THE BREAD OF THE FREE CHILDREN

 

A Sermon for the “Rose” Sunday of Lent

I will say these things to you now in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome, beloved faithful of Christ, to this holy Fourth Sunday in Lent, which is traditionally called Laetare Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing, when the Church, even in the midst of fasting and repentance, gives us a foretaste of Paschal joy. The Introit commands us: "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem… that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breast of her consolations." This seems strange and graphic to our contemporary ear, but this is the joy of a little baby, the joy of one squalling, thinking that they are about to die of hunger, who finally has their little needs met.

Why does the Church command joy in the middle of penitence? Because true repentance does not lead to despair. It leads to freedom. Because fasting is not starvation, because it is preparation for a feast. Because the wilderness always leads to bread from heaven.

Today the Church gives us two great mysteries: From Galatians we see the mystery of bondage versus freedom. From St. John, we hear the mystery of scarcity versus divine abundance. And these two mysteries are not separate. They are one. Slavery says: There is not enough. Freedom says: Christ is enough.

THE CHILDREN OF PROMISE

St. Paul tells us: "We are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." This is not merely historical commentary about Abraham's family. It is a diagnosis of the human soul. There are two ways to live: The way of fear, or the way of trust. The way of control, or the way of faith. The way of calculation, or the way of miracle

St. John Chrysostom explains: "The Law produced servants, but Christ produces sons." And this distinction explains everything about the feeding of the five thousand. Philip calculates. Andrew doubts. The crowd hungers. But Christ gives thanks. Notice the difference.

The disciples ask: "How much do we have?" Christ asks: "How much do you trust?" There is a huge difference in perspective, and only one works!

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SCARCITY

Philip represents what we might call today the scarcity mindset: "Two hundred pennyworth is not sufficient." And, this is how the fallen world thinks. There is not enough success. Not enough security. Not enough recognition. Not enough power. The world always mistakes money for happiness and peace, and always tries to make us afraid that we do not match the standard, or that we will somehow miss out. Because of this, men grasp and feel that their fear and greed is justified. Nations grasp and wage war. Churches grasp and fight with those that they feel have offended them. But, this is the psychology of Hagar, and the survival instinct of slavery.

Fyodor Dostoevsky captured this perfectly in The Brothers Karamazov when the Grand Inquisitor tells Christ: "Man prefers bread to freedom." But Christ shows something shocking! Freedom produces bread! Slavery produces anxiety, or…  anxiety, not trusting God, produces slavery.

THE BOY WITH FIVE LOAVES

Andrew finds a boy. Five loaves. Two fish. Insignificant. Laughable. Stupid. Embarrassing.

"What are they among so many?"

This is the voice of fallen realism. But St. Augustine says something remarkable: "Christ multiplied not what the boy had not, but what he offered."

This is the secret of divine multiplication. God does not multiply what we pretend to have. He multiplies what we surrender. Moses had a staff. David had a sling. The widow had oil. The boy had bread.

What do you have? A broken past? A tired body? A struggling family? A small church?

Christ says something ridiculous and also insulting to the powers of the world: “That is enough.”

THE EUCHARISTIC PATTERN

Notice the four verbs:

Christ took
Christ gave thanks
Christ broke
Christ gave

This is the Eucharist. The is the faith of the “Bread of Tomorrow”, the “Supersubstantial Bread” that Christ mentions in the Lord’s Prayer.

St. Irenaeus teaches: "The bread which receives the Eucharist becomes no longer common bread, but heavenly food."

This miracle is not just about feeding stomachs. It is revealing how God saves the world. Jesus takes. He blesses. He breaks. He gives. Giving is the point, not even in sharing, but in self-emptying and in the confidence that God will provide.

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus makes His teaching clear:

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

And this is also what He does with us. He takes our lives. He blesses us through grace. He breaks us through suffering. He gives us for the life of the world.

C.S. Lewis wrote: "Christ says, Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you."

TWELVE BASKETS LEFT OVER

Then, this miracle ends strangely. Not with fullness. But with excess. Twelve full baskets. Why twelve? Because God is not merely sufficient. He is superabundant.

St. Ephrem the Syrian writes: "The handful became a harvest, and the crumbs became treasuries."

The fallen world fears running out. The Kingdom fears wasting grace. "Gather the fragments that nothing be lost." Nothing. Not one suffering. Not one prayer. Not one tear.

As Scripture says: "Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle." (Psalm 56:8)

God wastes nothing.

I weep every time I read this, because my mind goes to my own great loss. But, God, doesn’t forget this, and He will restore all things. All our lost ones, our beloved ones, are with Him, and will return with Him on the Last Day.

THE TRUE JERUSALEM

Paul tells us: "Jerusalem which is above is free.” Notice: Freedom is not political. Freedom is not cultural. Freedom is not institutional. Freedom is not “being an American.” Freedom is sacramental. Freedom is belonging to Christ.

St. Gregory of Nyssa says: "The soul becomes free when it desires nothing except God."

This is why the Communion text today says: "Jerusalem is built as a city at unity with itself."

Unity comes from shared hunger for Christ. Not from power. Not from structure. Not from force. From shared bread. Freedom comes from Communion, which is only found in obeying Christ, doing what He says, and living according to the order of the Apostles.

A POETIC MEDITATION

St. Ephrem the Syrian, the great poet of the ancient Church, contemplating this very miracle, wrote:

"The five loaves were like earth before the rain,
but in the hands of the Lord they became a harvest.
Blessed is He who took the little,
and revealed the infinite."

This is the mystery of Lent. We come to Christ with very little:

Little strength.
Little faith.
Little patience.
Little holiness.

Yet in His hands, the little becomes abundance. God does not ask whether we are sufficient. He asks whether we are willing.

As another ancient prayer in our English Patrimony says: "Lord, I am not sufficient for Thee, but Thou art sufficient for me."

And this is the quiet miracle happening in every faithful Christian life: What we give to Christ remains small. What Christ gives back never is. God never returns void. What the world teaches us to fear, Christ teaches us to embrace.

PRACTICAL EXHORTATION

So what must we do? Three things:

First: Offer what you have. Not what you wish you had. What you have. You cannot change the reality of your situation, but you can stop pretending to either be too poor to start, or too rich to lose.

Second: Refuse the mindset of scarcity. Christ governs reality. Not fear. Even in the midst of war and uncertainty, Jesus Christ is King. We are only a breath away from Him. We do not need to be afraid of the suffering of this world. Only staid in the reality of His life as our origin and final destination.

Third: Become bread for others. St. John of Damascus says: "You have tasted the Bread of Life. Become bread for the hungry." This is the true mark of the free children. They feed others because they are not afraid and are not enslaved.

SUMMARY

Today Christ asks only one question: Will you live as a slave? Or as a son or daughter? As a calculator? Or as a believer? As one afraid there is not enough? Or as one who knows Christ is enough?

For the miracle of God’s self-offering continues. Every altar. Every Holy Eucharist. Every faithful life. Five loaves. Two fish. And Christ found in simple prayer, sincere love, and in the willingness to share. That is always enough.

Let us pray…

COLLECT

O LORD Jesus Christ, who didst feed the multitudes in the wilderness with the bread of thy mercy, and hast made us not servants of fear but children of promise: Grant unto us, we beseech thee, such trust in thy fatherly providence, that we may offer unto thee the small and broken things of our lives, and receive from thee the abundance of thy grace; that being nourished by the Bread of Heaven, we may become instruments of thy charity in the world; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.