GROW: If the multiplication of the loaves sounds oh so familiar … it’s because it is! It’s the only miracle story found in all four Gospels, and for good reason. Jesus multiplies the meager offering of a boy with five barley loaves and two fish and feeds a large crowd with baskets left over. The story is symbolic of the food that is readily available through Jesus in the Eucharist. The crowd in the Gospel that had been following Jesus was tired, worn out, and hungry. Don’t we all feel discouraged now and then? When we do, Jesus makes himself available to us in the Eucharist; he provides daily food that nourishes and sustains. When we eat this life-giving bread, we are strengthened and fortified, as was the crowd in the Gospel, as we heard: “They had more than they could eat.”

GROW: What words do we associate with being misled? Deceived, fooled, cheated? While these actions make great plot points in novels and movies, in real life they are offenses against justice, charity, and truth. In both the first reading and the Gospel today, we hear that God’s people are being misled (“Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture”) and/or left to their own devices (“for they were like sheep without a shepherd”). In the time of Jeremiah the kings of Judah, who were shepherding in God’s name, were not tending their flock: They had “scattered [his] sheep and driven them away.” Jeremiah prophesies that the Lord will gather the remnant of his flock and bring them back to their meadow; in short, the Lord offers hope. He would raise up from the house of David a true shepherd to guide and guard his people. The incarnation of Jesus is the manifestation of that hope, and in him we have a guiding light to lead us along the correct path. He will never deceive, fool, or cheat. In this world filled with unrest and division, he offers something that no mortal man or woman can: He is the one who saves and redeems. He is the one true shepherd.

GROW: Have you ever considered the task before you and thought, No way am I equipped for this?  There are certainly times when it seems God is calling us to more than we are prepared for. The prophet Amos never expected to be God’s mouthpiece. He was a simple shepherd and a “dresser of sycamores.” Yet, Amos listened when God chose him “from following the flock” and instructed him to speak to Israel, even if he may have thought the whole idea quite silly. “Do you really mean me?” we might imagine him saying. We see this theme of God calling those we might least expect to important missions on countless occasions throughout Scripture: Moses had a speech impediment; Rahab was a prostitute; David was a young boy; Ruth was a foreigner; Matthew was a despised tax collector; Paul persecuted the early Christians; and the list goes on. On every occasion, however, trusting in God and listening to his voice was enough for each of these individuals to fulfill the role they were called to, even if they considered themselves the most unlikely candidate for the cause.

GROW: The prophets of the Old Testament didn’t exactly have it easy, and Ezekiel is no exception. The Lord tells him that he’s being sent to the Israelites, calling them “rebels who have rebelled against me,” who were “hard of face and obstinate of heart.” In other words, God basically tells him that they will be a tough audience. Can you imagine how Ezekiel felt? Here, he is being dispatched to a people who will likely not welcome him in order to say things that probably no one will want to hear And yet his work is crucial. God is sending his people a messenger, telling them he stills loves them and wants them to be his people. It should come as no surprise that we are called to do the same! Although we may not describe the people in our lives as obstinate or “a rebellious house,” we know it’s not always easy to share God’s message. It matters that we do, though. We may not always know exactly what effects our words and actions have, but everything the Lord asks us to do has a purpose.

GROW: “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” The assuredness with which the woman in today’s Gospel, afflicted with hemorrhages, speaks, is something I aspire to. She is at her wit’s end, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, and she simply determines what she will do, bolstered by her faith in Jesus Christ.  Notice how she doesn’t approach Jesus directly, engage in conversation, or even ask anything of him. And Jesus, for his part, doesn’t actively seek her out or call her to him. But the woman knows. “She had heard about Jesus,” and she just knows that by simply touching his clothing, not even touching his human flesh, that the power he has within him will cure her. Her actions reflect the virtues of fortitude and hope, but it is her faith that has allowed her to see and understand the divine nature of Jesus – to see the God of healing standing before her. And she is not afraid. She trusts in his promises and compassion, and gives herself over to him with full vulnerability, achieving healing and being granted peace in response. If only we could do the same every time we are at our wit’s end … or maybe even long before we get there.

GROW: St. Boniface, an English Benedictine monk who died in the 8th century, wrote in a letter: “In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course.” Oceans and seas, lakes and rivers, baptism. The role of water in daily life and its use as a metaphor are woven throughout our Scriptures. In today’s readings, we hear two references to the sea. First, we have God talking to Job out of a storm, reminding the prophet that he – the Lord – is the one who created the seas and keeps them firmly in their place. The Gospel passage provides us with a stark reminder of that truth. As the disciples and Jesus cross the sea, a storm crops up and threatens to sink their boat. But one command from Jesus and the water is still. St. Boniface had it right. We really all are on that ship with Jesus on its voyage across the ocean of this world, and trusting in him to keep us on course and safe from harm ensures we reach the destinations he intends for us.

GROW: If we walk through the woods on a beautiful spring day, we’ll see the signs of life bursting forward. Green shoots coming up from the ground, leaf buds poking out from the branches of a tree – even the birds and animals are busily scampering. Life, growth, and new beginnings are all around. Today’s readings have a common theme of nature as one of the ways we can experience God’s design. Like the crowds Jesus taught, we may not know the exact cause of what makes a plant grow from a tiny seed to a towering tree, but that’s OK – we don’t have to know. As St. Paul writes, “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We trust the Lord to lead and guide us. And, like the harvester in the parable, we can observe, tend, and act when the time is right to bring in the harvest, for, as Paul continues in his letter: “We aspire to please [God].”

GROW: I know people who read the ending of a book before they are finished with it. I could never do that! I have to follow the story in every detail until the final page. When it comes to the story of our salvation history, however, we get to do a little of both: we know the end of the story in terms of Revelation and God’s desire for us to live with him in eternity. We know of the heavenly kingdom to which we have been invited and in which we live. What we don’t know is all the details that get us to our own, individual, final page in the great drama of our response to the gift of salvation. In the first reading today, we hear the story of the fall of humankind – about how our earliest parents rejected God’s command and gave into temptation. However, the story doesn’t end there. Adam and Eve may have been sent out of the Garden of Eden, but God didn’t give up on them – or us. Instead, he sent a long line of prophets who paved the way for his Son, Jesus. With Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the gates of heaven were opened so all have the opportunity to accept the gift of salvation. As St. Paul writes in his Letter to the Corinthians, we can know “that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.”

GROW: The Feast of Corpus Christi celebrates the great Christian mystery of the Eucharist – that Jesus Christ is really, truly, and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine. At the Last Supper, Jesus breaks the bread and passes the cup of wine, telling his disciples to take, and eat, this is his body and blood. In the Old Testament, as we saw in the first reading, blood was seen as both a sacrifice and a covenant, a promise between God and his chosen people. Jesus says he is the new covenant, and instructs his disciples to do as he has done, in memory of him. The layers to what Jesus is saying are many: He is the new promise between God and people; he will be the sacrifice; and yet he will remain with them when they partake in the Eucharist. The salvation of all people is wrapped up in this seemingly simple act of eating bread and drinking wine because Jesus transcends time, just as he transcended death, to be truly present to us in the sacrament. What a profound and beautiful act of love! One we can barely begin to understand with our human minds. The first disciples likely didn’t understand it either, at least not at first. But with time, and with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, they came to see just how transformative that Passover meal was.

GROW: Today is an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity: One God, two natures (Jesus is fully human and fully divine), and three divine persons. Whenever I think about this feast, I am reminded of some wise words I heard once from a professor, although I am paraphrasing: It’s not necessary to try to describe in theological terms what God is, for no matter what we say it will be inadequate to the reality of the ultimate grandeur of God. What is important, and what affects people day to day, is talking about who God is, and how God is. And so this Trinity Sunday is a day to reiterate that which is most fundamental to our understanding and belief: God is love. Not just God is loving, or God loves, but God is love itself. He is a continual outpouring of selfless love – agape is the Greek word – which brought forth creation, and all creatures to share in it. It is a communion of love by which and for which we were created; we are meant to emulate and live that same relational communion of love with one another.

GROW: Pentecost Sunday is here! If ever there was a day in the Church calendar to celebrate the transformational power of Christianity, this is it. We know from the first reading how the disciples go from being huddled and afraid in a locked room to stepping out boldly in the streets, loudly proclaiming the Good News of Jesus. What changed them so suddenly? It was the coming of the Holy Spirit, the third divine person of the Trinity, into their hearts and lives. Jesus calls the Spirit an Advocate, “the Spirit of truth,” who will remain with the apostles after he has left. That same Spirit is promised to us, continuing the Easter joy. It is only through the power and grace of the Holy Spirit that we have the knowledge, ability, and courage to proclaim Jesus as our Lord. Only in this way can we belong to Jesus and be in relationship with the Father. The very same God who created all things is here to help us become the sons and daughters he always envisioned us to be.

GROW: It’s easy for me to get impatient with the Lord – to wonder why he makes me wait for an answer to a prayer or, worse, why his answer may be no. However, when I look back at the lessons of the Bible, it becomes clear that God works on his timetable, not mine. That same message comes through in today’s first reading. The apostles ask Jesus whether he will be restoring the kingdom to Israel, and he is clear in his answer: “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.” And then, after saying this, he ascends to the Father. Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus has left his disciples again. But instead of leaving them to weep and mourn – as happened after his death – this time, our Lord left them with a mission. They were to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” They did, faithfully, and they traveled far and wide. Armed with the gift of the Holy Spirit which they received at Pentecost, they baptized countless people as they shared the Good News about Jesus and his gift of salvation.

GROW: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you … If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” We don’t earn God’s love – it is freely given to us. But only by loving God and others, and by keeping his commandments, do we remain in that love as our source of life and joy. It becomes the air we breathe, and the breath we exhale. Today’s second reading and Gospel reassure us of the love of God, but also give us a few specifics for how to live in and remain in that love – self-sacrifice and prayer. We are to love one another as Jesus loves us, and we know what that looks like from his life: feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, forgiving one another, and more. Living in the way Jesus instructs is not simply completing a checklist of things to do, however. It’s a way of life – to live in God’s love and to demonstrate his love with our outward actions. When we do so, we are helping bring about the kingdom in a very real way. It’s not complicated. We begin by acting in accordance with the truth that the person in front of us is loved by God.