by Rev. Leonard N. Peterson
Tests are the bane of student life. So much so that young people do not even want to talk about them on a summer vacation day in late July. But tests, we know, are a necessary component of the education process. It starts out slowly in kindergarten and stretches to graduate school.
Interestingly enough, tests of various kinds even have their place in the Bible. Even the holy Apostles had to endure them. Case in point: the perplexed apostle Philip in today’s well-known episode. Jesus, who is, after all, the Master teacher observes the crowd of some ten thousand people (allowing for wives and children) who have followed Him. So, he turns to Philip and asks, “Where can we buy enough food for them?” (Please note, with a touch of humor, the complete absence of something called a “supermarket.”) And then our author writes the six-word comment: “He said this to test him.”
Not surprisingly, we were not given Philip’s answer. But very surprising for sure was the follow up action of Jesus for both him and the other Eleven. Philip and the others will soon learn that this miracle was only a preview of another one to follow on Holy Thursday night.
For us, living some two thousand years later, we have the benefit of at least three consoling facts to hold dear in resisting the pull of our Western culture that pushes the false idea that truth is relative. First consolation: numbers are never an obstacle for almighty God’s strategy. He can and does feed billions of Catholics now around the world spiritual food to energize their (and our) living out the Gospel.’
Second consolation: the Eucharist, as the true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus is the true treasure of our Church, having nothing to do with real estate or any other measurement.
Third consolation: Jesus has kept His promise to be with us “all days until the end of the age.” Each holy Mass is proof. Each of us is its beneficiary. Therein lies the fact of the matter and the core of our belief. It does not change with the passage of time. Nor does it ever need updating. Only in our hearts.
There is a story of a man who came to his old friend, a music teacher, and asked him, “What’s the good news today?” The old teacher was silent as he stood up and walked across the room, picked up a hammer, and struck a tuning fork. As the note sounded out through the room, he said, “That is A. It is A today; it was A five thousand years ago, and it will be A ten thousand years from now. The soprano upstairs sings off-key, the tenor across the hall flats on his high notes, and the piano downstairs is out of tune.” He struck the note again and said, “That is A, my friend, and that’s the good news for today.”
God love you and give you His peace every day.