2 Kings 4:42–44
Ephesians 4:1–6
John 6:1–15
Today we interrupt our reading of Mark’s gospel on Sunday. At the point where Mark’s gospel tells a feeding story, we switch instead to chapter 6 of John’s gospel. From there we hear a feeding story. But in John, this feeding story is followed by a long discourse on the significance of the Bread. The Church wants us to hear that discourse from John’s Gospel. It is known as the Bread of Life discourse. We will hear it on the next four Sundays. Jesus the teacher will break open for us the meaning of this bread he gives out today; he will teach us and in the end will ask us if will follow him in what this Bread really means. Today we are invited to reflect on the event of the feeding itself.
The story of Jesus feeding a large crowd is the only miracle story that occurs in all four Gospels and in Mark and Matthew, the story is told twice, each time with a significant focus. For us Christians centuries later, it is clear that the story about the Bread is related to the Eucharist; it was the same for the early Church, a precious memory that deserved to be recounted a number of times. It is also clear that such bread stories can be found in the Old Testament such as we have heard today in the story about the prophet Elisha. Indeed, the Bread stories in the Hebrew Bible are one of the sources for our Eucharistic celebrations today. Bread is of significance far beyond what appears on the surface, satisfying human hunger. So our Eucharist extends far beyond what our eyes may at first see.
We find Jesus going up on the mountain, traditionally a place close to God. We hear that he sat down. In the biblical tradition the teacher sits. The crowd follows but we hear they follow because Jesus works signs of healing. Perhaps they are looking for more marvels. They are hungry for something Jesus has, but they really are not sure of what that hunger is. But Jesus is very much aware. Jesus draws us into the story by asking where can we buy enough to feed them? Jesus looks out and sees the physical situation. He presents it to us. How can we respond to this hunger? And in a way we are tricked into seeing the situation in a physical way too. And so we start looking for a solution to hunger on a physical level. Jesus will approach the situation on the spirit level.
We want to approach the situation of hunger with money. We want to use financial means to satisfy the longing of the human heart. It will take a salary of about 6 ½ months, Philip says, to buy food for this large crowd. We don’t have that kind of money. We don’t have the money for such a large crowd. Our means and the numbers don’t match. A dead end.
Another solution: a boy has brought five loaves of barley bread and two fish. Now, we have something, but still, what is 5 + 2 in the face of 5000+. What good is that? We are still on the physical plane. We count and come up short. We cannot match resources with need. ….What are the disciples doing? They are acting in good faith looking for a way to satisfy hunger. But their approach is limited. They see only lack and small quantity. But Jesus sees more and will activate more.
We see only 5 + 2; what does Jesus see? He sees 7, the number seems small but the number has potential. It can be expanded. For seven means fullness, it means life, it means goodness beyond imagining; it means abundance. It is the number that allows the entrance of God into the situation. We know it well enough: On the seventh day God rested after doing all the good of creation. Jesus is being revealed here as the spirit that can enter into the human situation of deficit and complete it. The disciples count one, two, three. The spirit in Jesus multiplies so that the seven embraces all present and more.
Jesus takes the barley loaves and fish, the simple food of the poor. But John makes a point of telling us what season it is. Jesus handles the loaves and fish during the feast of the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was the time when God first worked a wonder for his people. After eating this unfinished bread, as it were, he brought the people of Israel out of slavery; he satisfied their longing for freedom. And he fed them on their journey for 40 years.
We may have only 5 loaves and two fish; that is our poor humanity. Brought forward and placed in Jesus hands, they are enough. When Jesus handles our simple, poor aching desire to be satisfied, he can complete it so that we are full. We have more than enough. Jesus has come to teach us that humanity and God work together. It is when we allow the Word become flesh to transform our situations that we can indeed be satisfied, our lives can be made whole. They become in their own way a reflection of the number seven.
The lack of means of satisfying our real hunger is not an obstacle with our God. Instead, it becomes an occasion for us to experience the abundance that God offers us. The small boy with his poor food when brought forth out into the open to be held by Jesus and then passed out by him alone, becomes what can satisfy. So the end result is left over fragments after all had had their fill. There is always enough with our God. His work is to lead us to the green pastures, make us sit down and refresh our souls, as one of our favorite psalms puts it. Refreshing our souls, satisfying our desires with means we know so well.
When touched and given by Jesus, we learn that simple things like ordinary bread hold more than the eyes can see. Indeed when passed through Jesus concern, love and hands, it becomes a source of life itself. It satisfies, not just a physical hunger, but the hunger that is always welling up in our hearts: the hunger for what will fill us, what will satisfy us, what will love us so that we may be filled with joy. Jesus is teaching us today to see situations with his eyes of the spirit, with a divine glance. Then we will not see lack but the possibility for growth, for love, for selflessness, for goodness. All of that not as something of our own making but as something which our God sees in us and gives to us in his Son Jesus. We are to see abundance: twelve baskets holding the pieces of our lives; a community made whole in the spirit living with all humility and gentleness, with patience and bearing with one another through love. The fullness of grace.
~ Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB
