8th Sunday after Pentecost; Fathers of the 1st Six Ecumenical Councils; Royal Passionbearers

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Words are icons, expressions of meaning. Actions are also words, inasmuch as they express meaning, often more clearly than language.

We heard today Christ's high priestly prayer for the whole church. "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are." This prayer contains the whole mystery of our faith and reveals what it is that we ask of God each and every day, at least three times a day. "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." Hallowed is to be made holy. "Hallowed be thy name," that the name of God is to be made holy within each of us. "Keep through Your name that they may be one as We are." "And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them." And that Jesus Christ may be glorified in us means to have Him dwelling in our hearts, which is to live a holy life, a life according to the word of God.

"Thy will be done." That the glory of God's name may be manifest in the world. "That they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, and that they also may be one in us." This itself is the kingdom of God. "Thy kingdom come," the bringing of the kingdom into the world through our lives, in liturgy and outside of liturgy. This is what we are asking for. To be one with true God of true God, just as true God chose to become one of us. But we of our own are not strong enough in our minds and our spirits to live such a life. And so we ask for what is necessary to do so. "Give us this day our daily bread."

Today we heard the Gospel of the feeding of the five loaves to the five thousand. The multitudes, as we heard, followed Christ into the wilderness. And out of his love and compassion, he healed their sick. He could have fed all of them immediately, but instead he gave his disciples the opportunity to have compassion upon the crowd and to prepare them by this for their future apostolic ministry. They approached him and said, "Lord, this is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves. Lord, the people are hungry. Where will they stay? Let them go." But Christ answers, "They do not need to go anywhere. You give them something to eat." And these words, "You give them something to eat," are addressed to every single pastor, to every priest of the Holy Church from all time and all places. You give them something to eat.

The Lord blesses the bread and gives it to his apostles who give it to the crowd. This is the ministry of the Word of God, given from Christ to the apostles, to the bishops, to the clergy, and to the faithful everywhere from all time. And that there was enough for the whole crowd with more pieces left over shows us that the church administers the bread of life through all time and the teachings that we partake of and which satisfy us are inexhaustible in their wisdom and meaning. The gathering of the baskets also shows us that we must guard the Word of God as a precious treasure.

Man does not live by bread alone. Our mind and our spirits are the life of the soul. When the mind and the spirit become deadened, the soul withers, just as it did for our first parents, Adam and Eve. When the mind and the spirit are nourished, the soul becomes strengthened. "Give us this day our daily bread," for "I have given to them the words which you have given Me, that they have received them, and have known surely that I come from You and that they have believed that You sent Me."

But we also see in today's Gospel that many of the crowd were indifferent. Christ distributed the loaves and the fish freely to all, but their hearts remained unchanged. An older gentleman once sat next to his younger nephew, knowing that he was a churchgoer, and the uncle told him a story. "You know," he said, "growing up before the war, my parents sent me to a Jesuit school. They were very strict. One day, when a classmate made a joke in class, one of the sisters grabbed him and pushed him against the chalkboard, so that the skin broke on the back of his head and blood trickled everywhere. They had to take him to the hospital for stitches. And when his parents arrived, they were furious, not at the sister, but at him, for being disruptive. When the war came and America finally got involved, one evening in the middle of the night, a bomb fell on our school. And the next day when all of us arrived and saw the ruins, we were delighted. School was cancelled. That," he said, "was my experience with Christianity," he laughed. "But really," he continued, "I do not think that we can say that there is an objective truth, let alone say that we can force anyone to accept any kind of truth. Everyone must accept some sort of truth on their own."

The young man thought about these words and replied, "A wealthy and successful prosecutor bumped into a defense attorney after a court case. The defense attorney told the prosecutor that he was a miserable and wretched man. The prosecutor didn't become furious, but assured himself that his rival's unprofessional outburst was jealousy. Later that very same day, on his way to an appointment, he recognized a beggar in the street, a man from a previous case of his, whom he managed to put away despite having weak evidence. The man had lost his job, his wife, and his home. And as the prosecutor stood in front of this person, the memory of more and more faces of those whom he had accused came to his mind. His trial had arrived. At that moment," the young man continued, "he was given a choice. He could either recognize and accept the bitter truth of his colleague's words, or he could harden his heart and assure himself, just as he always had done before, and be off on his merry way. 'Which truth,'" the nephew asked, "'do you think he will choose to be his?'"

Perhaps the problem with objective truth, the reason why it is so unpopular, is because it demands us to relate to it objectively. It is true, the church, like God himself, does not force people to accept truth. It does, however, give us a choice. And it is also true that so often we choose a truth for ourselves that is in fact our own. "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."

Whenever we hear or read the Gospel, as always, we must ask ourselves, who are we in this passage? Perhaps some of us as children, or even as adults, have asked this innocent question. If we somehow were able to travel back in time, 2,000 years ago, and approach the Lord when he walked on the earth in the flesh, if we could find him, what would the one who knows the secrets of the heart tell us? May it be known that the Lord has already spoken to each of us. Every time we hear the Scriptures read in church, every time we read even a few lines at home, the Lord speaks to us directly. He tells us what we need to hear, what we need to know. He shows us who we are. He tells us how to pray, what to pray for, and most importantly, he tells us what we must do. Let us attend.

Yet how often do we meet his words with indifference? They do not pierce our heart like the sword they should. If we wish to enter into a relationship with Christ, the Word of God, the full measure of meaning and truth, if we wish to have his word dwelling in our hearts, then we must be willing to listen very carefully. We must be willing and ready to watch, to speak, and to act according to what we hear. The Word of God which has been given to us is a priceless treasure. It heals us and nourishes us in the wilderness of this life. May each of us approach this gift every day with perfect fear and wonder, giving thanks to God for all things. Amen.