Vigils Reading – 17th Sunday

THE WORD OF GOD

From a commentary by St Augustine1

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The miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ are truly divine works,

which lead the human mind through visible things to a perception of the

Godhead. God is not the kind of being that can be seen with the eyes, and small

account is taken of the miracles by which he rules the entire universe and

governs all creation because they recur so regularly. Scarcely anyone bothers to

consider God’s marvelous deeds, his amazing artistry in every tiny seed. And so

certain works are excluded from the ordinary course of nature, works which

God in his mercy has reserved for himself, so as to perform them at appropriate

times. People who hold cheap what they see every day are dumbfounded at the

sight of extraordinary works even though they are no more wonderful than the

others.

Governing the entire universe is a greater miracle than feeding five

thousand people with five loaves of bread, yet no one marvels at it. People

marvel at the feeding of five thousand not because this miracle is greater, but

because it is out of the ordinary.

Who is even now providing nourishment for the whole world if not the

God who creates a field of wheat from a few seeds? Christ did what God does.

Just as God multiplies a few seeds into a whole field of wheat, so Christ

multiplied the five loaves in his hands. For there was power in the hands of

Christ. Those five loaves were like seeds, not because they were cast upon the

earth but because they were multiplied by the one who made the earth.

This miracle was presented to our senses in order to stimulate our minds;

it was put before our eyes in order to engage our understanding, and so make

us marvel at the God we do not see because of his works which we do see. For

then, when we have been raised to the level of faith and purified by faith, we

shall long to behold, though not with our eyes, the invisible God whom we

recognize through what is visible.

This miracle was performed for the multitude to see; it was recorded for

us to hear. Faith does for us what sight did for them. We behold with the mind

what our eyes cannot see; and we are preferred to them. Because of us it was

said: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.

When the people saw the sign Jesus had performed, they said: Surely

this must be a prophet. He was in fact the Lord of the prophets, the fulfiller of

the prophets, the sanctifier of the prophets; yet he was still a prophet, for Moses

had been told: I will raise up for them a prophet like yourself. The Lord is a

prophet, and the Lord is the Word of God, and without the Word of God no

prophet can prophesy.

The Word of God is with the prophets, and the Word of God is a prophet.

People of former times were deemed worthy to have prophets inspired and filled

by the Word of God; we have been deemed worthy to have as our prophet the

Word of God Himself.

1 A Commentary on the Gospel of Mark According to St Augustine.3