Sunday Meditation: The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

The Gospel readings now shift for the next few weeks from the Gospel of Mark to that of John.  Today begins a series of readings that will culminate with the Bread of Life discourse, but we start with the feeding of the five thousands.  The feeding of thousands is actually in all four Gospels, and it occurs twice in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.  So there are actually six passages where Jesus multiplies loaves of bread to feed the multitude.  That’s quite interesting.  Bread is certainly the most important nourishing element in the New Testament.  “Give us our daily bread” Jesus teaches us to pray.

 

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.

A large crowd followed him,

because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.

Jesus went up on the mountain,

and there he sat down with his disciples.

The Jewish feast of Passover was near.

When Jesus raised his eyes

and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,

he said to Philip,

"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"

He said this to test him,

because he himself knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered him,

"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough

for each of them to have a little."

One of his disciples,

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;

but what good are these for so many?"

Jesus said, "Have the people recline."

Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.

So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,

and distributed them to those who were reclining,

and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,

"Gather the fragments left over,

so that nothing will be wasted."

So they collected them,

and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments

from the five barley loaves

that had been more than they could eat.

When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,

"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."

Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

~Jn 6:1-15

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant provides the entire context of this passage.

Fr. Geoffrey really covers a broad range of elements of this passage. But there are still other angles that we could further explore here.  Why did Jesus single out Phillip to test him?  (Phillip was from Bethsaida, which is right near the where the miracle occurred; Phillip would know where to buy bread.)  Why was it a little boy who was carrying food and not the vast adults?  Why nothing be wasted?  He could multiply more.  Did they eat the fish raw or did they set up to cook it?  Most of these questions I can’t answer but it shows how much depth there is to the story.

 

Sunday Meditation: “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.”

 

Let’s get back to a John Michael Talbot song this week.  “Gift of Finest Wheat” seems very appropriate.  Is there a difference between wheat and barley? 

 

 

Talbot did write this hymn but is his rendition.  Robert E. Kreutz  was the composer.

 

In Memoriam: Bob Newhart

Bob Newhart died a few days ago at the ripe old age of 94, and I wanted to commemorate his life.  I can’t say that many (if any) comedians have shaped my life, and I wouldn’t say Bob Newhart shaped my life in any way but I did connect with him in a way I have not with comedians. 

For those that don’t know Bob Newhart or are too young to know him, he was a very reserved comedian from the 1960s through mostly the 1990s, but he performed into the 21^st century, albeit sporadically.  A “very reserved comedian” today sounds like an oxymoron, but Bob mastered the style of comedy that relied on understatement and verbal disconnect.  He was not outrageous nor did he use vulgar language or vulgar scenarios.  He was decent, gentlemanly, staid, and unexciting on the surface.  That’s like saying he’s boring.  [Now you know why I connect with him.  Isn’t that what Jan, one of my friendly commenters on this blog, says about me?  Staid, boring…LOL.]

Of the various obituaries, I liked the one from NPR (National Public Radio).  Here’s how they described his comedic style.

 

Comic Bob Newhart, best known for an everyman persona that powered two classic TV sitcoms, died Thursday morning of natural causes. He was 94. Newhart was the funniest guy in the room while playing unassuming characters who, in others' hands, would have been setting up somebody else's jokes.

 

Much of his success, according to Newhart himself, came from one mannerism: his stammer. It showed up in his first hit TV sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show in 1972, where he played a psychologist flummoxed by a long line of eccentric patients. And it continued all the way up into his guest appearances on CBS' hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory starting in 2013, where he played a former kids TV show host bewildered by the fan worship of genius scientist Sheldon Cooper.

I knew Bob Newhart from his two popular TV shows, The Bob Newhart Show which ran from 1972 to 1978 and on the series Newhart from 1982 to 1990 where he played a Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon.  Both shows had similar premises, a low key Bob Newhart character mixed into the wild and whacky characters around him.  I have never forgotten the early episode of Newhart show where a threesome of helpers are called and the lead of the three introduces himself as Larry, and then says “this is my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl.”  So funny.  Actually here are excerpts from that very episode.

 

The obituary goes on to give some details of his life.

 

George Robert Newhart was born in 1929 in Oak Park, Ill. Raised in the Chicago area, he got a degree in business management and served in the Army during the Korean War before landing a job as an accountant.

