PROPER XIII - A - 20 - IS. 55. 1-5, ROM 9. 1-5, MATT. 14. 13-21
Today’s gospel story is a familiar one that appears in all four of the gospels. It is Matthew’s version of the feeding of the 5000. It begins on a sad note. Jesus has just learned that his cousin, John Baptist, has been beheaded by King Herod.
Jesus seeks solace. “He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself.” Jesus wanted to be alone, to get away from people for a while. John’s death was a blow to him, and as we shall see, as we read through the gospels, a turning point in his ministry.
He needed time to grieve and to think. Surely, he thought if they have killed John, they will kill me also. However, his time away from the crowds was not to be. Someone leaked his whereabouts and the people pursued him on foot.
The crowds gathered before him and presented their sick and he healed them. Jesus translates his sorrow over John to compassion for the crowds. He translates his own feelings into love for those in need. In healing them, he himself was healed of his grief.
The day being spent, it was time to disburse the crowds and send them on their way to fend for themselves. Thus, the disciples expressed their thoughts. It was time to eat. The disciples were hungry and surely, the people were as well.
But Jesus said to them. “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” I can only begin to imagine the disciple’s reaction. Can’t you just see the expression on their faces? Impossible they must have thought.
“We have here only five loaves and two fish.” Jesus said, “Bring them to me.” The crowd was still standing around him so he commanded them to take a seat. “He took the five loaves and the two fish and blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the crowd.”
They all ate and were satisfied. And when the meal had ended, to the astonishment of the disciples, there were yet twelve baskets full of leftovers.
The people longing for the presence of Jesus followed him out into the wilderness. Single-mindedly they continued to focus their attention on him, forgetting about their practical and physical needs. Seeing their longing and attentiveness, divine love over-flowed in the sacred heart of Jesus.
As Matthew said, “He had compassion on them.” He healed them and he feed them in a communal meal. They were satisfied to the very core of their being.
The church fathers see in this story an image of the Eucharist as the four actions of the Eucharist are manifested: he took, blessed, broke and gave. We celebrate that same reality in our weekly Eucharist. The satisfaction that can only come from God is given fully in the Eucharistic feast.
It is in the Eucharist Jesus brings diverse people into one worshipping community and feeds then with the sacrament of his own body and blood. The Real Presence of Jesus is manifested in the bread and wine.
Only God can unite total intimacy, radical diversity and oneness into a single action. When we do not experience it with such depth, the lack is not in the Eucharist, but in our capacity at that moment to experience it fully.
It wasn’t a desperate situation the disciples were suddenly faced with, but a challenge of faith. Five loaves and two fish seemed to be a pitiful offering. The odds of that being able to feed 5000 persons were literally impossible. However, with God, all things are possible.
Have you ever been asked by God to do something your deemed impossible? Did you do it? The disciples were on the right track in thinking of the people. Jesus uses that to teach them how to care for others. If you really care, do something for them.
That is a typical note of vocation. Our small ideas of how to care for people is bounced back at us with what seems a huge and impossible proposal. We protest, I can’t do it! I haven’t got the time. I don’t have the energy or the recourses. All I have is…
That’s when God steps in. If you are prepared to give what little you have God will bless it and somehow, miraculously speaking, it becomes enough, more than enough. The disciples learned that lesson when they took up 12 baskets full of leftovers.
In discipleship, one has to put care (compassion) into every gesture, and word and action, great and small, day in and day out. For us as Christians the astonishing fact is that even though in and of themselves our gestures, words and actions are so often woefully small and inadequate, they can never the less be the vehicle for the over flowing compassion of God.
Just as Jesus fed the crowds with the five loaves and two fish, which the disciples regarded as impossibility little for so many, so God can feed many with our small and hesitantly offering of our gifts and talents.
To live the gospel is to accept the challenge that comes with it. We blunder into the kingdom with our own ideas. We offer, uncomprehending, what little we have. Jesus takes ideas, loaves and fishes, money, a sense of humor, time, energy, talents, love, and skill with words, whatever we have to offer.
He holds them before the Father, and blesses them. And like a chem-light he breaks them and gives them back to us to give to those in need bringing light into their darkness.
It is part of genuine Christian service, at whatever level, that we look on in amazement to see what God has done with the bits and pieces we dug out of our meager resources to offer to him. For God has blessed each and everyone of us with certain gifts and talents. Collectively, the Church has everything it needs to carry out the work we have been given to do.
Jesus performed the miracle, not the disciples. They were told to feed the crowd. They hesitated thinking what they had to offer was insufficient. They brought what they had to Jesus and it blessed it and gave it back to them to distribute to the people. It was enough, more than enough.
Jesus said to the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” To everyone who would be his disciple, in whatever time or place, he speaks: “Let me be present to the people, let me feed them through you.”
There is a warning implied in today’s passage. Jesus warns all Christian disciples against two equally debilitating attitudes: thinking that they can satisfy the world’s needs by employment of their own human powers alone, and thinking that they have nothing to contribute to anyone’s satisfaction since God alone can accomplish it.
The lesson today is in our understanding that our true vocation as Christians is to follow Jesus, to share his compassion. To give to Him what we have so that it can be used in His service in meeting the needs of others and for the glory of God the Father. AMEN+
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