Man does not live on bread alone!

Homily for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
26 July 2009
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
Holy Year for Priests
St. John Vianney, pray for us
St. James, pray for us!
Joachim and Anne, pray for us
Mary, Queen of Vocations, pray for us
+m JMJ AMDG

What’s the name of that movie where Tom Hanks talks to the volleyball? For the life of me, I can’t remember it. I haven’t even watched the movie, just parts of it while channel surfing between half innings of Royals games, and I know it by reputation. The movie, from what I gather, is another exploration of the question of what man is in isolation. Does man make any sense by himself? Can man survive without companionship?

The word companion actually derives from the dual Latin words ‘cum’ meaning with, and ‘pane’ meaning bread. When we use the word companion now, we do not mean that we are with a piece of bread. No, the word means for us being with a friend. But we see the joining of being with bread and being with friends in the Gospel story of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus has drawn quite a crowd through his teaching and through the signs he was performing. But were they yet his friends? From the stories we hear of Jesus teaching and healing those first disciples, most of his actions created such a buzz, such a frenzy, that those first disciples would probably be better described as fans, not friends. Those first 5,000 did not know Jesus intimately, as they knew their friends. They just knew that he was amazing, perhaps a great prophet. They were his fans.

The Eucharistic discourse in the Gospel of St. John marks an important transition point in the developing relationship between Jesus and his disciples. Jesus does not simply want fans. If so, he would have continued performing more and more amazing signs before larger and larger crowds rather than setting his face toward Jerusalem where he would be killed. But Jesus did not simply come to create fans. He came to make friends, and to call us his friends. While today’s Gospel sign of feeding the 5000 undoubtedly created more frenzy than any sign he performed to date, so much so that they were ready to carry him off and make him king, the feeding of the 5,000 is the last sign Jesus performs before explaining to his disciples his intention to be more than a star, but to actually be their companion forever through the sacrament of the Eucharist.

In choosing to feed the five thousand, Jesus signals that he wishes to remain with us, not as a star stays with his fans, but as a friend sits down to eat with a friend. There is a big difference. I have never sat down for a meal with Zach Greinke, my favorite pitcher, but I have had thousands of meals with my friends, none of whom can throw 96 mph. The word companion means being with bread, but also being with a friend. So too the sacrament of the Eucharist that Jesus has left us. He intends to remain with us, to be our intimate companion, and asks us to remember Him most precisely, through the sharing of the bread of the Eucharist. This is the sacrament where we not only choose to spend time with Jesus, our friend, but we also become one with him, physically and spiritually, by the mystery of this sacred meal.

As one can see in the Tom Hanks movie, the title of which I still can’t remember, man truly does not live on bread alone. Once we have all the physical bread we need, there is a deeper need for companionship, someone to share bread with. We will even talk to a volleyball if no one else is around. This is the most common thing we do with friends, the one thing that all friends can share, the breaking of bread. And if any of us had a chance to either share an extravagant meal by ourselves or a simple meal with friends, we would all choose the latter, for the need for companionship goes much deeper than the need for caviar. The Lord offers Himself to us in this Eucharist now, and promises through the breaking of bread, through this great sacrament, that he will be a companion for those of us who choose to remain with Him in faith.