It's a bit hard to find. I think it might be Fr Elijah's comment that Mark is refering to.

I nver understand why it is so hard to get priests to avoid preaching crap. This never seems to happen at protestant churches. The preaching is solid. Why can't the Catholic church get there. With all the modern communication tools we seem to be unable to warn priests away from the most predicatable errors.
Randy | 07.31.06 - 11:36 am | #

Ours was pretty good. It fully respected the miracle, and it was from the perspective of the boy.

Imagine being one of the few people (or only person) who showed up with the presence of mind to bring food or privilege of having food and then being asked by this preachers disciples to relinquish it, only to find out it was to be multiplied thousands of times.

Perhaps everyone has heard that perspective before. Not me.
Catholic in Omaha | 07.31.06 - 11:37 am | #

Must you degrade everyone who you disagree with? Would you degrade Hans Kueng if he made such a sermon? No; I would like to think that you would be a gentleman about it. Why not be a gentleman on your blog?
Juan Pilgrim | 07.31.06 - 11:45 am | #

Randy,

This never seems to happen at protestant churches.

Don't be so sure. Unless you mean: "except for the rapture, pre/post/mid/tribulation, milleniallism, rejection of Tradition, etc., they never preach 'crap'."

I think I get your meaning though:

The preaching is solid.

It has to be. It's all the "service" offers.
Catholic in Omaha | 07.31.06 - 11:46 am | #

I visited a different parish Sunday and dreaded hearing the miracle explained away. For a moment the priest sounded like he was on a freight train down that rat hole but he turned at the last minute and we took a great ride from mana in the desert through the manger to the Eucharist.
quasimodo | 07.31.06 - 11:50 am | #

"Would you degrade Hans Kueng if he made such a sermon? No; I would like to think that you would be a gentleman about it. Why not be a gentleman on your blog?"

LOL!!

If you're looking for people who take Hans "King" Kung seriously, you've come to the wrong blog.
JonathanR. | 07.31.06 - 11:51 am | #

Our homily was another home-run. Thanks be to God for Fr. John Keller, pastor of Prince of Peace in the Houston area. He talked about "first fruits" - from Garrison Keillor's writing about the best way to enjoy corn on the cob (fresh from the stalk to the pot of boiling water) and his own love of a certain Texas farm's first crop of corn every year - fresh apples when he was growing up in Missouri - and new crops of Texas peaches. He went on to ancient people waiting for fresh crops of barley and wheat - and the offerings at altars of the first fruits of the harvest. Then he came round to a fabulous explanation of the first fruits being given to us by God in the Eucharist - and, finally, asking us to consider whether we're giving our own first fruits to God or just the leftovers (exhausted last-minute prayer, end-of-the month stewardship from exhausted funds, etc.) Fr. John Keller is the best homilist we've encountered in years of living all over the USA. The only problem is that his homilies are too short! We could listen to him for hours - and he has a hilarious sense of humor. Sorry for such a long post - can't help it - our priest is a gem!
Nancy M. | 07.31.06 - 12:00 pm | #

Now I really miss my home parish (long and complicated story that would do nothing to enhance the plot omitted).

The priest's homily mentioned that the beginning of the loaves and fishes miracle is an act of charity by the child. The likeliest reason for the boy to have brought as much food as he did was to sell it amongst the crowd. He could have pocketed a healthy profit if he had only fed a few people, but he acquiesced to Jesus, and allowed him to feed the multitude.
Richard Bell | 07.31.06 - 12:06 pm | #

Randy,

I disagree. I have heard the wonkiest stuff at protestant churches. From sermons about giving all you could so that God would multiply it by ten, and they meant money cause God apparently doesn't give talents or nonmaterial blessings, all the way to the joke where the woman who said blessed is your mother. If I recall correctly Jesus responded "who are My mother and My bothers". Well the joke is that she was the first catholic. Why is it that protestants never make fun of Elizebeth for saying,"Blessed art thou amongst woman"?

