Scripture Reflections for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year B, Lectionary 110
When we dedicate our lives following Jesus, prioritizing Christ above all else, we may neglect other worldly necessities but Jesus shows how God will always provide for us. All that’s needed is our cooperation with God and with each other. A single act of sharing from just one of us is enough for Jesus to spread that love to a whole community, feeding and nourishing us. We have to be open to receive God and not be tempted to grasp and hold for ourselves God and God’s gifts.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Abundance • Barley • Blessing • Charity • Child • Church • Community • Connection • Cooperate • Disciple • Eucharist • Faith • Family • Feed • Feeding • Food • Gather • Give • Glory • Grace • Grateful • Gratitude • Help • Humility • Hunger • Inspire • Justice • Kingdom • Love • Manna • Marriage • Mass • Miracle • Mission • Misunderstood • Offer • Offering • Open • Overwhelm • Passover • Prophet • Purpose • Recognize • Refugees • Related • Sacrifice • Scarcity • Sharing • Sign • Teach • Technology • Trinity • Trust • Unity • Vocation • Worth •
“The mystery of the Trinity is the perfect example of unity and so that model of Trinitarian unity is what we seek to actualize in our lives in the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit”
“Maybe God likes small things because it gives God a chance to show you his bigness. To show you that he is the one who's going to save the world and save your world. That you don't have to be big because he is big.”
“This is more than a story of physical nourishment, it's a testament to the abundance of God's grace and provision. Jesus didn't just meet the needs of the crowd, Jesus exceeded them.”
“Jesus is inviting you just come as you are, just bring what you have. God has created each one of us to be an answer to a specific question, to be a solution to a particular problem”
“as a community we should be able to rely on one another in moments where we need faith and then through that moment of faith we could then witness the miracle in our lives”
“The 12 baskets are themselves a sign of the restoration of the 12 tribes of Israel. They're a sign of Jesus's Messianic identity and that he as the Shepherd Messiah is going to feed the new Israel which is going to be his disciples, his followers and those who recognize him to be the Messiah.”
“There is enough left over for the 12 Apostles and there is enough left over for us who are Christians today. It doesn't matter when you join the race, there is always enough from Jesus for all of us.”
“What is the lesson from this story? Trust in God's abundant goodness”
“Jesus is trying to tell you and I through this story that that's all he needs, this little small and insignificant gift of yours, that's all he needs to make a miracle happen”
“Our meagre talents and gifts, our lukewarm faith placed at God’s disposal and accompanied by faith can be effective instruments of divine generosity beyond all imagining”
“There are so many places in which God seeks to enter our lives but we have to be willing to open ourselves up to it”
“It helps us to know how much God loves us, how much God keeps the covenant that God has made with us, how much God will use his own son on a cross to fulfill that covenant”
“That's what miracles do, they're not just miracles for miracle sake, the miracles point to God. They show us God, they take our attention from all the stuff that distracts us down on this Earth.”
“God's participation is important, it will makes all the difference”
“The miracle was the fact that Jesus can take whatever you bring and multiply it to fulfill all our needs”