 

Bored with accounting, Newhart began making up comedy routines over the phone with a co-worker. Eventually, he quit accounting and got a DJ pal to help him get a record deal with Warner Brothers. But there was one problem, as he told NPR's Talk of the Nation in 2006, Warner Brothers told him: "We'll record it at your next nightclub," Newhart recalled. "And I said, 'Well, see, that's going to be a problem because I've never played a nightclub.' "

 

Newhart had two weeks to develop material for his first record, The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart, released in 1960. It became the first comedy album to hit No. 1 on Billboard's albums chart, launching his career.

Oak Ridge Park, Illinois also was, Interestingly, the birth town of Earnest Hemingway.  The two were very different.  Their lives did overlap in time.  Hemingway born thirty years earlier, and died in 1961, the year after Newhart’s break through comedy album.  As far as I can tell, the two never met.  The obituary in the Chicago Sun Times goes a bit further into Bob’s biography.  In discussing the ending episode of the Newhart series where Newhart wakes up to find he’s back in the 1970s The Bob Newhart Show, a brilliant comedic disconnect that was given many accolades, we find out the idea came from Bob’s real life wife.  From the Chicago Sun Times:  

 

Mr. Newhart’s real-life wife, Ginnie Newhart, came up with the idea for the show’s ending.

 

The two met in 1962 when Mr. Newhart’s pal and fellow comedian, Buddy Hackett, set him up on a blind date with a red-headed actress named Virginia “Ginnie” Quinn, who babysat for the Hackett family.

 

The couple married in 1963 and went on to have four children. He raised them as Cubs fans.

Buddy Hackett was a pretty funny comedian himself, though of a different style.  Ginnie died in 2023, the year before Bob’s death.  They had a long and happy marriage together.  The Sun Times continues with some of Bob’s early life. 

 

He had three sisters, including one who became a nun. His father, George David Newhart, co-owned a plumbing and heating-supply business, and his mother Julia Pauline was a homemaker.

 

As a kid, he attended St. Catherine of Siena grade school, couldn’t drink enough Pepsi and worked as a pin setter at a bowling alley.

 

He grew up in an apartment at 26 N. Mason Ave. in Austin, a couple blocks from Oak Park. Mr. Newhart was always trying unsuccessfully to get the attention and affection of his father, who spent a lot of time at a local pub, he said in his memoir.

 

He attended St. Ignatius College Prep and graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a business management degree in 1952. He briefly attended the university’s law school before he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War.

St, Catherine of Siena grade school!  I knew there had to be a connection with my blog.  Seriously, I did not know that Bob was Catholic, and from what I can tell he was a lifelong practicing Catholic, despite moving to Beverly Hills in California.  That’s certainly commendable.

Now for some highlights.  Here’s part of an episode from The Bob Newhart Show where a ventriloquist and his dummy come to see Bob the psychologist. 

 

Hilarious!  Bob was also known for doing one sided phone conversation skits.  Here’s a classic where the Biblical character Lot is taking a call from Noah, the ark builder.

 

Here’s an interview Newhart did for the CBS Sunday Morning TV show.  I think iy shows the many sides of Newhart’s person.

 

Ah, what a good man.  Rest in peace, Bob. 

Sunday Meditation: The Apostles Return

Today’s Gospel we have a continuation from last week’s.  Last week we saw Jesus send forth the apostles two by two to heal and cast out demons.  That was from Mk 6:7-13.  Today the apostles return to tell Jesus all that they had done.  One gets a sense that they are all excited with the accomplishments attained from the power Jesus has entrusted to them.  Jesus must have been satisfied because He rewards them with a period of rest, rest being so important in the Jewish of concept of the Sabbath.  But the apostles (through Jesus of course) must have done a super job because now multitudes are seeking them out. 

Today’s readings are also from Mark chapter six, verses 30 to 34.  So if Jesus sends them out in verses 13 and they return in verse 30, what happened from verses 14 through 29?  Take out your Bibles and see.  It is the story of John the Baptist being imprisoned, bound, and slain so that King Herod could satisfy an oath.  This is another of those Markan sandwiches, a story inserted in between the beginning and conclusion of another story.  First Jesus sends out His apostles; then we get the beheading of John the Baptist, and then the original story concludes with the return of the apostles. 

But why the intertwining of story?  The middle story is supposed to give the main story context and thereby expand the meaning of the main story.  Here is the conclusion of the main story.

