Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
17th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle B)
Readings:
2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm 145:10-11, 15-18
Ephesians 4:1-6
John 6:1-15
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The words LORD or GOD rendered in capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments; therefore, we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: The Hand of the Lord Feeds Us
Sharing a meal is a form of fellowship and an expression of family
unity. This significance of sharing a meal applies to meals with friends and
family and to sharing the Church's family meal of fellowship with God the
Father in the Eucharist. The sacred fellowship meal of the Eucharist is a
present and future reality. The Eucharist is a sharing of the life of Christ in
the present in our earthly Sanctuaries, but it also points to the Banquet of
the Just at the end of time in the heavenly Sanctuary (Mt 22:1-10; Rev 19:6-9).
For the next five Sundays (the 17th through the 21st Sundays), our readings will focus on miracle feedings and teachings that prefigure the Eucharist. In the First Reading, the feeding miracle of the prophet Elisha prefigures the miraculous feedings in the Gospels. Jesus will repeat Elisha's miracle feeding of the multiplication of barley loaves in our Gospel Reading. Both feeding miracles recall the miraculous manna God fed the children of Israel while traveling through the wilderness on their journey to the Promised Land (Ex 16:31-36).
The Responsorial Psalm invites the congregation to praise God, whose mighty works are evidence of His divine Kingship. In God's hesed, a Hebrew word meaning "covenant love," He provides for our needs and the needs of all living things throughout the year's seasons. Thus, we receive assurance that even when we cannot understand God's unfolding plan, we can have confidence that all His ways and works are holy, and He is near to all who petition Him in purity, humility, and truth of heart.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul exhorts the faithful Christians of Ephesus to persevere in the unity of faith within their congregation. In today's passage, St. Paul expresses one of the most profound statements summarizing our Christian faith in the New Testament. Paul's message focuses on the theological basis of our unity—the Most Holy Trinity. The Divine Presence of the Most Holy Trinity is at work in the Church and keeps the New Covenant family together in "seven unities": one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus, like the 9th-century BC prophet Elisha, does not have enough bread to feed a multitude. However, He organizes and presides over the meal, as He does at our Eucharistic celebration when we break bread together as a family. Like the miracle feeding of the manna in the wilderness, Jesus is the new Moses who provides what the faithful covenant children need. In the sacred meal of the Eucharist, it is as we repeat together in the psalm reading: "The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs."
We demonstrate our unity as One Body in Christ when we celebrate the "Thanksgiving" sacred meal of the Eucharist (Eucharistia means "thanksgiving" in Greek). "Christians come together in one place for the Eucharistic assembly. At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration..." (CCC 1348). Our prayer in the miraculous feeding of the Eucharist is: "May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit" (Eucharistic Prayer III).
The First Reading 2 Kings 4:42-44 ~ Elisha's
Multiplication of the Loaves
42 A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the
man of God, twenty barley loaves made from the first fruits, and fresh grain in
the ear. Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat." 43 But his servant
objected, "How can I set this before a hundred?" Elisha again said, "Give it to
the people to eat, for thus says the LORD: You will eat, and have some left
over." 44 He set it before them, and when they had eaten, they had some left
over, according to the word of the LORD.
The God-ordained Feast of Firstfruits took place on the day after the Great Sabbath, on the first day of the week we call "Sunday," during the eight days from the Passover sacrifice to the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:9-14; Jn 19:31). Mosaic Law required the covenant people to bring grain and bread made from the first fruits of the barley harvest to the Temple and make a profession of faith in front of the altar when presenting their gift (Dt 26:1-11). The covenant people repeated the same type of offering fifty days later when they gave the first fruits of the wheat harvest on the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost (Lev 23:15-22).
In the age of the Divided Kingdom of Israel (930-722 BC), the kings of the Northern Kingdom had apostatized from the forms of worship prescribed for the Sinai Covenant. Instead, they established another temple and another liturgy of worship that included bowing down to idols in opposition to worshipping Yahweh at the Jerusalem Temple (1 Kngs 12:26-33). Prohibited from going to the Temple in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, a religiously observant man from the Northern Kingdom town of Baal-shalishah brought his first fruit offering to the community of God's prophets and their leader, Elisha. Elisha commanded his servant to share the offering with the brotherhood of prophets. However, his servant pointed out that there was insufficient bread for such a large group. Elisha then revealed that he had a "word of knowledge" from God that there would be enough for them to eat and food left over.
