Weekly thoughts on the Sunday Gospel, readings or a topic...

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seeing your life through the lens of the gospels – Luke 9:11-17
1. Jesus welcomed the crowd, taught them and cured those in need of healing. Bring to mind the ways in which the story of Jesus and his message have brought you enlightenment and healing.
2. The miracle is symbolic of the abundance of blessings coming to us from God through Jesus. How has your faith in Jesus been a source of nourishment to you? What blessings have you received through your faith?
3. When the disciples became aware of the problem, they wanted to send the crowd away. Instead Jesus told them: ‘You give them something to eat.’ They thought what they had was insufficient, but Jesus used the little they had to feed the crowd. Have you ever found that when you gave the little you have to a situation, the results were beyond your expectations?  – John Byrne, OSA

The Deep End
Pope Benedict XVI once described today’s feast as ‘a day on which heaven and earth work together.’ He said: ‘Corpus Christi is an expression of faith in God, in love, in the fact that God is love. Love does not consume: it gives and, in giving, receives.’
This is a wonderful way to approach Communion. When we receive the body and blood of Jesus, it is a gift of love. But if we keep this gift for ourselves, and do not give in return, that is not love. The disciples in today’s Gospel have a small amount of food, five loaves and two fish – maybe enough to feed themselves, at a stretch. But Jesus had a very different idea. Notice that Jesus hands this gift over to them to distribute among the hungry crowd. It is the disciples’ responsibility to feed the hungry, to give to those in need, and to love the very crowds that they had earlier suggested sending away.
The Feast of Corpus Christi reminds us of our need to be in communion with the whole body of Christ. There is room for everyone at the banquet, especially the poor and the hungry, and it is up to us to help those in need. Having received this gift of love, we are expected to pass it on. There is more than enough bread for everyone.
‘If there is hunger anywhere in the world, then our celebration of the Eucharist is somehow incomplete everywhere in the world... We cannot properly receive the Bread of Life unless at the same time we give the bread of life to those in need, wherever and whoever they may be.’ (Pedro Arrupe SJ)  – Tríona Doherty

(from Intercom)