Homily for 8th Pentecost

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Readings for 8th Sunday After Pentecost (Julian Calendar)

• Hebrews 13:7-16 (1st 6 Ecumenical Councils)
• John 17:1-13 (1st 6 Ecumenical Councils)
• 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
• Matthew 14:14-22

These are notes… Delivery was different. Thank God 🙂

JUST BEFORE THE PRIEST says “Holy things are for the Holy” he says this prayer. I’m not sure if you can hear it outside of the altar. It can be said silently or softly.

Hearken, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, from Your holy dwelling place and from the throne of glory of Your Kingdom, and come to sanctify us, You Who are enthroned with the Father on high and are present among us invisibly here. And with Your mighty hand, grant Communion of Your most pure Body and precious Blood to us, and through us to all the people.

Notice that he says it in the plural, not singular, asking that communion be given “to us, and through us to all the people.” Who is the us? Who are all the people? Again, it’s in the plural, not the singular…

Today we have the readings for the Sunday as well as the readings for the commemoration of the Fathers of the 1st 6 of the Ecumencial Councils. Before we get to the feeding of the 5k, let’s look at the passage from John.

Jesus is praying the “High Priestly Prayer” for the Father to give him the “glory” that he had before the world.

He asks that he – Jesus  – may be glorified in us.

Pop Quiz… What is the meaning of Orthodox? (Right Glory)

The Greek word rendered “glorify” – from doxa means to ascribe weight by recognizing real substance  This is also of the Hebrew word rendered glory… Cavod: it also means weight, meaning, existence. 

Aquinas says – following Aristotle – God is the beingness of all being… the Cause of All Causes. 

Later (v 22) he will say that the Glory – the weight, the reality – the Father has given him, he – Jesus – has given us… From his pierced hands to us.

This beingness – our ISness – is our glory together with the God who is the reality of all realities. We are called to further share in God’s Glory through Christ. Through our baptism. Through our sacramental participation in his life… the reality of God.

Now, let’s look at the feeding of the 5k.

Some folks want to see it as a sort of “eucharist” reading. Some folks want this to be an echo of the Manna in the Wilderness with Moses. But it seems to me to be about how the kingdom works. 

Hear what the Disciples say… Send them away. Send away all these people. Too many!

At this point in the story I think the Disciples know they have only some bread and fish already. They are afraid there’s only enough for them. Maybe. If we’re careful. Except that’s NOT how the kingdom works.

Jesus says you feed them. I think Jesus also knows they have food. He wants them to not be afraid. Christianity is not about being careful. Love is not afraid. This is why magnanimity is a virtue.

A picnic basket of food does not feed 5,000 people! Only modern narrators, afraid of actual miracles will pop in right now with a record scratch. “But the real miracle that day was that everyone shared.” 

Who really does the feeding here? Jesus – of course – he’s the one who multiplies the bread and fish miraculously.  But how does Jesus do it? 

The disciples obey Jesus – feed them yourselves – and he works a miracle by their hands. His ministry is extended out through the actions of the Apostles: their hands feed. Jesus multiplies. 

The Fathers say Jesus reveals God to us. And he also reveals humanity to us, the real humanity – which is in the image of God: pouring out one’s life in self sacrificial love for others. Feed them yourselves.

In Christ, as the Late Pope Benedict said, we are called not only to be saved in the savior, but to be sons and daughters in the Son of God. Sons and daughters of God the Father in the second person of the Trinity. God the Son. That’s our role – and our responsibility. We enter into this same relationship through Jesus and then we have the same responsibility, the same duty to be the savior, to be the sacrifice given for the life of the world.

THIS is sharing in God’s Glory, God’s reality, God’s beingness.  To us, and through us, to all the people. What God intends to bring about he does by the hands of his people, by the hands of his saints. By the hands of his divine providence. And through us to all the people.

This is what Christ desires for us in his High Priestly Prayer. This is what the 21 Ecumenical Councils have protected and taught: all of this is connected.  Pop quiz 2: What is the meaning of “Catholic”? (Whole) The Whole Faith.

All of this is of a piece: the incarnation, the holy mysteries, the church herself, the Theotokos, the icons, the doctrines of the creed – all one piece with the relationships in our lives, the jobs we do, the evangelism we do in the world, the prayers we make, the saints with whom we grow and serve God. 

It is whole – Catholic. This is the Right Glory of God, the Orthodoxy in which we share by his Grace given to us.

As Orthodox Catholics we are called to offer this wholeness to God’s Glory – and then turn outward to feed the world. To us, and through us to all the people. This is not ONLY a matter of feeding the poor – although that’s a good sacramentalized model of it. The Christian faith is NOT a social help program. St Seraphim of Sarov says, “acquire the Holy Spirit and thousands around you will be saved…”

This is the meaning of our faith and of the theosis or Divinization that is our salvation.

From the Apostles in the Gospel through the Saints and Fathers of all the Councils to us, today, being sent out into the world after the prayers today… the Hand of God at work in the world: from his hand to us and through us to all the people.

Glory to God.