St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest  & martoyr 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Acts 5: 34-42*

A Pharisee named Gama­liel,

a teacher of the Law highly respected by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin. He ordered the men to be taken outside for a few minutes  and then he spoke to the assembly.

“Fellow Israelites, consider well what you intend to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas came forward, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed or disappeared.  

After him, Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census and persuaded many people to follow him. But he too perished and his whole following was scattered.   So, in this present case, I advise you to have nothing to do with these men. Leave them alone. If their project or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself.  If, on the other hand, it is from God, you will not be able to destroy it and you may indeed find yourselves fighting against God.” (……)

 

Ps 27: 1, 4, 13-14

One thing I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

John 6: 1-15*

(….)  Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Then lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw the crowds that were coming to him and said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread so that these people may eat?”   He said this to test Philip, for he himself knew what he was going to do.  Philip answered him, “Two hundred silver coins would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece.”

 Then one of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”

Jesus said, “Make the peo­ple sit down.” There was plenty of grass there so the people, about five thousand men, sat down to rest.  Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish and gave them as much as they wanted.   And when they had eaten enough, he told his disciples, “Gather up the pieces left over, that nothing may be lost.”

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with bread, that is with pieces of the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

 When the people saw this sign that Jesus had just given, they said, “This is really the Prophet, he who is to come into the world.”  Jesus realized that they would come and take him by force to make him king; so he fled to the hills by himself.

 

Gospel Reflection：

Gamalied, a Pharisee who appeared sympathetic to the followers of Jesus, makes a statement that should guide our approach to things, persons, events and circumstances that we do not fully understand: if it is God’s will, it will flourish, if it isn’t, it will not.

This was obviously in reference to the great wonders that the disciples were performing in Jesus’ name and for which the Pharisees and the leaders of the people at that time showed nothing but disdain. Jesus in the gospel reading feeds a large crowd of people with the limited resources they had – something which, together with the great many wonders he performed – were regarded with contempt by those who were supposed to know better.

Sometimes, the prejudices and biases that we have hinder us from seeing that God is able to work outside the boundaries of the walls we have erected around him. The Pharisees of Jesus’ time (though not all of them), were ironically the very persons who failed to recognize the signs God was working in their midst.