Jesus Blessed and Multiplied the Loaves and Fishes
Introduction: May you be ever more conscious of the great love that God has for you and may you continue to trust the Lord Jesus by coming to Him and being His faithful disciple.
When tragedy and bad times fall upon us, it is easy to think that God has forgotten us or does not love us. Why would an all-loving God allow pandemics, physical disasters, violence and wars, and other bad things to happen to us? The “Footprints” poem that speaks about our walking with God and seeing two sets of footprints in the sand. As we look back, we see a time when there was only one set of footprints. As we contemplate when that was in our lives, we realize it was when we were going through rough times. We ask the Lord Jesus why did He abandon us during those rough times. Jesus says to us, “I did not abandon you. There is only one set of footprints because it was then that I was carrying you.” God knows what is best for us and nothing will separate us from the love of God poured out in Jesus.
The LORD God always provides for us. In the First Reading, we hear God’s invitation to come and receive the necessities of life. The psalm response reminds us that the hand of the LORD feeds us because God answers all our needs. St. Paul reminds us that nothing can interfere with God’s love for us. In the Gospel, after Jesus has fed the souls and minds of those who have come to hear Him, He provides food for their bodies.
First Reading: Isaiah 55:1-3:
‘Come and eat.’
Commentary: Our approach to God and to things divine has two contrasting aspects. On the one hand we must be aware in awe of the splendour of God and of our own terrifying littleness; this engenders a hushed stillness in us. On the other hand there is joy and celebration of what God has given us. Particularly in Christianity this is a family and community joy, celebrating our oneness in Christ; the obvious way to celebrate this is a party with noise, food and drink. The readings on this Sunday are all about joy and celebration, and the first and third about a party. Isaiah hands us an invitation to the party. The invitation has two particular notes. Firstly, it is in similar terms to the biblical invitations from God’s Wisdom to come and share the banquet prepared by Wisdom for those who wish to learn God’s ways. Secondly, it is a fulfilment of the tradition of the covenant which dominates the Bible: God made an alliance, a special bond, with special promises to Abraham, renewed it and intensified it to Moses and again to David. When Israel shattered that covenant by constant rebellion, God promised a new covenant, ratified again at a party, at Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples.
Responsorial Psalm145:8-9.
15-16. 17-18: You open your hand and fulfil us, O Lord.
The psalm continues to speak about God’s graciousness in
providing for those who seek the LORD. God will provide food in due season and
satisfy the desire of every living creature.
Second Reading: Romans 8:35,
37-39: ‘Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ.’
Commentary: This lively expression of delight and confidence really concludes and sums up the explanations of God’s love for us, as it is manifested and given to us in the saving act of Jesus. This has been the fullest explanation given by Paul of just how Christ saves us, and how we are made a new creation and now live by the Spirit of Christ. After that, the Letter to the Romans goes on to particular consequences and applications of this. There will be another such outbreak of joy from Paul which we read in three weeks time (Romans 11.33-36). It is Paul at his best and most ardent. First, just before our reading, comes a series of excited rhetorical questions: ‘what can we add?’, ‘Can anyone condemn?’, ‘Are we not certain?’ Then the expression of Paul’s total confidence in God’s saving love, from which nothing can cut us off. In the biblical mind 7 is the perfect number, signifying completion: Paul first gives 7 hardships and trials which cannot cut us off, then 7 hostile powers which are powerless against the love of God. The message is: there isn’t anything that can separate us from the love of God.
Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21: ‘They
all ate and were satisfied.’
Commentary: Every mother knows the disaster-situation of the family day out when the shops turn out to be closed and the emergency supplies were left at home. This lot have been three days on the trot, and there must have been nothing left at all. Jesus turns the disaster into a party for that huge crowd of people. Left to our own resources we are helpless, but Jesus can deal with that. How many were there? We don’t know, for the numbers are symbolic. In the Bible ‘twelve’ alerts us to the tribes of Israel. So the twelve baskets of scraps show that the crowd is the twelve tribes of Jesus’ new Israel. The way Jesus takes the bread and says the blessing must remind any Christian of the Eucharist. So this gigantic field-party was a sort of Eucharist, Jesus at the centre of his people, entertaining them and cheering them. It probably wasn’t very orderly. There would have been children enjoying the food and then running around and tripping up themselves and others as they sat on the grass. An African Mass is often like that, with lots of singing and dancing and celebration. That is why the Sunday Mass is so important: meet your friends and celebrate Christ together!