Elisha's feeding miracle in the multiplication of the loaves prefigures Jesus's feeding miracles of the five thousand and four thousand men, not counting women and children (Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:31-44; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-13; Mt 15:32-39; Mk 8:1-10). The timing of this miracle was also significant. It occurred during the Feast of Firstfruits, on the first day of the week after the Saturday Sabbath of the Holy Week of Passover/Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:9-14). Thus, the day of Elisha's feeding miracle prefigured the greater miracle when Jesus, the "Bread of Life," arose from the dead on the first day of the week on the Feast of Firstfruits in AD 30 (Mt 28:1-8).
Notice the many parallels between Jesus's feeding miracle in Matthew 14:13-21 compared to Elisha's feeding miracle in 2 Kings 4:42-44:
| Elisha's Feeding Miracle | Jesus's Feeding Miracle |
| Only a small amount of food was available (twenty loaves of barley bread) in Elisha's feeding miracle. | Only a small amount of food was available (five loaves of barley bread and two fish) in Jesus's feeding miracle. |
| Elisha's servant protested that there was not enough food to feed so many men. | Jesus's disciples protested that there was not enough food to feed so many men. |
| The small amount of food became enough to feed a hundred men. | The small amount of food became enough to feed five thousand men, not counting women and children. |
| There was food left over. | Twelve large baskets of food were left over. |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2015 | |
Elisha's feeding miracle prefigured Jesus's feeding miracles of the five thousand and four thousand men, not counting women and children. All three miracle feedings also prefigure the greater feeding miracle of the Eucharist to the faithful worldwide.
Responsorial Psalm 145:10-11, 15-18 ~ The Lord Answers
Our Needs
The response is: "For the hand of the Lord feeds us; he
answers all our needs."
10 All your works give you thanks, LORD, and your
faithful bless you. 11 Let them speak of the glory of your reign, and tell of
your mighty works.
Response:
15 The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them
their food in due season, 16 you open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of
every living thing.
Response:
17 The LORD is just in all his ways and merciful in all
his works. 18 The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon
him in truth.
Response:
Psalm 145 is a prayer praising the greatness and goodness of God attributed to King David. The psalm is in an acrostic form, with every verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The psalmist invites everyone in the congregation of the faithful to praise God, whose mighty works show forth His divine kingship (verses 10-11). In the loving-kindness of God's covenant love (hesed/chesed), He provides for our needs and the needs of all living things throughout the seasons of the year (verses 15-16). The psalmist assures us that even when we cannot understand God's unfolding plan, we can have confidence that all His ways and works are holy, and He is near to all who petition Him in purity, humility, and truth of heart (verses 17-18).
The Second Reading Ephesians 4:1-6 ~ Unity in the Church
1 I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a
manner worthy of the call you have received, 2 with all humility and
gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, 3 striving to
preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: 4 one body and one
Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; 5 one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through
all and in all.
St. Paul, writing from his imprisonment in Rome, urged the Christian community reading his letter to persevere, united in the Holy Spirit as One Body in Christ despite tensions threatening to disrupt their unity. The virtues that Paul lists in verses 2-3 are different aspects of charity (love in action), which "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col 3:14) and is the mark of Jesus Christ's true disciples (Jn 13:35). The "bond of peace" (verse 3) that unites all Christians is the peace of Jesus Christ: For he is our peace, he who made both one (Jews and Gentiles) and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh (Eph 2:14). By having the same faith and the same Spirit, St. John Chrysostom wrote that "all find themselves brought together in the Church—old and young, poor and rich, adult and child, husband and wife: people of either sex and every condition become the same ... However, this unity is maintained only by the 'bond of peace.' It could not exist in the midst of disorder and enmity" (Homilies on Ephesians, 9).
4 one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the
one hope of your call; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father
of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Verses 5-6 may be from an acclamation in an early Christian
baptismal liturgy. These verses express one of Paul's most profound statements,
summarizing the depth of our Christian faith in a few words, the focus of which
is the theological basis of our unity—the Most Holy Trinity. The Trinity is at
work in the Church and keeps the Bride of Christ together in the "seven
unities" of the Church: one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, and one God and Father:
When Jesus communicated His glory to us, He joined us to God the Father by giving us a share in the supernatural life of the Godhead. This divine life is the source of the holiness of Christians united in the seven unities of Christ's Body, the Church. Like the community to whom Paul addressed his letter, we celebrate our unity in the sacred meal of Christ in the Eucharist. We come together as One united Body to receive Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in our sacred meal made present by the power of the Holy Spirit on Catholic altars across the world. In our miracle feeding, there is always enough, and everyone leaves nourished spiritually by the life of Christ, which He shares with everyone who comes in a state of grace to His altar table (see 1 Cor 11:27-32).
