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Working with the Word
Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 29, 2018


Focusing the Gospel

Key words and phrases: large crowd was coming to him, Where can we buy enough food, test him, he himself knew what he was going to do, had their fill.

To the point: What answer did Philip need to give Jesus to pass the test? When Jesus asks about where to buy food to satisfy the hunger of the large crowd, he is not thinking about a store and purchases. He is really asking a question about who he is. Jesus knows full well that the “where” of the food will be himself. The superabundance of food Jesus provides from so little is a sign of the fullness of Life—his very self—Jesus gives. So, Philip's answer? “Give them yourself.”

Connecting the Gospel
to the First Reading: Elisha begins with more barley loaves (twenty) and satisfies the hunger of a smaller crowd (one hundred people) with “some left over.” Jesus begins with only a few barley loaves (five) and satisfies the hunger of a much larger crowd (five thousand) with “twelve wicker baskets left over.”
to experience: We Americans enter supermarkets and are faced with a superabundance of food that we take for granted. This gospel reminds us that it is not Quantity that satisfies but who gives us the food.
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Living Liturgy: Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis
for Sundays and Solemnities
Year B - 2018.
Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS;
Kathleen Harmon, SND de N;
and John W. Tonkin.
Living Liturgy 2011

Liturgical Press

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For more information about Living Liturgy 2017 click picture above.
Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org
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