Contents: Volume 2

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

7/28/2024

1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. -- Fr. John Boll, OP
3. -- Dennis Keller
4. --(Your reflection can be here!)
 

*****************************************************
1.
*****************************************************
Sun 17 B 2024

Our readings this Sunday remind us that God is in our midst, always caring for us. It is difficult to try to understand these readings which emphasize feeding the multitude, however, when there are so many (too many, perhaps also in our midst) who go hungry each night. How can we reconcile both of these truths... and the question where is God now??

I surely don't have THE answer, but I hope grappling with the question is helpful to promoting a fuller picture of God and some remedies. I do not think that Almighty God has a magic wand, nor Jesus, nor the Holy Spirit! I do know for sure that our ways are not the ways of the Lord. I believe then, that things we do not understand or are unable to comprehend fully happen through the grace and power of God, however that unfolds in mystery.

Jesus fed the multitude of 5, 000 ... perhaps more if women and more than one child were also to be counted. We can accept that as it is or offer the view that those present who had brought food with them followed what Jesus said to do, then shared what they had as well. Nevertheless, the multitude were fed through the graces that flowed through Jesus. That is good enough for me to believe that it was a miracle.

It also foretells the abundance of the Eucharist. We become more like the Who that we receive and therefore, the abundance of grace continues. We go forth to act more in ways that Jesus would, sharing what graces we have been given well as the Jesus we have within us. I have on occasion also remembered this Gospel when there have been more on the receiving line at Communion than was anticipated. The priest or Eucharistic minister broke the remaining hosts into little bitty pieces, each piece still containing the full body of Christ. All were fed.

This reflection has been a bit of a ramble! I think that exploring one's faith, both questions and experiential history, alone or with others, allows grace to flow. Acknowledging the hungry among us, those hungry for physical food or spiritual food, needs to be done, not to find THE answer but to explore where each of us can be part of a remedy, one conduit of grace at a time.

Blessings,
Dr. Lanie LeBlanc OP
Southern Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one

******************************************************
2.
******************************************************
2024-07-28 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

2 Kgs 4:42-44/ Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18/ Eph 4:1-6/ Jn 6:1-15

“I ... urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another through love ...”

Did you notice what is implied by Paul’s greeting here?
In his URGING, he begins with HUMILITY
and ends with “Bear with one another!”
What does this imply?!

When I read, “Bear with one another,”
(Put up with one another)
I realized Paul is speaking
to a real issue of discord and intolerance here.

We often think about these early Christian communities
as models of perfection in love,
And their love certainly inspired others.
“See how they love one another.” others would say.
But the truth is they struggled like you and I.

Paul writes these things because the Ephesians
were having trouble living out their love for one another.

Remember, this is the community where
John the Apostle and Evangelist eventually settles.
He is the one who emphasized that “God IS Love!”
and gave us Jesus’ new commandment,
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
Do you suppose there is a connection here?
A reason he too, wrote so strongly about these things?

Paul begins with “humility.”
I find it so easy to become focused
on how the other members of my community
leave me to pick up the slack when the cores are not done,

I get so focused on what aggravates me,
But forget that I drop the ball all the time!
And I’m sure aggravate them too.

So Paul begins with Humility.
Because that is what we first need.
I must realize that I too am imperfect
and aggravate the people I care about, work and live with.

I have to realize that we all struggle to take care of each other
and fail often enough.

This does not mean that we should not address issues
in our families and communities.
That is why Paul goes on to Urge “gentleness and patience.”
and speaks of “bearing with one another.”
he urges us to make allowance and have “mercy.” out of love.
When we do address our issues,
it is to be with humility, gentleness, and patience.

Love is what motivates us to behave this way.
Love at its core, is not an emotion,
But a CHOICE to give of ourselves in CARE, and SERVICE.

In truth, to be Children of our God, is to love, for God IS love!
Is to desire, and work, so that every person
finds fulfillment as who God has created them to be.
And ultimately, that is, to become a people of love.

More so, Paul learned that our weakness and imperfection
enables God to work more powerfully in us
as he tells God’s words in Second Corinthians:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” And so he says that “I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.”
Paul understands that Love, the power of God,
is made perfect is weakness.

So here in Ephesians, Paul is NOT addressing “THE PERFECT.”
It is not perfection, but rather, holiness is implied here.
And holiness is the Whole-ness of Love.
Jesus even teaches us to
“love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”

So if we are instructed to love our enemies,
then it is no mystery that Paul urges us to exercise love
for other persons who are also imperfect.

So our whole-ness and holiness, our perfection,
is at it’s greatest when we also love even the imperfect,
When, we, who are weak and imperfect,
love others who are also weak and imperfect.
We treat one another with humility, gentleness and patience.

And so these words of Paul’s
are not some pious words of greeting.
they are concrete and real

For every time
we “bear WITH one another through love”
we "bear one another” INTO the eternal life of God,
Who is love itself!

John Boll, OP

******************************************************
3.
******************************************************
Seventeenth Sunday of Ordered Time July 28, 2024

2nd Kings 4:42-44; Responsorial Psalm 145;
Ephesians 4:1-5; Gospel Acclamation Luke 7:16;
John 6:1-15

There is a change in this Sunday’s Gospel source. We suddenly, without notice, switch from reading the Gospel of Mark to the enigmatic gospel of John. Recalling the Gospel reading from Mark on the 16th Sunday, we note that Jesus took the disciples returned from their first mission of preaching the coming of the Kingdom of God to a desert place for rest and prayer. Mark writes that a vast crowd followed him around the Sea of Galilee to the deserted place. That sets up the scene for John’s Gospel this Sunday.