The Gospel of John 6:1-15 ~ The Miracle Feeding of the
More than Five Thousand
1 After this Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee [of
Tiberias]. 2 A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs he was
performing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down
with his disciples. 4 The Jewish feast of Passover was near. 5 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?" 6 He said this to test him
because he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, "Two
hundred days' wages [denarii ] worth of food would not be enough for each of
them to have a little." 8 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; 9 but what good are these for so many?" 10 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. 11 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. 12 When they had had their fill, he said to his
disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." 13
So they collected them and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the
five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. 14 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." 15 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 "after this" in verse 1, was after Jesus gave a discourse answering his detractors. Then, He entered a boat and crossed the Sea of Galilee/Tiberias. In the Gospels, several names are used for the large northern lake through which the Jordan River flows. Here, John calls it the "Sea of Galilee" and also refers to it by its Roman name, the "Sea of Tiberias." In AD 20, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of the Galilee, built the city of Tiberias as the region's administrative capital. He named the city and the lake in honor of the Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar (reigned AD 14-37). The lake was also known as Lake Gennesaret (from the Hebrew Kinnesaret or Chinnereth), a name that also designated the land on the western shore. We are told in verse 16 that this event took place across the Sea of Galilee on the opposite shore from Caperanum.
The multiplication of the loaves and the feeding of the multitude of more than five thousand is the only miracle besides the Resurrection recorded in all four Gospels. However, it is not only a miracle. In John's Gospel, it is a "sign," an event that points to something greater. It serves as a preface to Jesus's teaching on the true Bread of Life and points to the greater miracle of the gift of Himself in the Eucharist in the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:22-66. There are only two miracle feedings in John's Gospel: the miracle that involves bread in chapter 6 and the miracle involving wine in chapter 2. Together, they anticipate the Eucharistic Liturgy where Jesus, who is both the "new Moses" and the "new manna," gives Himself as food for the multitudes under the visible signs of bread and wine (CCC# 1333-35).
Word was spreading among the population in the Levant about Jesus's miracles. It was almost impossible for Him to avoid crowds of people following Him in their desire to witness His miracles. Although John's Gospel highlights only seven public "signs" performed by Jesus in verse 2 and again in 20:30 and 21:25, John tells us that Jesus worked many miracles. John chose seven public signs to represent Jesus's many miracles because they illustrated certain facets of the mystery of Jesus the Messiah. An eighth sign was a private revelation of Jesus walking on the sea and calming the storm that was only for the Apostles in John 6:16-21.
| #1. 2:1-11 | The sign of water turned to wine at the wedding at Cana |
| #2. 4:46-54 | The healing of the official's son |
| #3. 5:1-9 | The healing of the paralytic |
| #4. 6:1-14 | The multiplication of the loaves to feed the 5,000 |
| #5. 9:1-41 | The healing of the man who was born blind |
| #6. 11:17-44 | The raising of Lazarus from the dead |
| #7. 2:18-20* | The Resurrection of Jesus that will be fulfilled in 20:1-10 |
*Jesus prophesied this sign in 2:18-20, but it remained unfulfilled
until chapter 20.
The miracle when Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee and calmed
the storm was a private revelation for the Apostles, which again identified
Jesus as the divine Messiah and the prophet "greater than Moses" (Dt 18:18).
In verse 3, Jesus went up on "the mountain." The Gospel writers consistently refer to "the mountain" when Jesus ascends a height to teach or perform miracles. The reason is that "the mountain" is an important theological symbol that links the reader to Old Testament imagery, revelations of God, and theological events that took place on mountains. For revelations of God and theological events associated with mountains, see the chart on the Holy Mountains of God.
4 The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
It is the spring of AD 29, a year before Jesus's Passion. Pilgrims
from Galilee and Jewish communities to the north in Roman-occupied Syria and
Asia Minor were traveling south to Jerusalem for the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened
Bread. In Jesus's time, the 8-day period was known by both names
(Mt 26:2, 17, & 19;
Mk 14:1, 12;
Lk 22:1, 7, 15). However, in St. John's Gospel, it is only
referred to as "the Passover," just as Jews refer to the combined feasts today.
