Christmas Weekday
They all ate and were satisfied. (Mark 6:42)
Has anyone ever surprised you with a gift of food? Maybe it was dinner that a neighbor brought over when a family member passed away. Maybe someone at work handed you a cup of gourmet coffee when you were laboring over a tight deadline. Or maybe someone gave you a gift card to your favorite restaurant for your birthday.
The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand was also an unexpected gift. The people who had followed Jesus into a deserted place weren’t expecting him or his disciples to give them dinner. No one asked him to perform this miracle. He just chose to do it out of love for these people who had come so far to see him. Jesus fed them because he wanted to spend more time with them rather than have them leave early to find food in the surrounding villages.
What makes Jesus’ gesture even more striking is that he was grieving the execution of John the Baptist at the time. He had initially wanted some time alone but changed his plans when he saw the crowd of people eager to hear him teach. Mark tells us that Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity,” and he decided to put aside his grief and care for the people (Mark 6:34).
This says so much about the heart of Jesus. First, he wants to spend time with us. You could say that he even enjoys his time with us. He will never “dismiss” us when we go to him (Mark 6:36). Second, we can trust that Jesus will give us the gifts we need, even when we least expect it. Even when it never occurred to us to ask, he will pour out his grace and his peace. We just have to make time, like those in the crowd, to come and sit with him.
Jesus’ greatest gift to us is the Bread of Life in the Eucharist. Even better, we don’t have to travel far to receive this heavenly food. He comes to us on every altar at every Mass and feeds us. And just like the people who ate and were satisfied, we, too, can be filled to overflowing every time we share a meal with Jesus.
“Jesus, thank you for spending time with me and for feeding me in the Eucharist.”
1 John 4:7-10
Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8
Catechism of the Catholic Church
§1373-1374, 1378, 1380
"I am the bread of life; those who come to me will never hunger" (Jn 6:35)
"Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us," (Rm 8:34) is present in many ways to his Church:195 in his word, in his Church's prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name," (Mt 18:20) in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned,197 in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But "he is present . . . most especially in the Eucharistic species." (Vatican II SC 7).
The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique… In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained…" (Council of Trent) "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present." (Saint Paul VI)…
Worship of the Eucharist… "The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession." (Saint Paul VI) It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form… he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us "to the end," (Jn 13:1) even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, (Gal 2:20)…under signs that express and communicate this love.