 

The apostles gathered together with Jesus

and reported all they had done and taught.

He said to them,

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”

People were coming and going in great numbers,

and they had no opportunity even to eat.

So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.

People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.

They hastened there on foot from all the towns

and arrived at the place before them.

 

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.

~Mk 6:30-34

First let’s understand the Gospel passage as explained by Dr. Brant Pitre.

 

So what does the beheading of John the Baptist interlude add?  Certainly King Herod is a bad shepherd.  The bounding and killing of John the Baptist certainly prefigures the crucifixion of Jesus, but I think it also prefigures the future martyrdom of the apostles.

Sunday Meditation: “His heart was moved with pity for them”

 

Instead of a John Michael Talbot song, I think the hymn, “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” would make a very appropriate musical piece for this Sunday.

 

 

The King of love my shepherd is,

Whose goodness fails me never;

I nothing lack if I am His,

And He is mine for ever.

 

Where streams of living water flow,

With gentle care He leads me,

And where the verdant pastures grow,

With heav'nly food he feeds me.

 

Perverse and foolish I have strayed,

But yet in love He sought me,

And on His shoulder gently laid,

And home rejoicing brought me.

 

In death's dark vale I fear no ill,

With you, dear Lord, beside me;

Your rod and staff my comfort still,

Your cross before to guide me.

 

You spread a table in my sight;

Your saving grace bestowing,

And O what joy and true delight,

From your pure chalice flowing.

 

And so through all the length of days,

Your goodness fails me never,

Good Shepherd, may I sing your praise,

Within your house for ever.

 

Good Shepherd, may I sing your praise!

Word of the Day: Zeppelin

About a month ago, I’m driving away from my house and I turn into this very wide street in the neighborhood.  I’m up on the hill looking downhill and across and over the trees I see this object.  Far out there was a zeppelin floating across the sky.  I stopped and took a picture.

Here’s a zoomed in view.

That’s a cool picture if I say so myself.  When I got home later I showed my wife and she was impressed. 

I called Matthew over and I said, “Come look at the picture of the zeppelin I got.”

He said, “A what?”

“A zeppelin.”

“What’s a zeppelin?”

“You don’t know what a zeppelin is?”

“No, what is it?

“It’s a really large balloon.”  So I showed him the picture.

“Oh, that’s a blimp,” he said.

“A blimp?  It’s called a zeppelin.”

“No it’s not.  It’s a blimp.”

And we argued over that for a while.  So what is it called, a blimp or a zeppelin?

From Webster’s Dictionary:

zeppelin

noun

zep·​pe·​lin ˈze-p(ə-)lən

: a rigid airship consisting of a cylindrical trussed and covered frame supported by internal gas cells

broadly : AIRSHIP

 

blimp

noun

ˈblimp

1

: an airship that maintains its form by pressure from contained gas

2

capitalized : COLONEL BLIMP

 

Hmm, a zeppelin seems to have an internal structure while a blimp is just formed by the internal gas pressure.  I followed it up with a search and got this distinction from Mental Floss.

 

Both blimps and zeppelins work by being lighter than air—they're filled with a gas that's lighter than oxygen, so they go up like hot-air balloons. But balloons can't be steered. Realizing this, German Count (Graf) Ferdinand von Zeppelin decided he wanted to devise a "dirigible [or steerable] balloon" in the 1890s for use in military reconnaissance work. Eventually, these dirigible balloons took the generic name zeppelin and were used as bombers or scout craft through World War I. This was just one of their many uses, however. The airships doubled as a major mode of transportation between the wars, routinely making transatlantic flights, and the enormous Graf Zeppelin even circumnavigated the globe in 1929.

 

So, yes, that is the difference.  A zeppelin has an internal structure so it can be steered.  So what is that in the Staten Island sky?  It had to be a zeppelin because it wasn’t just floating.  It was moving east to west.

These teenagers think they know it all.  But a grey-haired sexagenarian—now there’s a word of the day for you and no it has nothing to do with sex—can outthink them any day. 

One last thing.  This all brought back a memory from my childhood of watching TV comedy reruns in the afternoon after school.  This brought back a memory from the TV show F-Troop.  

 

Classic!

Sunday Meditation: The Sending Forth

In the early chapters of Mark, we saw Jesus call the various apostles to join Him.  In last week’s Gospel reading there was a homecoming for Jesus.  In this week, those He called He now sends forth in a commission.

