20170428 THE UNASSAILABLE POWER OF GOD
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 5:34-42 ©
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One member of the
Sanhedrin, a Pharisee called Gamaliel, who was a doctor of the Law and
respected by the whole people, stood up and asked to have the apostles taken
outside for a time. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin, ‘Men of Israel, be careful
how you deal with these people. There was Theudas who became notorious not so
long ago. He claimed to be someone important, and he even collected about four
hundred followers; but when he was killed, all his followers scattered and that
was the end of them. And then there was Judas the Galilean, at the time of the
census, who attracted crowds of supporters; but he got killed too, and all his
followers dispersed. What I suggest, therefore, is that you leave these men
alone and let them go. If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human
origin it will break up of its own accord; but if it does in fact come from God
you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find yourselves
fighting against God.’
His
advice was accepted; and they had the apostles called in, gave orders for them
to be flogged, warned them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them.
And so they left the presence of the Sanhedrin glad to have had the honour of
suffering humiliation for the sake of the name.
They
preached every day both in the Temple and in private houses, and their
proclamation of the Good News of Christ Jesus was never interrupted.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
26(27):1,4,13-14 ©
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There is one thing
I ask of the Lord, to live in the house of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord is my light
and my help;
whom
shall I fear?
The Lord is the
stronghold of my life;
before
whom shall I shrink?
There is one thing
I ask of the Lord, to live in the house of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
There is one thing I
ask of the Lord,
for this
I long,
to live in the house
of the Lord,
all the
days of my life,
to savour the
sweetness of the Lord,
to behold
his temple.
There is one thing
I ask of the Lord, to live in the house of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
I am sure I shall see
the Lord’s goodness
in the
land of the living.
Hope in him, hold
firm and take heart.
Hope in
the Lord!
There is one thing
I ask of the Lord, to live in the house of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
We know that Christ
is truly risen from the dead:
have mercy on us,
triumphant King.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Mt4:4
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Man does not live on
bread alone,
but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 6:1-15 ©
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Jesus went off to the
other side of the Sea of Galilee – or of Tiberias – and a large crowd
followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed
the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the
Jewish feast of Passover.
Looking
up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some
bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself
knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii
would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples,
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five
barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to
them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many
as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and
gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the
fish, giving out as much as was wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to
the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So
they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the
meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given,
said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who
could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king,
escaped back to the hills by himself.
THE
UNASSAILABLE POWER OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [
ACTS 5:34-42; PS 26:1,4,13-14; JN 6:1-15 ]
It is human nature to defend ourselves against
perceived enemies who threaten our lives or status quo. This was so in
the case of the Jewish leaders who tried to deal with the newfound Jesus
movement by the early Christians. They were motivated partly by jealousy
that the new movement was gaining popularity and new members. But they
were also motivated by fear of the Romans’ intervention as the preaching of the
apostles could cause social disorder, religious division and even pose
political challenges for the Romans. So institutions use the stick,
penalty, threats and imprisonment to silence those who are different or could
cause damage to the existing social, religious and political institutions.
But thanks to St
Paul’s teacher, Gamaliel, the Sanhedrin were steered in the right direction by
his wisdom and astuteness. Instead of reacting to the new movement
founded by the disciples of Christ, he urged for the situation to be
monitored. He gave them a very important guiding principle for the work
of discernment. “What I suggest, therefore, is that you leave these men
alone and let them go. If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of
human origin it will break up of its own accord; but if it does in fact come
from God you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find yourselves
fighting against God.” Indeed, those who walk by the light and in
truth will be victorious in the end. Those that come merely from a human
initiative will not last. Worse still are those who walk in darkness and
in falsehood; they will eventually destroy themselves.
After this ruling, we read that the
persecution from the Jewish authorities was much restrained. Although
they flogged and warned them not to proclaim in His name, they continued all
the same after their release. “And so they left the presence of the
Sanhedrin glad to have had the honour of suffering humiliation for the sake of
the name. They preached every day both in the Temple and in private
houses, and their proclamation of the Good News of Christ Jesus was never
interrupted.” The apostles could rejoice even in their suffering and
humiliation simply because they knew that it was not their own strength or
ingenuity that the spread of the gospel continued relentlessly but purely
because of the power of the Risen Lord at work in their lives.