When God established the annual God-ordained feasts at Sinai, the Passover
sacrifice fell on Nisan the 14th, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
was a weeklong feast from the 15th to the 21st, with two
sacred assemblies on the first and last days (Lev 23:5-8; Num 28:16-25). The Law
designated the Feast of Unleavened Bread as one of the three "pilgrim feasts,"
requiring that every man of the Covenant present himself before God's holy
altar (Ex 23:14; 34:18, 23;
Dt 16:16; 2 Chr 8:13). The feasts were so important
that those who could not make the trip because of illness or misfortune could
celebrate a month later (Num 9:1-14). God ordained the sacrifice of the
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a perpetual commemoration and
reenactment of Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
5 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?" 6 He said this to test him because he himself knew what he was going to
do. 7 Philip answered him, "Two hundred days' wages [denarii ] worth of food
would not be enough for each of them to have a little."
In John 1:45, Philip identified Jesus as "the one that Moses
and the prophets wrote about," the Prophet/Messiah. Jesus questioned Philip as
a test to help him fully understand the dimensions of his first
revelation of Jesus's true identity. All Philip had to do was petition Jesus to
feed the crowd. He should have remembered the miraculous feeding of the
multitude with manna and quail in the Exodus journey by how Jesus framed His
question. He also should have recalled when Moses asked Yahweh a question similar
to the one Jesus asked in Numbers 11:13: "Where am I to find meat to give
all these people....?" In that event, God accepted Moses's question as a
petition and provided food for the children of Israel, which the people called
"manna." Philip should have understood that the Messiah had the power to do the
same miracle, and he should have realized that just as God saw to the needs of
the children of Israel in ancient times, so too could He meet their needs that
day. However, instead of petitioning Jesus to feed the crowds, Philip's
thoughts were too earthbound, and he commented on the vast amount of money it
would take to feed all the people. Two hundred denarii is a substantial sum, considering
that one denarius equaled one day's wage for a common laborer (Mt 20:2).
This miracle feeding recalls another miraculous feeding of a multitude in the Old Testament that the disciples may have remembered from our First Reading (2 Kng 4:41-44) when the prophet Elisha also took barley loaves and fed a multitude with some bread left over. Elisha's feeding miracle took place at the same time of year on the Feast of Firstfruits for the barley harvest, a feast celebrated during the weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread on the day after the Saturday Sabbath. The day after the Jewish Sabbath is our Sunday, the first day of the week.
8 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; 9 but what good are these for so many?" 10 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.
Simon-Peter's brother, Andrew, perhaps remembering Elisha's
miracle, offered Jesus the boy's barley loaves and fish that would become the
meal multiplied to feed the great multitude of men, women, and children. Wheat
bread was more desirable than barley bread, and since barley bread was cheaper,
it was the food of people experiencing poverty. The same account in Luke 11:5 indicates
that the loaves were small, and the three loaves were an adequate meal for only
one person.
The Greek word for "fish," opsarion, indicates that the two fish were salted and dried. That there were five loaves may point to five as the number symbolizing grace and power in Scripture. That there were two fish may indicate the division between those who would believe and those who would not come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, even with this sign. Two is the number representing division in the Old Covenant and the number of Christ in His humanity and divinity as the Son of God in the New Covenant. Together, the number of loaves and fish yields the number seven, which is the number in Scripture that symbolizes fullness and spiritual perfection. It may also be important that a fish was a sign of the Church in the Old Covenant and will become the sign of the Church in the New Covenant. Here we have the Old, which will become the nucleus of the New Covenant in Christ: the two transformed into one New and eternal Covenant: the one Church that is the unified Body of Christ.
Notice that Jesus organized the crowd. Luke's Gospel tells us that He divided them into groups of about fifty people (Lk 9:14). The count of 5,000 only included the men. Since there were also women and children, Jesus miraculously fed well over 5,000 people. So why does the text only mention 5,000? Five is a symbolic number, and multiples of symbolic numbers indicate abundance. Five is the number of grace and power. In this "sign," there is a powerful abundance of grace, prefiguring the superabundance of the Eucharistic meal that will spiritually feed the multitudes of all races for all generations until the return of Christ the King. See the document, "The Significance of Numbers in Scripture."
11 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. 12 When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather
the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted."
"Gave thanks" in this passage is the Greek word eucharistein
from the verb eucharisteo. Do not miss the relationship in this feeding
miracle to the Most Holy Eucharist, which is an act of thanksgiving. In Temple
worship, the sacred communion meal of God's peace was called the Toda/Todah,
which means "Thanksgiving," and translated as Eucharistia in the Greek Old
Testament text concerning the Toda in Leviticus 7:1-5/11-15.
