Loaves and Fishes Fr. James Jorgenson

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ. Today's miracle,

the story of the multiplication of the loaves

and fishes, is significant in a number of ways.

First, I might say, it is one of the few miracles

that our Lord performs that is recorded in all

four Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Normally, St. John does not repeat one of the

miracles that are recorded in Matthew, Mark,

and Luke because, I believe, that he was familiar

with these Gospels. And one of the features,

the characteristics of St. John's Gospel is that

he oftentimes, when he records miracles, he gives

a spiritual and theological significance and

explanation for these. And this, of course, is

true in today's Gospel. First of all, our Lord

had compassion on the multitude. When I read

over this gospel during the past week, that struck

me, how Jesus so often in his ministry has compassion

on the crowd. He feels sorry for them because

of their physical and spiritual weakness. But

also in today's gospel, the significance of the

multiplication of the loaves and fishes, is that

it looks backwards to something, and it looks

forward to something. It looks back to God having

compassion and mercy on his people in the Old

Testament, and as recorded in Exodus and Numbers,

he gives them manna from heaven to eat. and allows

quails to come miraculously and to have them

be picked up by the people. He also, when they

were thirsty, Moses struck a rock in the wilderness

and water flowed from there. And St. Paul symbolically

tells us that rock was Christ. because Christ

himself says later in the Gospel of St. John,

too, as a matter of fact, he says to the Samaritan

woman, the person who drinks the water that I

give will never thirst again. And naturally,

the Samaritan woman says, give us this water.

But in today's Gospel, Our Lord himself provides

the explanation, gives the symbolism of this

multiplication of the loaves and fish. This again

is recorded in St. John's Gospel. This is chapter

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

6. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers

ate manna. in the wilderness and they died. This

is the bread which comes down from heaven that

a man may eat of it and never die. I am the living

bread which came down from heaven. If anyone

eats of this bread, he will live forever and

the bread which I shall give is for the life

of the world. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly

I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the

Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life

in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood

has eternal life and I will raise him up on the

last day. So that is how this miracle, it's not

simply one of having compassion and feeding the

hungry crowd that came to him, but it has symbolic

importance. It looks back to God feeding his

people in the Old Testament and looks forward.

What does it look forward to? The Last Supper,

when Jesus institutes the sacrament of the Holy

Eucharist, when he changes bread and wine into

his very body and blood of Christ, which is what

we are participating in this. That's what each

and every divine liturgy is. It's being present

mystically with the apostles and disciples at

that Last Supper. And as truly as Jesus gave

the bread and the wine, which became his body

and blood, he gives it to us today, here and

now, in a few minutes. But it also looks forward

not only to the Last Supper, but this miracle

looks forward to the kingdom of heaven. In St.

Luke's Gospel, a man blurts out and says, blessed

is he who eats bread in the kingdom. And this

was a preface for Jesus' parable of the great

supper, that so many people were invited to this

supper. And so this great supper is a symbolic

story. about the supper of the kingdom of heaven,

the eternal banquet. How important it is to receive

Holy Communion, the Church has affirmed since

the earliest centuries. Saint Ignatius of Antioch,

on his way to martyrdom, said, the Eucharist

is the medicine of immortality. We normally hear

the choir singing, drink the cup of immortality.

That's what we're going to do today. St. Cyril

of Alexandria, a few centuries later, says, the

person who receives the flesh of our Savior Christ

and drinks his precious blood shall be one with

him. Such an awesome gift. this is for us this

morning, to become one with Christ, to be present

with him at the Last Supper, to eat his flesh

and drink his blood. And this is something that

I think all of us at times take receiving Holy

Communion routinely. It's something so beautiful

and sacred that we should not approach it routinely.

Good way, of course, is preparing for this. That's

why the church prescribes fasting for those who

are capable of fasting and provides also the

opportunity to cleanse our sins by periodic confession

and also to have the special prayers, which under

normal circumstances we should say, either the

night before or the morning of, attending divine

liturgy, the prayers of preparation for receiving

Holy Communion. So today, Lord, make us worthy

of this great gift that you are giving to us,

your own body and blood in Holy Communion. Glory

to Jesus Christ.