17-sunday B

17-Sunday-B







Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who are here today, dear friends every time we come to church we celebrate the miracles and wonders of our Lord Jesus Christ and every time we come here we celebrate Christ who continues to multiply divine love and kindness among us and every time we come to Church we become the bread of life for those longing for divine love and kindness.


One day a pastor noticed that one of his parishioners Stephen was standing outside of his house and doing something, the priest yelled at him saying, “Can you not hear the church belling calling you for holy Mass?” Stephen looked at the priest and said, “What?” “ Can you not hear the church bell calling you for Holy Mass?’ what Father. “ I said can you not hear the ringing of the church bell calling you for the Holy Mass?’ Stephen then said, ‘Father, speak up, I can not hear you because of the church bell”.


Then one day, Stephen came to church with a banana in hear ear. So the priest called him out and said, “Steve, you have a banana in your ear’ what Father? I said you have a banana in your ear. What? You can a banana in your ear? Stephen then looked at the priest and said, ‘Father, speak up; I have a banana in my ear.
Then Stephen and his wife Doris celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary and when they came home, the wife was so happy that everything went well. She then looked at her husband and said, ‘honey, you are a very good husband and I am so proud of you”. Steve looked at her and said, ‘I am tired of you too”. His hearing never got better and what happened to Doris then, I will tell you all about Doris next weekend.
Dear friends, last weekend Gospel talked about Christ who saw the people who were like sheep without a shepherd and had compassion for them. Yes, Christ our Lord had a deep compassion for His people. Compassion means feeling the feelings of others; more like suffering with the people who suffer. For example, our Good Shepherd, though He did miracles and wonders, raised the dead to life when saw Martha and Mary crying for their brother Lazarus’ death, He also wept. He experienced their suffering and anguish. When the woman touched His cloak for healing, with compassion He looked around and said, ‘who touched my cloak and I experienced the power going away from me. I felt the person suffering and anguish. After healing when only one leper came to Christ, with compassion He asked him, were not ten healed what happened to the other nine. His compassion surpassed everything and He stretched out His hands and died for each and every one of us.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus our Lord after preaching the Good News to all, looks at His disciples and especially looking at Philip says, “Where are we going to buy food to feed these people?’ Why did Jesus our Lord asked Philip the Apostle because he was the one when Nathaniel said, “Can anything good come from Bethlehem?’ said, “Come and see the Messiah’. Bethlehem means house of bread, bread of life. Jesus is the bread of life and anyone who comes to Him will completely be satisfied. And thus Bartholomew became the disciple of Christ. And today Jesus asks Philip who indicated the bread of life to Bartholomew to feed the people.
Every word in the Bible has a deep meaning and when we begin to meditate on them, we will be filled with awe and amazement.
Jesus who after spending forty days and nights in the wilderness fasting and praying was famished and that time the devil came and gave to Him some stones and said, ‘If you are the Son of God change these stones into bread and reduce your hunger”. Our Lord Christ who came to heal humanity said, ‘Man does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God” and the same Christ, has compassion for His people because they were fed with the word of God and now they need to be fed with basic physical needs, food. The Bible says even before we ask Him, Christ our Lord knows what we need and thus He gives life that never ends. He felt the need the people who came to Him and thus when His disciples brought the five loaves and two fish, He took them and not just gave them to people but before hand He looked up to heaven and gave thanks to God, yes after Christ our Lord blessed the bread and the fish, they began to multiply into thousands.
That is the very reason, we bless our food and ourselves before we consume or eat. By asking Christ to bless our food, we experience physical and spiritual satisfaction. The blessed food becomes our healing agent; we experience the presence of Christ and His healing power in us.
After eating the bread and the fish, they were all completely satisfied both physically and spiritually. After their satisfaction, something wonderful happened in them. Yes, they did not just say ‘Good-bye” to Christ and His disciples instead they began to ponder over the words of Christ and their life style changed. They left behind their former way of life and began to hold on to the newness of life. They began to say to each other, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world”. Yes, He is indeed the Messiah, Good shepherd and Savior of the world. And that is why the disciples came to Christ and said, “Jesus, where can we go. You have the words of eternal life”.
Conclusion:
The bread that Christ multiplied two thousand years ago is still keep multiplying and is satisfying the hunger and the suffering of others. Where are breads now? We are His bread today. We are asked to go out and satisfy the spiritual and physical hunger of those who are suffering. Every time, people see us, they have to experience Christ and say, ‘Christ is indeed the Son of God who came into the world to save us” Amen.