Lord's Day Reflection: Friends, fish, a a feast that costs everything
By Jenny Kraska
In the Gospel this week we hear the familiar and profound story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. What begins as a practical concern – how to feed a hungry crowd – becomes a Eucharistic moment that foreshadows the Last Supper and the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ. On this Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Church invites us to gaze with fresh eyes upon this miracle, not merely as a multiplication of food, but as a sign of Jesus’ deep and enduring love for us – a love that seeks communion, friendship, and sacrificial self-giving.
The Eucharist is the sacrament of divine friendship. In offering His Body and Blood, Christ draws us into intimate union with Him and with one another. He does not remain distant from our hunger - whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. He draws near, teaches, heals, and then feeds. The Eucharist is His pledge: “I am with you always.” It is the love of a Friend who lays down His life so that we might have life in abundance.
Friendship and sacrifice are inseparable in Christ. The Eucharist reveals a love that is not transactional but total. In a world that often prizes convenience and self-preservation, the altar of sacrifice stands as a countercultural witness: real love costs something. It costs everything. It means giving until there is nothing left – only to discover that in the mystery of grace, what is offered is multiplied, just as the loaves were.
On this Feast, we also remember the powerful witness of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, whose feasts we also celebrate. Both men stood firm in their Catholic faith and fidelity to the Eucharist, even when it cost them their lives under King Henry VIII. Their friendship with Christ and with the Church was not casual – it was Eucharistic. They loved unto the end, refusing to betray their consciences or deny the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament of unity.
St. Thomas More, a husband, father, and brilliant statesman, and St. John Fisher, a holy bishop and scholar, remind us that the path of discipleship may demand everything. Yet, their sacrifice was not grim resignation but a joyful offering. More, even on the scaffold, declared he died “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” Their martyrdoms were not acts of defiance, but of friendship with Christ – friendship shaped by the Eucharist, nourished at the altar, and fulfilled on the cross.
As we receive the Body of Christ this week, may we ask for the grace to be faithful friends of Jesus – friends who are willing to follow Him wherever He leads, even when it is hard. May the Bread of Life strengthen us to live lives of courageous love, joyful witness, and sacrificial service. Like the Twelve who distributed the loaves to the crowd, may we become Eucharistic people – those who receive Christ and then go forward to share Him with a hungry world.
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