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
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.