I have heard everything in between. Some of it down right sacreligous and seen everything from walking on those short alters they have to panties being shown off by woman laying on the floor. I'll take the catholic faith thanks. The weirdest as a quaker church where everyone just sat there waiting for someone to be inspired. There was a whole lot of waiting and not alot of inspiration.
Josephine-M-O-6 | 07.31.06 - 12:13 pm | #

By women laying what on the floor?
cricket | 07.31.06 - 12:31 pm | #

That reminds me of a British movie "Millions" in which a small boy finds money (from a robbery) and thinks it's from God. Various saints keep appearing to him, and eventually St. Peter appears and tells him about the great story of the Loaves and Fishes... and of course gives us that crap about the "miracle of giving" etc... Sad really.
sky | 07.31.06 - 1:01 pm | #

Must you degrade everyone who you disagree with?

Must you regard every disagreement as a personal insult?

Would you degrade Hans Kueng if he made such a sermon?

How does it "degrade" somebody to say, "Your exegesis of a passage is bunk"?
Mark Shea | Homepage | 07.31.06 - 1:10 pm | #

All I can say is Yay Fr. Bernard! (I got to enjoy his homily too, and wow!)
Louis | 07.31.06 - 1:41 pm | #

I'd actually be quite interested in a good explanation of "why [caring and sharing] cannot be the point of the text." I know that the story appears five or six times in the Gospels, which means that the Apostles obviously thought what happened was a Big Deal, and it would be very unlikely that they would be particularly impressed with caring and sharing. But after that I run out of arguments.

A little help?
K the C | 07.31.06 - 1:56 pm | #

I'd actually be quite interested in a good explanation of "why [caring and sharing] cannot be the point of the text."

Sorry, I can't give you a "good" explanation. But if the point was caring and sharing, why would the crowd want to carry off Jesus and make him king?

(Not to mention those messy Church councils that condemn those who deny that miracles are real.)
Brian Day | 07.31.06 - 2:35 pm | #

Just be glad that it was bread and wine used at the last supper and not bread and fishes ...
quasimodo | 07.31.06 - 2:46 pm | #

Sigh...yeah, we got that sermon. But this was the second time around for me, since we got it last year, too, so I just pulled out my rosary and started fiddling with it while the sermon went on. I had the same thought Brian Day, did - if all that happened was that people felt warm and happy and shared with each other, then what would explain their sudden tumultuous response to Jesus? After all, THEY provided the food, not him.
Dr. Mabuse | 07.31.06 - 4:28 pm | #

Cricket,

When I was younger, 11-13, my aunt used to take me to holy roller pentacostal churches. Woman would "pass/fall out in the spirit" onto the floor and thier panties would be quite visable. Other ladies went around putting these shawls over them but still, horse barn closing the door Whatever.

I always thaught it was more like a bunch of toddlers at a pony party than adults worshipping a god. I became Catholic in 05 a Easter time and having been to so many protestant churches is part of why I stayed away so long. The hateful things they said and the way they acted were not things I wanted to emulate.
Josephine-M-O-6 | 07.31.06 - 5:13 pm | #

Chiming in with K the C here -- I'd love to see the references for why this interpretation "cannot be the point of the text." I've seen lots of good reasons why this is a shallow reading, and agree wholeheartedly, but not one that specifically says, "It *can't* be that way."

Anybody have some links/wisdom they could share?
IAGD | 07.31.06 - 5:20 pm | #

I have yet to hear someone who believes that the true miracle was that the people there all shared explain that last bit about the folk wanting to steal Jesus away and crown him king. All b/c he made people share their food? To quote Dr. Evil, "Riiiigggghhhht." Those theologians and priests who peddle that tripe insinuate that the Jews back in the day were ridiculously stupid--that they wouldn't recognize a miracle if they saw one. Either that or they think we're ridiculously stupid...eh, probably some from column A and column B.
Adolfo Rodriguez | 07.31.06 - 5:57 pm | #

Oh, you mean they were lying on the floor! Got it.
cricket | 07.31.06 - 7:22 pm | #

There are several reasons why it wouldn't be possible to feed the whole crowd simply by sharing. For one thing, you could derive it logically; it's part of the parable. Considering the fact that the Jews were a communal people, it would stand to reason that they would share whatever they had (especially at the request of the Messiah). Obviously, that wouldn't be enough; which is one reason Phillip responded as he did.
Eric Bohn | 07.31.06 - 9:32 pm | #