AUGUST 3, 2026 FATHER BRANDEN GORDON
I don’t think it a mere coincidence that today’s Gospel immediately follows a Eucharistic passage, namely the multiplication of the loaves. The multiplication of the loaves shows us that Jesus loves us and that Jesus wants to satisfy our hunger, and not only our physical hunger, but also our hunger for truth, for goodness, and for beauty, for the transcendentals.
And it’s by means of the Eucharist that Jesus satisfies our deepest hunger, especially that for union with the one who created, redeemed, and sanctifies us.
So, what can today’s Gospel, a passage about Jesus walking on the water, reveal to us about the Most Holy Eucharist?
Well, I think that verse 24 in today’s Gospel describes well a life lived without the Eucharist. The disciples are without Jesus. They are surrounded by darkness in the midst of a wind-tossed sea. And our lives, too, would be very dark without the Eucharist, for it’s through the Eucharist that the light of Jesus penetrates into and illuminates the dark depths of our being.
It’s pre-eminently through the Eucharist that Jesus shines his light into our fallen world. And that’s why Padre Pio could say, without the slightest hint of exaggeration, that the earth could exist more easily without the sun than without the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
Well, it’s said of Padre Pio that he had such a profound appreciation for the Mass that he would often shed tears of love and sorrow while he was celebrating it, and it would take very long for him to even get through the celebration of one Mass. This was a priest who truly understood what was happening on the altar and who was being made sacramentally present on the altar by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against the disciples. How stormy the sea of our own lives would be without the Eucharist. We would be tossed to and fro by the waves of temptation and suffering that we experience daily in this fallen world.
It’s through the Eucharist that Jesus is able to calm the sea within us and all around us. Being in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, receiving Holy Communion, these practices give us the strength to withstand the waves that buffet us from all sides. The Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, in a word, protects us from spiritual shipwreck.
It’s said of another saint, St. Dominic Savio, that he loved above all else to be in Jesus’ Eucharistic presence. Dominic would often become so absorbed in prayer before the tabernacle that he would lose all track of time, and he would pray right through breakfast and class.
Well, one day the director of the boarding school went looking for Dominic, and Dominic hadn’t been seen all that day by his teachers or his classmates. And so, he thought that he would go check the chapel. And when he went to look there, he found Dominic by the sanctuary, standing as motionless as a statue, his eyes fixed on the tabernacle.
But when his director called out to him, Dominic didn’t reply at first. So, his director shook him gently by the shoulders, prompting Dominic to emerge from his trance. And as Dominic regained his senses, he turned to his director and asked, “Oh, is the Mass over?” To which the director replied, “Dominic, it’s two o’clock in the afternoon.”
So, that meant that the Mass had ended about five hours prior. Such was Dominic’s love for Jesus in the Eucharist.
And early in the morning, Jesus came walking toward the disciples on the sea, saying to them, “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.”
Well, just as Jesus drew near to the disciples’ boat on the Sea of Galilee, so does he draw near to us in the Most Holy Eucharist. So, we welcome him into our hearts that he may guide us safely across the wind-tossed sea of this world and to the peaceful shore of our heavenly homeland.
