Eucharist (Host of True Faith)

  God gives us what we need. He provides for us.  It is said that we are saved by faith


^{LUKE 7: 50} Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

  I once was having a conversation with a woman, of great faith, who in her greatest need, was blessed.
  She was practicing Natural Family Planning and became pregnant.  She said it was a bad time for a pregnancy financially.

  Actually, my wife and I became pregnant before I even had the right to live in the same country as my wife, so I can profess a similar experience of an untimely pregnancy.

  Although, I may have prayed for the health and reassurances for my family.  I did not have the faith as this woman.

  She visited the Holy Tabernacle and cried for help.

  This woman said it was amazing how things worked out for her.  God provided.

  Today, on the radio, a lady was talking about adoption, and how it can be costly to some people, but she believed when we put faith in God, he DOES provide.

  I sat, and realized that my faith is not that strong.  This seems a bit too much hope in things, I say things, but what I am really saying is: too much hope in the Lord.

  Then I realized, this IS faith. This is the faith that saves! It is not the faith that we believe in Him, it is the faith that believes all things are possible in Him. As they are, because He is all knowing and all powerful, fully love and fully Good. 

  How fragile is the faith of anyone believing they are saved by recognition? We are not to have faith by recognition.  We are to have a great faith, one which says He is in the sacraments!, because He said He would be. 

  The Lord God identified the first person of the Holy Trinity, as Father.  A Father provides. Do we truly love our human father by calling him father? Or do we truly love our father by obeying in him, and believing our father will provide? 

  The answer is clear, faith in God is one where one truly believes in obeying God 's Word especially when it seems to be hard to believe at all.  To believe He provides, to believe He is with us in the sacraments, in full body and spirit.

  And How wonderful it is, today's Gospel IS speaking just to this.  Jesus provides the crowd.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:34-44. (January 7, 2014)
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat."
He said to them in reply, "Give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Are we to buy two hundred days' wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?"
He asked them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they had found out they said, "Five loaves and two fish."
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.
Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to (his) disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate (of the loaves) were five thousand men.


 Back in Luke, this time in the following chapter where Jesus proclaims the faith of the woman saved her,in Luke 8, more commentary on faith is provided, it is a faith in listening to His Word:

LUKE 8 : 13-14, Speaks to hearing the Word of the Lord, so when He says He will be in the sacraments, HE WILL BE!  IT WAS SAID BY HIM! IT IS HEARD BY THE TRUE CHURCH! 

  The devil is the one who places doubt in the promises of Christ, who 'takes away the word from their hearts (after they had heard it).
 

THIS ALSO PUTS TO REST ALL PROTESTANT EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY WHICH SAYS NO ONE WHO BELIEVES CAN FALL. An Evangelical Protestant claims to be saved by speaking: A Catholic claims to be saved by listening.

  
^{LUKE 8: 9} His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;
    though hearing, they may not understand.’^[a]

¹¹ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³ Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴ The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵ But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

  Now, Listen to God. Do you have the Faith to hear Him?
 

^{John 6 : 26} Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
²⁸ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
³⁰ So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’^[c]”
³² Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

 In John's telling, John adds:
⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

  He said it, so it is! 

  In Luke 8 : 15, The one on good soil hears and retains it.  In John 6 : 56, the one who eats and drinks (true food and drink, Jhn 6 : 55) remains in me.