But why have we left Mark’s Gospel. It seemed so straight forward. Likely the most practical reason is that Mark’s gospel is the shortest of the Gospels. There is just not enough there to fill out thirty-four weeks of ordered time.

Now we go into John who tends to create a more symbolic presentation. He understands the events in the history of God’s interventions in Hebrew Scriptures. He understands the remembering that is the holy days celebrated by the Hebrews. He has a greater depth and application to human life than most. It takes work to understand John. But the richness, once realized, makes everything different. In the next several weeks, we will seek understanding AND application to daily living. Missing even one of these Sunday’s liturgies of the Word will get us lost from John’s message. If we can become tuned to his method, his cultural context, and awareness of salvation history of the Chosen People we become aware of why the gospels are called Good News. We are challenged to listen carefully in the next several weeks – up until September 1, the Twenty Second Sunday in ordered time. And to think about what we have heard.

In the Fourteenth Sunday of ordered time we heard that Jesus was disrespected. He was rejected by the Synagogue, the religious part of his culture. After this in Mark’s gospel he no longer teaches in a synagogue. Then his secular childhood and business community rejected him and threatened to stone him or throw him off a high cliff. So, he literally left town. In the Gospel for the Fifteenth Sunday, Jesus sends the apostles in differing directions to preach, to heal, and to rid the stricken of evil spirits. They were not to be dependent on resources carried with them. There was great success. We can imagine the disciples being rather giddy but exhausted from their efforts.

In the Sixteenth Sunday Jesus takes the apostles to a desert place for rest and prayer. That did not happen as a large crowd of people came looking for him. The crowd realized their common hunger for Jesus’ teaching and healing of their brokenness. Their hunger for the preaching and the truths Jesus offered reached the hearts of the crowd. The crowd stayed till it was late. Their hunger became more than spiritual.

This Sunday we switch over to the John’s gospel until the Twenty Second Sunday of ordered time, September 1, when we return to Mark’s gospel. What is interesting and a major cause for us to pay special attention is that John gospel’s selection is about the Bread of Heaven. And it starts with this Sunday’s miracle of the loaves and fishes. We note that Jesus takes bread, says the blessing, breaks the bread, and passes it to the disciples who pass it to the people John’s sequence is the same as the other Gospel’s account of the feeding of the multitude. Each of the other gospels has the same sequence: Jesus taken, blesses, (gives thanks) breaks the bread and passes it to the disciples who distribute to the multitude. Mark and Matthew have two feedings – one to five thousand men (women and children were in addition to the men) and the other to four thousand men.

When we hear the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke at the Last Supper, we hear those same words: he takes, he blesses, he breaks, he gives to the disciples. Each writes the same thing after the feeding: there is an awful lot left over. The abundance is adequate for all of the twelve tribes – and the gentiles. Mark has an interesting comment not in the others. In all of them Jesus has the people sit - this is no fast-food festival. They sit with others, and it becomes a relaxing meal. Mark indicates the people sit in groups of hundreds and fifties. That reflects how many men (with their wives and children) would gather for the Eucharist each week in a home. The home was the original place Eucharistic celebration. In each gospel at the last supper Jesus tells them to ‘do this in memory of me.’ As we progress through John’s gospel, we will need to talk about what the ‘this’ is all about.

In the Gospel this week we are presented with John’s narrative of the feeding of the five thousand. There is a different introduction to that reading. We are told that Passover is near. That would be the time of the Seder Meal, the Passover celebration. That was the context of the institution of the Eucharist in the other three gospels. John uses this fact to present the liturgy of the Eucharist rather than at the last supper. John at the feeding of five thousand uses the formula from the other gospels at the feedings and the last supper. Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and passes out. Consider this: in John’s account of the last meal of Jesus, there are no verses instituting the Eucharist. Instead, there is the washing of the feet of the disciples with the order, do this in memory of me.

The presentation of John regarding the Eucharist is healing, nourishment, and unifying the assembly. This is about what Jesus has done for all. Jesus’ discourses in the following weeks are instruction about the Bread of Heaven. The setting is about feeding a vast multitude of people, gathered because of hunger. All are hungry. This week thinking about what we hunger for would prepare us for the discourses in the next four weeks. We should think about what we hunger for. One common hunger is for belonging. As vast multitudes gathered to be fed in the earthly time of Jesus, so we gather to hear be fed by the Word and by the Bread broken and the Cup poured out.

Dennis Keller Dennis@PreacherExchange.com 

******************************************************
4.
******************************************************
Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections, and insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the preaching you hear. Send them to preacherexchange@att.net. Deadline is Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.

-- ABOUT DONATIONS --

If you would like to support this ministry, please send tax deductible contributions to Jude Siciliano, O.P.:

Make checks payable to: Dominican Friars.

Mail to:
St. Albert Priory
3150 Vince Hagan Drive
Irving, Texas 75062-4736
 

Or, go to our webpage to make an online donation:
https://preacherexchange.com/donations.htm

-- REGULAR INFORMATION ---

To UN-subscribe or Subscribe, email "Fr. John J. Boll, O.P." <preacherexchange@att.net>

-- WEB PAGE ACCESS --

-- Go to https://www.preacherexchange.com Where you will find "Preachers' Exchange," which includes "First Impressions" and "Homilías Dominicales," as well as articles, book reviews and quotes pertinent to preaching.

-- Also "Daily Reflections", and many other resources.

A service of The Order of Preachers, The Dominicans.
Province of St. Martin De Porres
(Southern Dominican Province USA)
P.O. Box 8129, New Orleans, LA 70182
(504)837-2129; Fax (504)837-6604
http://www.opsouth.org
(form revised 2020-09-23)