Reflection: What can truly satisfy our deepest hunger and longing? Wherever Jesus went multitudes of people gathered to meet him - people from every part of society - rich and poor, professionals and laborers, even social outcasts and pagans. What drew them to Jesus? Were they simply curious or looking for a healing? Many were drawn to Jesus because they were hungry for God. Jesus' message of God's kingdom and the signs and wonders he performed stirred fresh hope and expectation that God was acting in a new and powerful way to set people free from sin and oppression and to bring them the blessings of his kingdom.
God never rests in caring for our needs: Jesus never disappointed those who earnestly sought him out. We see a marvelous example of this when Jesus and his twelve disciples got into the boat to seek out a lonely place for some rest along the lake of Galilee, only to discover a crowd of a few thousand people had already gathered in anticipation of their arrival! Did Jesus' disciples resent this intrusion on their plan to rest awhile? Jesus certainly didn't - he welcomed them with open-arms. His compassion showed the depths of God's love and care for his people. Jesus spoke the word of God to strengthen them in faith and he healed many who were sick.
God multiplies the little we have to bring great blessing to others: As evening approached the disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away. Jesus, instead, commanded his disciples to feed the whole crowd. Why did Jesus expect his disciples to do what seemed impossible - to feed such a large and hungry crowd when there was no adequate provision in sight? Jesus very likely wanted to test their faith and to give them a sign of God's divine intervention and favor for his people. Jesus took the little they had - five loaves and two fish - and giving thanks to his heavenly Father, distributed to all until they were satisfied of their hunger. Twelves baskets full of fish and loaves that were leftover show the overflowing generosity of God's gifts to us - gifts that bring blessing, healing, strength, and refreshment.
Bread from heaven to sustain us on our journey: Jesus' feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospel accounts (Luke 9:10-17, Mark 6:34-44, John 6:51-58, Matthew 14:13-21). What is the significance of this miracle? The miraculous feeding of such a great multitude recalled the miraculous provision of manna in the wilderness under Moses' leadership and intercession for his people (Exodus 16). The daily provision of food for the people of Israel during their forty years of journeying in the barren wilderness foreshadowed the true heavenly bread which Jesus would pass on to his disciples at his last supper meal on the eve of his sacrifice on the cross.
Jesus makes a claim which only God can make: He is the true bread of heaven that can satisfy the deepest hunger we experience (John 6:32-35). The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, when Jesus said the blessing, broke and distributed the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, is a sign that prefigures the superabundance of the unique bread of the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper which sustains us on our journey to the kingdom of heaven.
God multiplies the little we have so we can bring his blessing to others: The feeding of the five thousand shows the remarkable generosity of God and his great kindness towards us. When God gives, he gives abundantly. He gives more than we need for ourselves that we may have something to share with others, especially those who lack what they need. God takes the little we have and multiplies it for the good of others. Do you trust in God's provision for you and do you share freely with others, especially those who lack?
Lord Jesus Christ, you satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts and you feed us with the finest of wheat (Psalm 81:16). Fill me with gratitude for your blessings and give me a generous heart that I may freely share with others what you have given to me.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: The Lord fills all things with blessing from above, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)
"So that by every means the Lord might be known to be
God by nature, he multiplies what is little, and he looks up to heaven as
though asking for the blessing from above. Now he does this out of the divine
economy, for our sake. For he himself is the one who fills all things, the true
blessing from above and from the Father. But, so that we might learn that when
we are in charge of the table and are preparing to break the loaves, we ought
to bring them to God with hands upraised and bring down upon them the blessing
from above, he became for us the beginning and pattern and way." (excerpt
from FRAGMENT 177)
hyper? “Yet in all
this we are more than conquerors because of Him Who has loved us.” —Romans 8:37
As Christians, we are children of God, members of Christ’s Body, and temples of the Holy Spirit. Because of this, we are so very powerful and great that no words can express our glory in Jesus. So St. Paul called us “more than conquerors” (Rm 8:37). This is a translation of the Greek word which is more literally translated “hyper-conqueror.”
