2018 .
The sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, from which we will be reading these next several weeks, is a sustained meditation on the meaning of the Mass and the Eucharist. Our passage for today, when read symbolically, illumines the major movements of the Mass.
FOOD FOR THE JOURNEYby Bishop Robert Barron . July 27, 2003
Another homily from Fr. Robert Barron and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.
Indeed, no one is really so poor as to have nothing to give. And God can do wonders with the little we give spontaneously to others out of our concern and love for them. And if all of us do so in our own little ways, then we are really multiplying the bread of kindness in this uncaring world. Then no one will go to bed at night hungry.
Perhaps the contemporary tendency of some people towards selfish living is based on the lack of experience of community life.
Psalm 145 is an example of an acrostic psalm which is not evident to those who cannot read the psalm in the original Hebrew. Each line of the psalm begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. One of the main themes of this psalm is its orderliness and structure. Unlike the plans we make, God’s plans will come to fruition according to His time and nothing will interfere with those plans.
There are strange sights on the highway that I often travel. One is likely to meet tanks and armored vehicles full of armed men. One also meets trucks with food intended for evacuees. Some vehicles bring bullets, others deliver bread.
Click to access 17th_OT_B_7-25-21.pdf
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