Meeting of the holy gospel according to Saint John. The crowd remained on the other side of the lake. The next day, the crowd realized that there had been only one boat there and that Jesus had not left in it with his disciples. Rather, the disciples had set out in it by themselves. Then some boats came out from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread after the lord had given thanks.
Once the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they too embarked in the boats and went back to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus replied, I assure you, you are not looking for me because you have seen signs, but because you have eaten your fill of the loaves. You should not be working for perishable food, but for food that remains unto life eternal, food which the son of man will give you. It is on him that god the father has set his seal.
At this, they said to him, what must we do to perform the works of god? Jesus replied, this is the work of god. Have faith in the one whom he has sent, and this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Whatever be the explanation or the motive of the crowds following Jesus back and forth across the lake, and that's no mean journey.
It's not crossing the Atlantic, but it it it's a pretty good row in anybody's rowboat, and for sailing they weren't very good at that, and you had this is at the northern part of the lake going back and forth from Capernaum over across and east to the other bank, you have all these crazy winds coming down from the north, so don't minimize this. This isn't getting in a a canoe and paddling in the moonlight. So the crowd followed Jesus because they liked bread they needed to eat. They were eager for a free meal, but they followed him. Now you contrast that with what we read and heard in that first reading with about Saint Stephen.
See, it's very difficult to to try to explain the motivation of the leaders of the people. Apparently, they assumed that any means to an end that they thought was good, any means were were alright to use, perfectly in order, even if it meant bringing in false witnesses. And here again, you have the the awful, awful consequences of prejudice, of bias. It by definition, you see, by by its very nature, a prejudice or a bias closes a person's mind in a certain area. They may be broad minded or open minded or enlightened or intelligent or well informed in any number of areas, but that particular area where you have a prejudice or a bias, by definition notice, by definition, the mind is closed.
So that here you see, while the the motivation of the crowd was tawdry as it always always is really, Nevertheless, they were willing or to to follow Jesus in some way, and then when he clearly says, look, if you weren't interested in me, you were just interested in being a freeloader, they still cling to him and said, well, what must we do then? That attitude of some of the crowd, you find nothing of it with the leaders of the people. Nothing. And this always puzzles me. Now remember there were exceptions because we are told in the book of the acts how many many priests accepted Jesus and followed the new way.
Let's not forget that. You're not talking about all, but you're talking about those, maybe a handful, but those who were in authority, the men who were calling the shots. That's what we're talking about. And as I've said, I'm I'm the last one to say that these men were a bunch of of crooks, a bunch of hypocrites, that they that they were just dastardly, that they were just cruel, and all of these words that you might wanna use. I'm not prepared to accept that at all.
But I find it difficult to explain or try to make sense out of their attitude towards everything connected with Jesus Christ on the part of some. And whatever we may say about the crowd, and in a word, it's I hate the crowd and keep them away from me. The point is, in many instances, they have good wholesome instincts. They may be extremely basic. They may be extremely primitive, but they're there.
And sometimes, they can lead people in the right direction. They don't accomplish the end, but they lead us to an end. I, for one, am not at all convinced that you in order to make Christians, you have to get the first well fed, well housed, and completely hygienic, and of course, assuming Western culture. I don't believe in a minute for that in that nonsense. But the point is that in some instances, at least, one way of of attracting people, of getting them to listen, is to use the means at your disposal.
And our blessed lord gives us the example of that. He is the one who changed the who multiplied the bread and the fish. He did that. He knew what they were after. He wasn't in in any in any great confusion about that at all.
He knew the hearts of men and the hearts of women, our blessed lord did. I believe that he was god, and I believe that he had divine knowledge contrary to some of our internationally known theologians today. So our blessed lord accepts the crowd as it is. Notice, he never had a harsh word for the crowd of people. He never he never quoted Terrence that he hated the crowd and kept them at a distance.
Distance. Our Our blessed blessed lord lord never never did did that. That. He was with the people. From time to time, he withdrew.
That's true. But he didn't repel them. He didn't repulse them. He withdrew from them. And so, you see, we're with the crowd.
We are human beings. We are attracted. What is our attitude towards religion? This is the most basic question. The older I get, the more it comes up.
What in the world do we think of religion? Is it like is it the same as taking a good hefty glass of scotch? Is it listening to to nice calm music? Is it going out and looking at a beautiful sunset and saying, oh, this is lovely, taking your pen in hand and trying to write some poetry or something? What in the world is honest to God religion?
I've seen posters right in this church saying come and make a retreat, you'll feel better for it. There are a million things I can do to feel better, and one of them need not be a retreat. A good breakfast in the morning can make me feel better. What is religion? You see, we today, we have gotten such an attitude of fulfillment that that religion is good for me.
I've seen signs on churches downtown. Come in and rest a while. You'll feel better for it. Well, sure, you can get down to Union Station, go in and sit down, you'll feel better for it. You go in the psychiatrist couch and lie down, you'll feel better for it.
You go out and sit on the curb and watch the cars go by and contemplate your navel, and you may feel better for it. So what? What is religion? It is going to God as his creature, not for what we can get, but what we have to give back. That's religion.
And this isn't the kind of religion that that gives us sometimes a great lift. But that's what it amounts it means following Christ. And sometimes our motivation may be very tawdry. Let's face it, and there's nothing wrong with it. I'm the first one to say it.
In the beginning, in the beginning, who would blame these people if they saw or the woman at the well when Christ gave her the water and he says, the water that I will give you, well, you you won't have to come to the well anymore. And she says, oh lord, give me that water. Have you carried water from a well maybe three or four times a day, seven days a week? And somebody comes along says, Look, the water I'll give you, you won't have to worry about carrying it anymore. You would say, Good heavens, give it to me.
There's nothing wrong with it. What is wrong is it that we stop there. That's where the evil comes in. Do we follow Jesus across the lake? Do we face the hazards of that journey?
Are we willing to pull our own weight with our own oar to follow Jesus back to Capernaum? Are we? Or do we stay on the other side where we were fed on some nice religious occasion when we felt so good and it was so wonderful, so joyful to serve god. Remember, it was on the peak of the mount or hill when our blessed lord was transformed, and it was there that Peter said, oh lord, let's make it a let's let's put a house up here. Let's stay here.
Let's make this our permanent abode. Where was Peter on Calvary? He wasn't even there. If he had been there, do you think he said, Lord, let's put a tent here and stay up here all the time? And yet our blessed Lord said, unless you carry the cross, you're not his disciple.
He never said anything about the thing that the mount of of the transfiguration. He never said a word about religion being that kind of a thing. He said the true religion is taking his cross up and following him, and that's the sole criteria that Jesus offered us. We forget this, you know. Religion isn't fun and games.
It's dead serious. Eternity hangs in balance, and our blessed lord came with the message. He fed the multitude with the bread on the eastern side of the lake and disappeared after feeding them. But they followed him. There's the point.
They followed him. They didn't know what they were getting into, but they followed him across the lake, and they got a message. What they did with it, who knows? What we do with that, a message for ourselves. I know in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit.
Amen.