DISMISSED IN PEACE

          SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SUNDAY JULY 26th 2009

                                                  

Mark 6: 52 "And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened".

 

One of the more amusing moments in the celebration of the Eucharist in this parish happens during the week in the Lady Chapel.  We get any number between 6 - 16 at weekday Masses, and often people do not say the responses loudly or enthusiastically (for fear they might stand out in the crowd!). Until we get to the dismissal. When the priest says: "The Mass is ended, go in peace" there is always an enthusiastic, if not thunderous response: "Thanks be to God"!!

 

It's almost like they are saying: "Thanks be to God. It’s over. Now we can go home!!!"  Maybe there is some justification for being so enthusiastic about the dismissal? The Latin for "The Mass is ended" is "Ite Missa Est" - which literally means "It is finished, go!"

 

This implies that what we have just celebrated here, and particularly the gift of Holy Communion, is not to be kept within these four walls - but is to become part of us. We must be take it with us so that it becomes part of our daily living.

 

Today's Gospel has a reference to such a dismissal.   In Saint Mark 6: 45 it says: "While he dismissed the crowd".   At first this seems a little harsh. But when we consider that it is the conclusion to the feeding of the 5,000 – which is itself a symbol and image of Holy Communion - maybe the dismissal Jesus gives is meant to be taken in the same sense as the dismissal at Mass. That is, having fed the crowd with bread he bids them take the experience of that miracle and go.   He was perhaps saying: "Our Eucharist is over.  You have been fed. Now take it with you, and go".

 

This would explain the rather difficult comment at the end: "They did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened".   The feeding of the 5,000 was a miracle which not only symbolised Holy Communion but also revealed the Divine power of Jesus - revealing him as someone who has power over creation, because he is Lord of creation.   Through a miracle of creation Jesus is revealed as the Divine Son of God.

 

But the apostles couldn't see it. It was too hard for them to understand - their hearts were hardened.   They didn't understand that in feeding the 5,000, Jesus was revealing his Divine power and nature.   So quite naturally when he comes walking across the lake they don't realise it is him - it's not what they were expecting.   Saint Mark says: "They thought they were seeing a ghost and cried out". Possibly we would too, seeing this figure coming across the lake.

 

Because they didn't see what really happened with the feeding of the 5,000, they didn't understand that Jesus was the Divine Son - through whom all things were made.   So naturally they wouldn't believe that Jesus was coming across the water during a storm.

 

They were hardened in their belief - or rather we should say, their lack of belief.  

 

Nothing has changed.   It is the same 2,000 years later. Some people say you don't have to believe in the miracles to be a Christian; that they are just a little extra bit to make the Gospel more interesting, or to make Jesus seem more exciting.   

Some theologians would say that our faith should not rely, or depend on miracles. That's true - it shouldn't. Except our faith is all based on the great miracle of the rising of Jesus from the dead.  People who say we shouldn't depend on miracles, will go so far as to extend miracles to the Virgin Birth and Resurrection.

 

The problem with those people is not that their hearts are hardened - in fact "soft" is a better description.   The real problem is that they don't believe Jesus could do this. That is the problem - for they don't believe he has the power over creation - therefore he can't be Lord of creation.  

 

What a terrible age we live in, trying to make our faith more relevant and more modern.   All these modern heresies and false teachings go back to this basic question: either Jesus is the Divine Son of God - with all that means - or he is not.  

 

And if he is not - then such miracles as walking on water, and the feeding of the 5,000, did not happen. They are only stories invented to color the story, or perhaps just a trick that Jesus performed to strengthen our faith. But faith in what?

 

At heart, our faith is about a relationship with Jesus. A relationship in which we acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior. When you have that relationship, you know he can do anything - because it often happens in our lives, doesn't it?

 

If Jesus can't feed 5,000 people from five loaves, as is recorded, then he certainly can't feed us this morning with his Body and Blood in Holy Communion. All we are getting is bread and wine given to you by a minister. One understanding leads to another - and one misunderstanding leads to another. Soon we find that we are as, Saint Paul says, "the most unfortunate of all peoples” who don't even believe in the Resurrection.

 

This is about our relationship with Jesus in the Church.   The man or women who teaches that being a Christian does not involve saying you believe in Jesus and committing yourself personally to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, is no different to those first apostles who did not understand because their hearts were hardened.

 

This word "hardened" is actually a significant word. Saint Mark uses it in reference to understanding the meaning of the feeding of the 5,000, which from the beginning the Church understood to be an image and symbol of the Eucharist.

 

And there is a lot of misunderstanding about that isn't there?   There is still in our Church a lack of understanding about the Eucharist.   You only have to go to other parishes to see how they celebrate Mass - what they do is so casual and so contemporary, that it is lacking in awe and wonder in the presence of our Lord and Savior.  

 

Indeed, in those sorts of churches you might as well be at coffee hour. So why waste an hour on Sunday in Church when Starbucks is cheaper?  

 

The significance of this word “hardened” is clearly shown in Saint John's Gospel. In chapter 6:1-14 we have Saint John's description of the feeding of the 5,000. This is followed, as in Saint Mark 6, by Jesus retreating to the mountain by himself. Immediately following that incident, the twelve go across the lake, and Jesus walks on water.  

 

Then follow 45 verses where Jesus teaches us the Doctrine of the Eucharist.  

Anyone who doubts the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, anyone who doesn't believe we eat the Body of Christ, needs to read John 6.

 

Then at the end of all Jesus' teaching about Holy Communion - we come to the word "hard".  

 

In verse 60 it says: "Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?'" Saint Mark says that the disciples were hardened because they didn’t understand the mystery of the feeding of the 5,000.

 

Saint John says that the disciples found his teaching about the Eucharist too hard to understand.

 

There's that word "hard" again:

• In a completely different Gospel
• With a very different style

 

But this word is in connection with believing in Jesus as the Son of God and receiving his very life in Holy Communion.  

 

So there you have it. A simple word, "hard", connecting these two Gospels in a profound teaching about the basis of our faith and how we practice it.  

 

Then as a finale in John, Jesus challenges the apostles about it - and Saint Peter says: "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."  

 

And that really sums it all up.

 

Perhaps we can sum it up in another way - in the words of Cardinal Newman where he says:

 

"My maker - dare I stay?   My Savior - dare I turn away?".