Discussion Questions

First Reading
Isaiah 55:1-3

F1. Isaiah was writing for a poor community. What images and ideas in this reading would be of particular interest to them? What does God tell us to do here to share in the abundant banquet of rich fare? What are some other ways besides food that Jesus nourishes us?

F2. How does “Come, without paying; … you shall eat well” in this reading, relate to “they all ate and were satisfied” in the Gospel? What is the food that satisfies your soul’s deepest hunger?

Second Reading
Romans 8:35, 37-39

S1. The reading asks us, “What will separate us from the love of Christ.” Does anything separate you completely from the ones you love? What does communication or the lack of it do for a relationship? Do you communicate with God to keep that relationship close?

S2. Whose strength is it that allows nothing to separate you from the love of God?

Gospel
Matthew 14:13-21

G1. Feeding 5,000 would be a large task for most of us. Are some problems too big to handle? How do you look at “insurmountable” tasks in your own life? Do you think there are any problems that can’t be resolved with Christ’s presence in our midst? Environmental? Racial? Viral?

G2. Discuss Pope Francis remarks in his homily at Mass on Corpus Christi at St. John Lateran on May 30, 2013:

And it is the disciples, bewildered by the inability of their means, by the poverty of  what they have at their disposal, who invite the people to sit down, and—trusting the Word of Jesus—distribute the loaves and fishes that feed the crowd. This … knowing how to place what we have at God’s disposal: our humble abilities, because [it is] only in the sharing, in the giving of them, that our lives will be fecund, will bear fruit. … because the power of God, which is that of love, descends into our poverty to transform it.

Homily On Corpus Christi
30 May 201

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University