However, because of our weaknesses, most Christians feel more “hyper” than “hyper-conquerors.” Nevertheless, we must walk by faith and not by sight — not by the way we look or the way we feel (2 Cor 5:7). “There is One greater” in us “than there is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4). We will conquer the world through our faith (1 Jn 5:5; see also Heb 11:33).
The Lord will give total and final victory to His “hyper-conquerors” when we totally empty our lives of all our “loaves and fish” (see Mt 14:19-20). He will take our little lives plus our total “all” and multiply them to feed, transform, and sanctify the masses of the world. All we have to do is to live for Him alone. We must love the Lord with all our hearts, all our souls, all our strength, and all our minds (Lk 10:27). All-love conquers all.
Prayer: Father, I give my all to You to be multiplied. “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” —Is 55:1. Praise You Jesus, “the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn 11:25). You are “the Amen, the faithful Witness and true, the Source of God’s creation” (Rv 3:14). Alleluia!
The personal action for
today: What has been my attitude
when I have not received something for which I have prayed? Do I turn away from
God, believing that God does not love me? Do I believe that God has something
better for me? When have I experienced the love of God in an unexpected way?
How can I bolster other people’s experience of God when they are going through
rough times? Who in my life right now is most in need of the reassurance of
God’s love for them and how can I help them experience it?
Saint Eusebius of Vercelli: Someone has said that if there had been no Arian
heresy denying Christ’s divinity, it would be very difficult to write the lives
of many early saints. Saint Eusebius is another of the defenders of the Church
during one of its most trying periods.
Born on the isle of Sardinia, he became a member of the
Roman clergy, and is the first recorded bishop of Vercelli in Piedmont in
northwest Italy. Eusebius was also the first to link the monastic life with
that of the clergy, establishing a community of his diocesan clergy on the
principle that the best way to sanctify his people was to have them see a
clergy formed in solid virtue and living in community.
Saint Eusebius was sent by Pope Liberius to persuade the
emperor to call a council to settle Catholic-Arian troubles. When it was called
at Milan, Eusebius went reluctantly, sensing that the Arian block would have
its way, although the Catholics were more numerous. He refused to go along with
the condemnation of Saint Athanasius; instead, he laid the Nicene Creed on the
table and insisted that all sign it before taking up any other matter.
The emperor put pressure on him, but Saint Eusebius insisted
on Athanasius’ innocence and reminded the emperor that secular force should not
be used to influence Church decisions. At first the emperor threatened to kill
him but later sent him into exile in Palestine. There the Arians dragged him
through the streets and shut him up in a little room, releasing him only after
his four-day hunger strike. They resumed their harassment shortly after.
His exile continued in Asia Minor and Egypt, until the new
emperor permitted him to be welcomed back to his see in Vercelli. Eusebius
attended the Council of Alexandria with Athanasius and approved the leniency
shown to bishops who had wavered. He also worked with Saint Hilary of Poitiers
against the Arians.
Saint Eusebius died peacefully in his own diocese at what
was then considered an advanced age.
Catholics in the U.S. have sometimes felt penalized by an
unwarranted interpretation of the principle of separation of Church and state,
especially in the matter of Catholic schools. Be that as it may, the Church is
happily free today from the tremendous pressure put on it after it became an
“established” Church under Constantine. We are happily rid of such things as a
pope asking an emperor to call a Church council, Pope John I being sent by the
emperor to negotiate in the East, or the pressure of kings on papal elections.
The Church cannot be a prophet if it’s in someone’s pocket.
