Saint Ignatius of Loyola: "do everything for the glory of God"

... I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved.

-- 1 Cor 10:31-11:1

From Saint Ignatius of Loyola:

"Do not swear whether by the Creator, or any creature, except truthfully, of necessity, and with reverence" (Spiritual Exercises, 38).

-- CCC 2164

Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another's statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved.

-- CCC 2478

Saint Peter Chrysologus: "speak to the people"

"Where did this man get such wisdom?"

-- Mt 13:54-58

The Magisterium of the Pastors of the Church in moral matters is ordinarily exercised in catechesis and preaching, with the help of the works of theologians and spiritual authors. Thus from generation to generation, under the aegis and vigilance of the pastors, the "deposit" of Christian moral teaching has been handed on, a deposit composed of a characteristic body of rules, commandments, and virtues proceeding from faith in Christ and animated by charity. Alongside the Creed and the Our Father, the basis for this catechesis has traditionally been the Decalogue which sets out the principles of moral life valid for all men.

-- CCC 2033

From Saint Peter Chrysologus:

"We ask God to hallow his name, which by its own holiness saves and makes holy all creation . . . . It is this name that gives salvation to a lost world. But we ask that this name of God should be hallowed in us through our actions. For God's name is blessed when we live well, but is blasphemed when we live wickedly. As the Apostle says: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." We ask then that, just as the name of God is holy, so we may obtain his holiness in our souls."

-- CCC 2814

"The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven."

-- CCC 2837

Jesus Christ: Sign and Source, True Bread of Eternal Life

"A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs"

Look around you at the empty places in the pews, where someone else once sat. Where are they now? Have they ended their earthly pilgrimage perhaps and met the Lord Himself? Or perhaps, sadly, they have fallen away and no longer seek Him here. These are the "large crowd" who still seek God only for the signs of health, or wealth or other earthly satisfactions which do not last. These are the ones who claim to "follow Him" but do not find themselves here with us today.

From 5,000 to 12 by means of 7. Today's Gospel takes us back to Moses and the Chosen People in the desert through the living Word of Life and through the sacramental encounter, particularly in the Eucharist, to the present and the remnant people we see today. The five loaves which harken back to the manna by which God fed Moses and his 5,000 together with the two fish which represent Moses' fulfillment in Christ, true God and true Man, make seven which signify perfection. The seven sacraments are the signs and sources of perfect and Eternal Life which is found only in Jesus Christ through His Church, in which is now found the remnant people of the twelve tribes of old built anew upon the twelve Apostles.

"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?"

Christ and the 5,000, not including women and children, who spontaneously followed Him to the other side of the sea of Galilee with no thought for their next meal, are a reminder of the first 5,000 who, with Moses, were brought out of the Red Sea and fed with the manna from heaven as a remnant saved by God's intervention. Once satisfied with earthly food the Galileans remind us also of the Chosen People in their search for signs, for the account ends with Christ eluding their grasp because they seek to make him a mere earthly king. They have failed to seek and to possess Jesus Christ through the power of Faith and the source of the loaves and fishes.

"Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them"

The Eucharist to which Jesus points in the Gospel, taking bread, giving thanks and distributing it as He does to the people, is one of the seven means by which we grasp Jesus now, not as a source of mere earthly food but rather as the One who is our Bread for life eternal.

This is why He teaches that the Eucharist is no ordinary bread like the manna in the desert or the meal for the 5,000 in today's Gospel but rather His Body and Blood, really and substantially present.

And the twelve baskets full? God's love abundant and meant for all. Not only for us who are here now but for all mankind, including those who have fallen away from the chosen people of today which is the Church built upon the twelve Apostles in her pilgrimage through the desert of this world which can never itself be the source of true Life found only and ever in God.

And this Eucharistic banquet which the Lord established is the moment in which we seek Him, coming forward as we do at the Communion of the Mass with reverence in worship to receive Jesus Christ the eternal Bread and Source of Life.

"Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone."

Idolatry seeks a god in this world who cannot truly give what we really need who is God, the only source of all that is good. If we seek the divine Son always in Faith He will not elude our grasp but rather will be for us the Source of Life who leads us safely to the eternal banquet of overflowing love and joy in the place prepared for us by our heavenly Father. We follow Him faithfully in the Church and her sacramental life.

"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."

Friday, Week 16: "Return, rebellious children"

I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.

-- Jer 3:14-17

The Good Shepherd ought to be the model and "form" of the bishop's pastoral office. Conscious of his own weaknesses, "the bishop . . . can have compassion for those who are ignorant and erring. He should not refuse to listen to his subjects whose welfare he promotes as of his very own children. . . . The faithful . . . should be closely attached to the bishop as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father":

Let all follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ follows his Father, and the college of presbyters as the apostles; respect the deacons as you do God's law. Let no one do anything concerning the Church in separation from the bishop.

-- CCC 896

Ss Joachim and Anne: "how you loved me as a bride"

"But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

"The 'splendor of an entirely unique holiness' by which Mary is 'enriched from the first instant of her conception' comes wholly from Christ: she is 'redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son'. The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places' and chose her 'in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love'."

-- CCC 492

S James: "We hold this treasure in earthen vessels"

that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.

--2 Cor 4:7-15

Christ himself chose the apostles and gave them a share in his mission and authority. Raised to the Father's right hand, he has not forsaken his flock but he keeps it under his constant protection through the apostles, and guides it still through these same pastors who continue his work today. Thus, it is Christ whose gift it is that some be apostles, others pastors. He continues to act through the bishops.

-- CCC 1575

Image: Saint James, Alonso Cano, c.1635, Musée du Louvre

S Sharbel Makhluf: "Shepherd your people"

... whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.

-- Mt 12:46-50

" 'A parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the diocesan bishop.' It is the place where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ's saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love:

"You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests."

-- CCC 2179