 

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two

and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey

but a walking stick—

no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

They were, however, to wear sandals

but not a second tunic.

He said to them,

“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.

Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,

leave there and shake the dust off your feet

in testimony against them.”

So they went off and preached repentance.

The Twelve drove out many demons,

and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

~Mk 6:7-13

That Jesus sends them with a staff is an indication that the apostles are here bishops, or at least proto-bishops since the Church has not been formed yet.  In fact, apostle actually means, “one sent out on a mission.”  The corresponding passage in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 10-1-12) Jesus commissions seventy, but here in Mark it’s the Biblically significant number of twelve, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel.  Bishop Barron provides this week’s informative homily.

But it’s not just bishops who are sent forth.  If Jesus calls each of us to join His Body, then each of us is also sent forth. 

 

Sunday Meditation: “Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two”

 

The perfect John Michael Talbot song for this week, “Send Us Out.”

 

To proclaim Your Kingdom and to overcome and heal the world!  

Personal Note: Fourth of July Fireworks

Shooting fireworks is illegal around here but lots of people buy them out of state and fire them off, saving most of them for the Fourth of July.  The block my mother lives on is particularly passionate about their fireworks.  People there must spend thousands of dollars on it.  Here is one series of volleys that I was able to film.

 

 

Very nice.  That’s about as good as a professional fireworks display.

Sunday Meditation: The Homecoming

Two weeks ago we had a Gospel passage where in a storm at sea, Jesus admonishes his apostles for not having faith, and yet performs the miracle of quieting the storm,  In last week’s reading Jesus praises Jarius and the woman with the hemorrhage for having faith, and He performs two miracles.  In today’s reading, Jesus returns to His home town, preaches, and yet the people who knew Him best took offense at Him.  Here was a great lack of faith, and so He performed no miracles.  Faith is critical to these early chapters of Mark.

 

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.

When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,

and many who heard him were astonished.

They said, “Where did this man get all this?

What kind of wisdom has been given him?

What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!

Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,

and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?

And are not his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them,

“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place

and among his own kin and in his own house.”

So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,

apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

He was amazed at their lack of faith.

~Mk:1-6

 

Why did the people who knew Him best spurn Him?  Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchin Franciscans explains it fully and provides the significance for our spiritual needs. 

 

God is all around us, but it is so ordinary that the familiarity breeds contempt.

Sunday Meditation: “Where did this man get all this?”

 

Back to a John Michael Talbot hymn, “Where Have You Hidden.”

 

 

Music Tuesday: Violets for Your Furs by Frank Sinatra

When John Sterling, the great radio announcer for the NY Yankees, retired on April 15^th this year at the of 85, I caught a few outgoing interviews, and in one interview that got into his life and loves he was asked his favorite song.  His reply surprised me.  It was Frank Sinatra’s “Violets for Your Furs.”  I have a few of Frank Sinatra’s discs, and I not only did not have that song on any of them, but I had never even heard of the song.  Of all the great Sinatra songs, he loves that one the best?  I have forgotten everything from that interview, except for this tidbit of a factoid.  I searched the song out and heard it and it has really grown on me.

It was recorded by Sinatra in 1941 with the great Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and it’s a song describing a man giving his love violets for her fur coat.  It is said that Sinatra sang this for Lana Turner, his current love at the time. 

 

Violets for Your Furs

by Matt Dennis with words by Tom Adair

 

It was winter in Manhattan, falling snow flakes filled the air

The streets were covered with a film of ice

But a little simple magic that I heard about somewhere

Changed the weather all around, just within a trice

 

I bought you violets for your furs

And it was spring for a while, remember?

I bought you violets for your furs

And there was April in that December

 

The snow drifted down on the flowers

And it melted where it lay

The snow looked like dew on the blossoms

As on a summer day

 

I bought you violets for your furs

And there was blue in the wintry sky

Then you pinned the violets to your furs

And gave a lift to the crowds passing by

 

You smiled at me so sweetly

Since then one thought occurs

That we fell in love completely

The day that I bought you violets for your furs

 

Here is the lovely rendition.

 

It’s definitely in the early Sinatra crooning style.  It’s a lovely song, and I can see how the song can bring memories of a love.  I love the musical arrangement which I think highlights a piano, a violin, and I think a clarinet.  It may never be my favorite Sinatra song—it must have particular memories for John Sterling—but one I will never forget.