It was the custom of Jews and Israelites to bless the meal before eating. Jesus giving thanks reflects the Jewish use of barak/berakah "to bless/ blessing." However, more than a simple Jewish blessing, His words foreshadow the institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist first received at the Last Supper. He will repeat the exact words and actions in the miracle feeding of the Eucharist at the Last Supper: He blessed, He broke the bread, and He gave (Mt 26:26). His blessing also looks beyond the Last Supper to the blessing of the Eucharistic prayer that prepares the New Covenant Body of Christ to receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity at every Mass.
13 So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker
baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they
could eat.
The word translated "fragments" in verse 13 is theologically
significant. In the Greek translation, the term is klasma, but it is not
in the plural as in our translation. The Greek text expresses it in the
singular form = "fragment left over," indicating one whole. Notice that
John emphasizes the identity of the fragment(s) with the original loaves left
over from the meal of the five barley loaves. The unique meaning of this
passage was obvious to the early Church as reflected in the Eucharistic Prayer of
the early Church's first catechism, a document known as The Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles, or The Didache (Teaching). The early Eucharistic
prayer reads: "Concerning the broken bread: 'We give Thee thanks, Our Father,
for the life and knowledge which Thou hast made known to us through Jesus, Thy
Servant. To Thee be the glory for evermore. As this broken bread was scattered
over the mountains and then, when gathered, became one, so may Thy Church be
gathered from the ends of the earth into Thy Kingdom'" (The Didache, 9:
Eucharistic Prayer, written circa 50/120AD).
Since the Didache speaks of the bread as having been first scattered over the mountains, many scholars believe that this Eucharistic prayer originated in the Holy Land. The idea of Israel being "scattered" and then "gathered" was familiar to the Jews (see Dt 28:25; Jer 34:17; Judg 5:23; Ps 146:2; etc.). St. Cyprian beautifully develops this idea to illustrate the unity of Christ and the Church, which is "gathered" to Him (see Epistle 63.13; 69.5). Also, notice the plural "We give Thee thanks," which survives from this ancient prayer in the Ordinary of the Mass today and exemplifies St. Peter's characterization of the entire Church as "a holy priesthood" (1 Pt 2:5).
14 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." 15 Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
Religious Jews could not have missed the parallels between
Jesus's feeding miracle and the feeding miracles of Moses and the 9th
century BC prophet Elisha. They could conclude from the comparison between no
leftover manna in Moses's feeding miracles and the small amount leftover in
Elisha's miracle compared to the abundance of leftover bread in Jesus's miracle
that Jesus of Nazareth was a greater prophet of God than both Elisha and Moses.
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into
the world."
When the people declare that Jesus must be "the Prophet,"
they were referring to the prophet like Moses promised in Deuteronomy 18:15-20,
the "new Moses" and the one who was to be the Messiah and Davidic king of
Israel also promised by the prophets (i.e.,
Is 7:14; 9:1-7; 11:1-5, 10-12;
Jer 23:5; Ezek 34:23-24). In the first century AD, the people were looking for the
Messiah who would overthrow the Roman oppressors and reestablish their national
independence. It is why they wanted to "carry him off to make him king" in
verse 15. Knowing what they were thinking, Jesus withdrew and went "to the
mountain alone." The crowd's desire for a national, political Messiah was not
Jesus's aspiration. His kingdom is heavenly and spiritual, to have spiritual dominion
over the entire earth. And the "hour" for Him to be proclaimed "king" had not
yet come in God's divine plan; that "hour" would come His last week in
Jerusalem (CCC# 439).
Catechism References (* indicates the citation either
quotes or paraphrases Scripture):
Ephesians 4:2 (CCC 2219)
4:3-5 (CCC 866)
4:3 (CCC 814);
4:3-5 (CCC 866*);
4:4-6 (CCC 172*, 249*, 2778*, 2790*)
John 6 (CCC 1338*); 6:5-15 (CCC 549*); 6:15 (CCC 439*, 559*)
The miracle of the loaves and fishes prefigures the Eucharist (CCC 1335*)
Sharing of gifts in the communion of the Church (CCC 814*, 815*, 949*, 950-951, 952*, 953*, 954*, 955, 956*, 957*, 958*, 959*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2024 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.