This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. As noted in the first post, our verses are followed by the Johannine account of Jesus walking on the water and calming the seas (John 6:16-21). Whereas the miraculous feeding miracle was performed before the crowds, this miracle is with the disciples alone. It is with that context that I offer Gail O’Day’s reflection [597-98]. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 12 When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” 13 So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. 14 When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” 15 Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 10 Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
As an aside, one wonders if that same dynamic is in place in our time when people offer the answer to the question as a “miracle” took place in people’s hearts. In such thinking, Christ induced the selfish to share their provisions, and when this was done there proved to be more than enough for them all. As Morris [300] notes, such a view relies “too much on presupposition and [overlooks] what the writers actually say. It is much better, accordingly, to hold … the view, that Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, did do something that we can describe only as miracle.” That said, let us return to the commentary. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 1After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (of Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
While short in length, each verse of the introduction contributes something significant to the narrative that follows: the location at the Sea of Galilee (v.1), the theme of seeing signs (v.2), the distinction between the followers and the crowd (v.3), and Passover (v.4). These simple verses almost act as a pause, asking the reader to reflect upon what has come before. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This chapter begins the second major ministry section in John (6:1-10:42). There are similarities to the beginning of the first major ministry section (2:1-5:47). O’Day [591] suggests: “It is probably no accident that the two inaugural miracles involve wine and bread, the sacramental symbols of God’s grace in Jesus.” Both sections start with miracles in Galilee that show God’s abundant grace and Jesus’ divine glory: Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time during Lectionary Cycle B. There are two contexts for this week’s Gospel: (1) the liturgical sequence of Year B’s readings in which the Gospels are primarily drawn from the Gospel according to Mark, and (2) the scriptural setting of the Gospel according to John. There is a high degree of overlap, but then again, each sacred writer has his own emphasis, a different way of telling the larger story of Jesus, and a distinctive lexicon of language. Continue reading
Our reading today is from John 6, the whole of which is rightly called the Eucharistic Discourse, John’s reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist seeing that the other gospels had well recorded its institution at the Passover meal the night before his crucifixion. We are at the end of the discourse and it seems that there is a crisis among the disciples. They seemed to have reached a point with Jesus’ teaching that is just too much. Perhaps too much to have compared himself to Moses, too much to have referred to himself as the living bread come down from heaven, or just too much that can’t be reconciled with their preconceived idea of the role of the Messiah. Continue reading
In today’s gospel, we read from John 6 known as the Bread of Life discourse. And there is much that can be said about this central chapter of John’s gospel that speaks to John’s Eucharistic understanding and teaching. And today I have no doubt that there will be some excellent commentaries on this reading. I have also written about this section of Chapter 6 that you can read here. Continue reading
47 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; 50 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The expression “Amen, amen, I say to you” (v. 47) also signals the beginning of a new section in the discourse (as before in 5:19, 24–25; 6:32). Yet this section opens with a reprise of familiar Johannine themes: The believer receives eternal life (6:27, 40); Jesus is the bread of life (6:35). These themes provide the theological grounding for what follows. As in 5:19–30, here the Fourth Evangelist advances Jesus’ argument by placing what Jesus has said previously in a new context. The interweaving and overlapping of theological themes evident here and throughout Jesus’ discourses help to create a cohesiveness of theological perspective throughout the Fourth Gospel Continue reading
43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.
Jesus now addresses the crowd for a second time and tells then to stop their grumbling. Then he repeats the saying of v.37, but in a slightly stronger form. In v.37 the word “come” (hēxei) is future, active voice and means that the person (subject) will be in the process of “coming.” But in v.44 the subject is God who will helkysē (draw, haul by force – EDNT v.1:435) the person to him. Continue reading
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