They all ate and were satisfied, all 5,000 of them. That is a miracle!
We were celebrating Memorial Day and my whole family was there together and I was talking to my sister because we ate all day long there was tons of food. There was pulled pork and 3 kind of pies and tons of dessert and we were eating all day long.
My sister said to me at one point, “I’ve been eating all day and I don’t ever feel satisfied.”
And I said, “Me too, I’ve been eating all day and not once have I felt full, I just keep eating.”
The miracle is that Jesus can satisfy us. And in the feeding of the 5,000 he took those five loaves and those 2 fish and made this miracle where he fed every person there and not only did he feed them, but he brought them to satisfaction.
What a great miracle.
In just a few moments as I consecrate the bread and wine and they become the Body and Blood of Christ, we are all about to expense a miracle.
Simple gifts of bread and wine will be transformed in to the body and blood of Jesus. We hear in the Gospel that he was there with the 5,000 and he was preaching and he was teaching and he was healing people that needed to be healed. I want you to know that today at this very mass, those of you who need to be healed, will be healed.
There will be some of you that will come up to receive communion and when you touch the body of Christ, he will heal you. There will be some of you that will come up and whatever is going on in your life and you feel you need his help and his strength, he will heal you.
We’re about to experience a miracle.
What does it take for Christ to work a miracle in our lives?
In the Gospel today l reveals a few extraordinary things to us and so there’s really 3 points that I’d like to make that I think that by reflecting on them can help us experience a miracle today at this very mass.
The first point is: Presence. The first thing for a miracle to happen is Jesus needs to be there. He needs to be present. And he was present to the 5,000. So he was there teaching and preaching and proclaiming the Gospel and he was healing those that needed to be healed. He was present.
And He’s present to you today. You heard him in the word that was spoken and also you’re going to feed on him in the Body and Blood of Christ.
But here’s your part. For a miracle to happen, you have to be present. You gotta be here. You gotta be with me. You gotta be with him, body mind and soul. You have to be present.
Because when we are present to Jesus, he’s always present to us, but when we are present to Jesus, we can have a miracle. So the first thing is presence. And you’ll notice that Jesus was there. And they were there with him. And this is how we know.
The second point is that there was a dialogue. There was a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples and between Jesus and the crowd.
So as the day was coming to a close, the sun was beginning to set, and the 12 disciples approached Jesus and they were anxious. Because the sun is setting it’s going to the end of the day.
There’s 5,000 people there, they’re getting hungry. And I don’t know if you’re anything like me but you’re getting hungry and you start to get irritable. And the disciples say to Jesus, “Lord, we better get these people out of here. We gotta get them somewhere to get food and lodging and provisions.”
So notice they didn’t do it themselves. They didn’t just start throwing the people out. They went to Jesus first and they started a dialogue. They said Lord, we need to do something.
Well, here’s the wonderful part of a dialogue. If you engage the Lord in dialogue, if you bring a need to him, he’s going to address it with you.
And so the Lord says to them, “Give them some food yourselves. Do it yourself, you can do it.” Well the disciples don’t know how to take that. The disciples say, “Lord, we only got 5 loaves and 2 fish here. And in case you didn’t look around there’s 5,000 people! How are we going to do this ourself?”
Notice the dialogue continues. It doesn’t shut down.
So when the Lord asks something of the people and it’s too great for his disciples, they say, “Lord how can we do this? Do we want us to go the store and spend all of our money?”
They continue the dialogue with him.
And so Jesus says now to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about 50.” And so the disciples can do this, this is manageable.
So they go out in the crowd and they instruct them to sit down in the groups of 50. And they all begin to do it, they sit down on the hillside.
So the second thing that needs to happen for a miracle is dialogue. Now for the miracle to occur right now, for you right here at this mass, you need to have a dialogue.
So that means you have to talk to God about what’s going on in your life. And it doesn’t matter what it is, however big or small it is, however urgent or important, however embarrassing it is.
You need to dialogue right now with God. Tell him what’s on your heart, tell him what you need, tell him what you’re afraid of, tell him that you’re anxious. Tell him whatever you need to tell him. But dialogue with him.
Now people are often good about talking to God. You know I hear this all the time, “I talk to God all the time Father!”
What I find though is that we often don’t listen. So we talk but we don’t listen.
The second part of a dialoguing is listen. And I mean with every word that is spoken at Mass, listen. He wants to answer your questions. He wants to bring you to peace. He wants to give you whatever gifts you need in you life.
Listen to every single word in the mass. There needs to be a dialogue for there to be a miracle.
And the third and final thing is for a miracle to happen:
So they all sat down and then taking 5 loaves and 2 fish and looking up to heaven he said the blessing over them broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
They all ate and were satisfied. This entire crowd of 5,000 people the Lord was able to satisfy.
The third part of a miracle happening is that it actually will happen. You will be satisfied. You will have whatever you need from God.
Here’s what the dictionary says about being satisfied:
So satisfaction means:
To fulfill the desires, the expectations, the needs, or demands.
God will even fulfill your demands.
To give full contentment to. Such as, The hearty meal satisfied them.
Its also means to put and end to a desire, a want or a need. God can put to end any need that you have. He can fulfill and meet that need. By a sufficient and ample provision.
The hearty meal satisfied their hunger.
The 5 loaves and 2 fish became enough to feed the entire crowd and they had 12 wicker baskets extra. God provided an abundance.
Finally, it says, to solve or dispel any doubt.
When a miracle does happen not only are we satisfied does God provide for every want and every need or anything that we’ve ever wanted. At that moment all doubt is gone and we’re completely at hope with him.
So those are the 3 progressions that need to happen for a miracle to take place.
First of all you gotta be present. God’s present to you but you have to be present to him at this mass. You can’t be falling asleep, you got to cling to every word. So,firstly you gotta be present.
Secondly, there does need to be a dialogue. You have to bring your wants and your needs to God. And then you have to listen to every single word that he’s speaking to you.
Third and finally, you will be satisfied. God will fulfill whatever desire or expectation or need that you have in abundance.
We celebrate on this great great of Corpus Christi a great miracle.
First of all, that we do have a need and by being present, by dialoguing with God and ultimately by experiencing this miracle, we will be satisfied.
In just a few moments, I will take the simple gifts of bread and wine and in a very great and wonderful miracle they will be transformed in to his body and blood. Some of you will be healed. Because you are present, you are in dialogue and you will be satisfied.
