This morning’s Gospel reading is Luke 9:11b–17:
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” He said to them, “Give them some food yourselves.” They replied, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.” Now the men there numbered about five thousand.
Then he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty.” They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.
What is abundance?
We spend much of our lives chasing our own ideas of abundance, perhaps even more so than necessities, in order to satisfy our tastes and appetites. Not only does everyone have their own idea of abundance, our definitions change repeatedly depending on our situations. Do I have the latest tablet or phone? (Hey, I just upgraded my Android …) Clothing styles? Am I keeping up with the Tik-Tok influencers?
The forms of these questions may change as we get older, but the impulse remains the same, and it is always rooted in the material world. One of my favorite songs of the era came from the band Barenaked Ladies, which gently skewered these impulses in their classic song “If I Had a Million Dollars.” The studio version is delightful (and is embedded below), but their live performances go even farther into satirizing our insatiable desire for abundance as we see it.
Some of the suggestions in the song itself of what the singer would buy for the person he loves:
- A house
- Furniture for the house
- A K-Car (you had to be around in the 80s to get that)
- A tree fort
- A minifridge for the tree fort
- A fur coat
- A llama
- A monkey
- John Merrick’s remains (a dig at Michael Jackson)
The suggestions get increasingly absurd as the song progresses, but each verse ends the same way: “I’d buy your love.” And that gets to the key of what our Corpus Christi readings today want to say to us, which is that we can’t buy love — and we can’t bargain with God for it, either, because he already loves us. It’s our appetites which get in the way of our appreciation for that love, and our desire for material “abundance” that prevents us from embracing the abundance of mercy and faith.
In our first reading today from Genesis 14, we see a foreshadowing of the Eucharist in the brief appearance of Melchizedek, king of Salem. Melchizedek is also a priest in the service of the Lord, and he comes to bless Abram, soon to become Abraham and the Lord’s choice as the father of nations. How does Melchizedek bless Abram? He does not bring gold, silver, gems, or an abundance of wealth. Instead, Melchizedek blesses Abram with bread and wine, at which point Abram tithes a tenth of all he has to the priest-king in the name of the Lord.
What does this model to us? First, Christians will note that the Lord’s blessings of abundance are tied to the Eucharist. Also, the Lord’s blessings are not about wealth or power, but about sustenance that frees us from those appetites. Indeed, Abram receives this sustenance and has so much faith in the Lord that he essentially trades a tenth of his possessions for it — possessions that others might have held tightly as a hedge against potential future disaster. In its place are what Abram needs for sustenance, with the implicit promise that his faith in the Lord to provide will bear fruit.
In both of our other readings, Jesus Himself teaches this same lesson. The feeding of the multitudes is considered one of Jesus’ most prominent miracles, but it is also a model of faith and its sustenance. This occasion also involves bread but also fish, multiplied miraculously to ensure the sustenance of Jesus’ flock. He wanted to give the Word to as many as possible as a gift of hope from the Lord, and the crowd came in faith to hear it — even if they did not quite understand the meaning and importance of the occasion. The Lord blessed those who came in His name to hear His Word by ensuring their sustenance, rather than pander to their appetites and buying their love through their own conception of worldly wealth.
In our second reading, Paul tells the Corinthians about the Last Supper:
Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
Consider this in light of the blessing of Melchizedek, as well as the need for sustained faith in the crucible of The Passion to come. Jesus blessed all of the disciples in the same manner as Abram received, not just for the moment at hand but also for sustenance for the trials to come. In doing so, Jesus instituted the Eucharist as a sacrament for His Church to bring to the world so that all those who believe can be sustained in faith through our trials.
But even more, Jesus makes clear that abundance only really matters in terms of faith and trust in the Lord. He did not come to create a kingdom of power and an army of might to control and subjugate the world. Jesus came to bring the Word to all corners of the world in the same humble manner in which He condescended to Earth as fully man as well as fully divine. By His passion, Jesus transformed the humble gifts of bread and wine into His body and blood, a blessing for all time, not to sate our appetites but to provide enough sustenance to see those appetites for what they are — a warped perspective on the abundances of the Lord in His creation.
The Barenaked Ladies end their song with the line, “If I had a million dollars, I’d be rich.” The Eucharist shows us how rich we already are in His love, and that our appetites are a distraction rather than an imperative. Wealth fails; love and faith in the Lord does not.
Previous reflections on these readings:
The front page image is the garden at the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish in Tabgha, Sea of Galilee, Israel. Taken by Ed Morrissey in 2013.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature that looks at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.
