Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

(Matthew 14:14-22)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ… today we have a great blessing to have the Most Holy Mother of God here in our midst in her wonderworking myrrh-streaming Hawaii Iveron Icon. And isn’t it a wonderful and beautiful thing… that on this Sunday when we are mourning the recent departure of our dear father, the ever-memorable Archpriest John, that we are visited today by our dear Mother in her holy icon. How truly compassionate is our God to have arranged for this! He looks upon our sorrow at having lost our father and He sends His most-pure Mother to come and console us.

But this is the way of our Lord… He has been demonstrating His love and compassion for us from the beginning of time.

The Gospel which we read for this Eighth Sunday after Pentecost provides for us a stunning example of this loving compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ… of how He can take our impoverished circumstances and turn them into an abundance of His grace.

As we read in the Gospel of St Matthew, our Lord had retreated to a deserted place, but the crowds had followed Him. Looking out upon the multitude of people, He had compassion on them and healed those who were sick. As the evening approached, the disciples were concerned to send the people away to the villages so they could get something to eat. But Christ instead commanded His disciples to gather up the food available there and to feed the people. The disciples assessed what was available and said it couldn’t be done… all they had were two fishes and five loaves of bread… they could not possibly fulfill the task that the Lord has asked of them.

There was no way that they could feed these thousands of people with such a meager collection of food. But the Lord tells them to bring their meager resources to Him. He blesses and fills with His grace the small and insufficient resources brought before Him and He then sends the disciples out to do the job He had asked of them, to feed the multitudes. The overflowing grace of God is apparent, and the disciples end up with twelve baskets of leftovers after the crowd has had their fill.

The illustration for us is clear – we too must not become discouraged, not lose hope, nor assume that something is impossible based on our limited, worldly assessments. Our Lord Jesus Christ instructs us with these five marvelous words: ‘Bring them here to Me.’ Bring to Me your cares, your sorrows, your plans, your hopes, your fears – bring these to Me, says the Lord.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God, through His lovingkindness, performs miracles to feed the multitudes and to heal the sick. And this truth of His lovingkindness and miracles is not just something we read about in the Gospels… God’s lovingkindness and miracles are with us on this very day!

There is no worldly explanation for the miracle we see before us in this icon of the Mother of God. How is it possible that a small icon print has been producing myrrh for almost 20 years now? This icon has gone all around the world and has been a source of healing and consolation and inspiration for thousands and thousands of people.

It is solely through the lovingkindness of God, through His compassion for His people, and through the ever-present intercessions of His most-pure Mother that such a miracle stands before us this morning.

Let us take courage and let us strengthen our love and trust and gratitude to God, knowing and experiencing firsthand His blessings to us. Whenever things in life seem hopeless, whenever a situation seems impossible, whenever we find ourselves starting to slip toward despair… let us remember those five words we heard in today’s Gospel: ‘Bring them here to Me.’

If we humbly, and with faith and trust, bring ourselves before the Lord, He will perform miracles. As the Apostle Peter echoes: ‘Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exult you in due time, casting your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.’