CT - Catholic Telegraph

God cares for His people

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), II Kings 4:42-44.

The ministry of the prophet Elisha took place toward the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the eighth century B.C. He was the chosen successor of another mighty spokesman of God, the prophet Elijah. The Elisha narratives in II Kings show us this prophet involved with the great political figures of his day (the kings of Israel and Judah and Edom), but we also see him alleviating human distress. Sometimes these accounts of Elisha helping others deal with assistance given to individuals, sometime with Elisha's interventions to take care of the guild or community of prophets that had arisen around him. Both kinds of stories are intended to illustrate the ongoing care of God for His chosen people.

This Sunday's first reading is one of the stories that has to do with Elisha's instrumentality in looking out for his followers.

Chapter 4, verse 38 tells us that there was famine in the land and the 100 members of Elisha's prophetic guild were reduced to eating whatever they could put their hands on. Just before our reading begins, we hear how they almost died from eating poisoned vegetation, but were saved by Elisha.

Now someone appears with a gift of 20 barley loaves and some unthreashed grain. Elisha orders the food to be distributed among his followers. "This will never feed a hundred men," his servant objects. But Elisha knows the Lord and has confidence in Him. "The Lord says there will be more than enough," he says. And sure enough, the hundred guild members eat their fill, and there is even some left over, just as the Lord had promised.

This narrative was clearly chosen to harmonize with the gospel reading. Notice, however, that the Gospel reading for this Sunday and for the following four Sundays are not from the Gospel according to Mark but from the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to John.

Apparently the experts who prepared the Lectionary felt that there had to be some place in the Sunday cycle for John's account of Jesus' teaching about the Bread of Life. Since the Gospel of Mark is shorter than Matthew and Luke, it seemed appropriate to substitute John's narrative about the feeding of the 5,000 for Mark's account (6:35-44) which should come at this point. This narrative would be followed by the rest of John's sixth chapter in which Jesus speaks in greater detail about the meaning of the bread that the people had just eaten. The semi-continuous readings from Mark resume with chapter seven on the 22nd Sunday of this year's ordinary time.

There are several elements that are common both to the Elisha narrative and the Gospel narrative. First of all, both stories involve prophets, persons sent by God to bring His word to His people and to reassure them of God's continued interest in their well-being. John implies that Jesus is the successor of the great Elisha.

He is the culminating figure in the long prophetic tradition of God's chosen people.

Next, both events take place in a context of need. The colleagues of Elisha, with their leader, are in a time of famine. The crowds in John need to be fed, and there is no place for them to get food.

Thirdly, both accounts show great results coming from very limited initial resources. In II Kings, we see 20 loaves and a little grain feeding the hundred famished members of Elisha's prophetic association. In John, we see five loaves and two fish feeding 5,000 hungry men. Clearly Jesus' miracle was the greater because He does more with less.

In both stories there is skepticism. In the Elisha story, the prophet's servant doesn't see how he could possibly set that little bit of food in front of a hundred men. In John's narrative, the practical Philip has already figured out how much it would cost to feed the hungry crowd and makes it clear to Jesus that they don't have resources like that. But in both cases, the Lord acts and the needs of the people are taken care of. The power of the Lord easily sweeps aside the concerns of practicality.

Finally, both stories are about abundance. When God takes care of His people, He doesn't skimp. There was "some" left over after Elisha and his followers had eaten. In the Gospel narrative, we have 12 wicker baskets of fragments after everybody had eaten as much as they wanted.

God takes care of His hungry people. God's agents use clearly inadequate human resources to carry out His will. And the results are more than anybody expected, more than enough for everyone.

It's the same God who takes care of us now.

For reflection and discussion

How does God care for His people today?

How have I experienced abundance in God's care for me?