July 28, 2024 – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our Great Journey

This week our theme is “Fish and Loaves” based on John 6:1-15 /Juan 6:1-15

All pray the Sign of the Cross

All powerful and merciful Father, increase our faith in you. When we struggle to believe, give us the courage to believe so that we may see your power at work in our lives. Amen.

Using the Bible, invite a family member to read the Gospel aloud.

John 6:1-15 /Juan 6:1-15

Things to talk about:

In today’s Gospel story, Jesus miraculously feeds over 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish that a boy in the crowd has with him.

If you were the boy in the crowd, would you have shared your food? Why or why not?
What does the sign of feeding the multitudes teach us today?
What does the abundance teach us about God?
How does today’s Gospel remind you of Mass?

Things to do:

Harvest berries and vegetables from your garden, or visit a farmers’ market to buy locally-grown produce. Invite friends and family members to make a dish celebrating the fruits of the earth you gathered.
Donate extra produce from your garden during a St.Vincent de Paul (SVdP) perishable food drive.
Feed the hungry in your area by donating non-perishable food items to SVdP or a local food bank.

Closing Prayer

Loving God,

Multiply me, increase my energy and my efforts, expand my wisdom and capacity to serve, and make me a channel of your love.

Amen

Catholic Insights

All four Gospels tell a story about Jesus miraculously feeding a large crowd with the lowest estimate set at 5,000 men, not including women and children. Matthew, Mark, and Luke don’t tell us where the food came from; it is John’s Gospel that gives us the detail of the boy who has five loaves of bread and two fish that Jesus multiplies. What was that boy’s experience that day?

Probably those loaves and fish were meant to be the boy’s lunch—or lunch for his whole family. The crowd had converged from the entire surrounding region, and many would have walked from many miles away. What had brought the boy there? What might he and his family have heard about Jesus? Why had they come?

Surrounded by the immense crowd, out and away from the nearest town, up on a mountain, was it a difficult choice for the boy to offer his food when he didn’t know where or when he would have more? Probably we all know people (perhaps even ourselves) who wouldn’t have let on that we had our own food among a hungry crowd. Yet something inspired the boy to share his lunch, and Jesus used a little to feed a lot. The boy learned something that day that we all need to learn and re-learn.

In his song, “What You Got,” singer-songwriter Billy Crockett put it this way: “But oh/remember the fish and the loaves/How love has a math of its own/What you got is more than enough/When God gets a hold/Of what you got.” We can trust Jesus with whatever we have, a little or a lot, to do miraculous things.