“GRACE OF GOD’S BODY”
Saint John 6: 1-15
Laetare: 6 March Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
Jesus is The Bread of Life. In Him is life and light. He who eats the Son of Man has what is given: “this true Body and true Blood of your Lord Jesus Christ strengthens and preservers you to life everlasting.” For where there is forgiveness of sins there is also life and salvation.
The problem is, people don’t believe. People don’t believe the Word; people don’t believe Jesus. Your own fallen natures don’t believe it as you should!
The cornucopia of Eden’s bounty bored Adam and Eve in their sin for something new—something from them! The manna bored the children of Israel in the dessert and they too lusted for food of their own choosing—even if it meant returning to bondage in Egypt. And the established, tried & true, historic Mass of the Church Catholic of the West with its two millennia old Sacramental mandates bores Americans, Lutherans, and every other sinner inhabiting this dying prison camp of Satan.
But only those who recognize they’re still in the gaol of the devil will appreciate that his rule is broken and empty, and that they are now able to daily drown the “old Adam” and receive the special food of the Church; of Christ their Liberator. Only those under the Cross can appreciate and grasp tightly to the fruit of the cross. The fruit of the vine, and Jesus is the Vine, is not grape juice or broiled fish, or even unleavened bread. The supper in this wilderness is Jesus Himself—His real Body and His actual Blood.
But what does one make of John 6? Though not The Sacrament, since Christ did not institute that Mystery until Holy Thursday in the upper room, the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 is nonetheless both sacramental and typological. It is a sign which points to Jesus, His identity and work, as well as to The Holy Supper to come.
The Christ having mercy on hungry sheep fed them. He did so in a supernatural way that is beyond empirical verification or rational explanation. You believe it happened and that is called faith. You trust that the God/Man Who rose from the dead is also the One who can walk on water, cure leprosy, restore sight, and…create the Universe by His Word. The multiplication of fish and loaves is a sign that man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Jesus is God. He fed them with temporary stuff so that their sinful bodies would not decay “that” day from hunger. But it was a sign from God that Jesus is the One who creates food, drink, heaven and hell. Jesus is the One Who restores Eden for eternity.
When one understands that the mountain top meal was an arrow pointing directly to this very altar and Communion rail, then one truly grasps the Grace and Mercy of The Bread of Life!
The Sea of Galilee is not here but the raging waves of life’s trials daily douse you with stinging salt and brine. The one Who stilled the sea by being with His own upon the sea, and Who stepped into the Jordan’s own swirling sins of all people, birthed you in His own bloody-water at the womb, the matrix, of Mother Church. The mountain upon which Christ taught and then fed from, leads to the mount of Calvary where He died for your sins and restores to you and all believers the Tree of Life—that which blossoms and bears fruit this morning in His own consecratory Verba! It is not back then that He comes to you but rather THIS very morning. He gives you The Passover of His forgiveness and the Feast of His Eucharist—for He gives thanks to His Father for drawing you, His family, back into His side as He places that which comes from His side into your mouths. Philip, Andrew, and the other followers of Jesus would that day serve as His hands and feet, in their “sent ones” role, pointing to His future apostles Who serve His flock this very morning. His Words makes the gift they serve What He wills it to be. The five small loaves and the two fish, hearken to the truth that the Law of Moses only kills and does not feed, but that the Two-Natured God/Man will always deliver His people from their oppression (from enemies and temptation as well as from hunger). You are the gathered up twelve baskets for you are the recreation of the twelve tribes of Jacob. In The True Son of Israel, your giving God, Jesus, you are the New Israel of His Body and Blood. He no longer “departs into the mountain again…Himself alone,” but takes you with Him…your body in Him and His, now, in you.
It makes all the difference in the world…and in eternity.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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