Truly, in the history of Christianity,
Gamaliel’s principle was proven right. In later Church history, when the
Romans began persecuting the early Church in the first three centuries, it
showed that the use of power, force and threats did not stop the Church from
growing. On the contrary, even though many Christians were martyred,
tortured and killed; and even though the Christian faith was outlawed, yet the
number of Christians grew even more. As it was said, the blood of the
martyrs was the seed of the Church. This is why when we try to
fight against the power of God, we will lose the battle, for God in the Old
Testament is known as the Lord of Hosts! He is the commander of the army
of Israel.
This same predicament in a less
threatening manner also occurred during the ministry of Jesus. He was
faced with the dilemma of feeding the crowd of five thousand. He asked
Philip, “Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?” Philip answered,
“Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.”
Andrew showed his desperation when he told the Lord, “There is a small boy here
with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’”
Again, humanly there was no solution. It would be difficult to send the
crowd away to find food. On the other hand, there was no way that Jesus
could buy enough food to feed them or use the five loaves and fish.
Like Gamaliel and the apostles, they
surrendered themselves to the power of God’s grace. So we read that Jesus
“took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready,
he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as they wanted.”
In giving thanks, Jesus showed His total trust and gratitude to God for
whatever His Father provided. To give thanks means to trust in the power
of God. Those who cannot give thanks are always looking at the wrong side
of the problem. Instead of focusing on the half full cup, they focus on
the half empty cup. Instead of focusing on their blessings, they focus on
their woes! When we focus too much on the negative things in life, we
become discouraged and lose faith in God and in ourselves. We end up
wallowing in self-pity. Rather, we are called to thank God for what we
have, even if it were for five barley loaves and two fish. When we thank
God, we begin to count our blessings. When we are grateful for what we
have, we become more receptive to His grace for the future and also grateful to
others.
Perhaps this was how the bread
multiplied. Some scholars suggested that Jesus might not have literally
multiplied the bread for the five thousand because unlike all the other
miracles, there was no expression of amazement at the end of the miracle.
Perhaps, it could be that the people who brought their own food, on seeing
Jesus give thanks for the little he had, came to appreciate their own abundance
and blessings. When they came to realize how much more blessed they were
than Jesus with their food, they were moved to share all that they had brought
in their baskets. And this possibly explains why there was so much left
over, twelve baskets of scraps, signifying that they had all more than enough
to eat. When we share what we have, there would be no poverty in this
world and no hungry or suffering people. The truth is that the few are
hoarding most of the food for themselves and leaving the rest with
nothing. But if we count our blessings and are grateful to God, we will
start sharing what we have.
However, we must not give up the
possibility that a real miracle happened in that the bread was literally
multiplied by the Lord. If we accept this position, it too could be
accommodated simply because we are speaking about the power of God’s
intervention. We might not know historically what actually happened, since
this miracle was taken from the early liturgy of the Church in the celebration
of the Eucharist. The point remains that with God, nothing is impossible.
This miracle recounted by John is to
prepare us for the discourse on the Eucharist as the bread of life. This
explains why John prefaced this miracle with the mention of Jesus’ crossing to
“the other side of the Sea of Galilee” and that it was “shortly before the
Jewish feast of Passover.” These two details remind the listeners of the
great miracle that God performed when He set the Israelites free from the
slavery of the Egyptians and how they crossed the Red Sea. Secondly, we
remember how the Passover lamb saved the lives of the first born of the
Israelites. These two details are meant to help us situate the Eucharistic
discourse. Jesus is likened to the new Moses who would be the teacher of
the New Israel, the one who also provided the real manna from heaven.
Hence, like Moses, “Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples”
to teach them, like a teacher.
The most important principle for faith in
the Eucharist is that God has power over nature and therefore He has the same
power to transform bread and wine into His body and blood. Humanly speaking, it
is impossible. But precisely for God, nothing is impossible. Our
response to God is not by logic and reasoning but by faith in His divine
power. Like Jesus, we are called to surrender all we have to the Lord,
even if it were five loaves and two fish. If we surrender ourselves to
the Lord, He will work miracles in our lives. We must learn to trust Him
and His divine providence and power. God will work wonders in our lives
if, like Jesus, we continue to give Him thanks at all times, for things big and
small. In trusting in the power of God and not the power of man, we will
see His miracles at work in us.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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