Feeding of the Five Thousand

Today's gospel reading was Matthew 14:13-21,  The Return of the Twelve and the Feeding of the Five Thousand.  As I sat down this morning to read the day's scripture with my kids, one of them commented that she had heard this story many times before.  Like her, I had heard this gospel passage many times throughout my life.  But, as I wrote in my first post, it never ceases to amaze me how with any given reading, be it the first time or the thousandth time I've read it, I can take something completely new away from the same piece of scripture.  To me this is confirmation that the words in the bible are the Living Word of God; truly divinely inspired.  They speak to me through different seasons of my life and flow through my ears to my heart where the Holy Spirit ignites a recognition of what my soul needs to hear at that time.

In the preceding passage to verses 13-21 of Matthew 14, Herod has just ordered John the Baptist beheaded in prison.  John's disciples came to tell Jesus of his death.  In this context Jesus sets off in a boat to a deserted place to be alone.  I can only imagine the distress and sadness that Jesus is feeling at hearing that his beloved cousin is dead.  Not only is he a member of Jesus' family but he is a man of great influence over the people, regarded as a prophet.  He probably just wants a few moments to himself to recollect and pray.  But the crowds won't let him have his time alone.  They follow him and beg him for more of himself.  Jesus gives them what they ask for.  I am so moved by his love for the people in the crowds.  At such a moment I would have probably lost my patience and yelled at them to leave me alone for just five minutes peace.  In fact, I know I have yelled this very thing many times to my children.  My capacity for giving is finite.  I give all day long at work, I give to my kids when I walk in the door and by the end of the day I feel I have nothing left to give.  I just want to be left alone.  I find no time for volunteering anymore.  I don't even always find time to pray or read His Word.  Christ shows us here his inexhaustible fountain of giving and love.  It challenges us to give in the same way:  To give until it hurts.

But even then Jesus isn't done giving in this gospel story.  After he has spent his day ministering to these crowds he tells his disciples not to send them away hungry.  The disciples can't imagine how they can feed five thousand men and thousands more women and children with what they have.  Christ shows us here that he will take whatever you have to offer and multiply it by thousands making it enough.  How often do we think, "What difference can I make in this world?  I am one person and there are so many issues facing us." Jesus shows us that even if the sum of your treasure is one cent, he will take that cent and turn it into to millions.  We can't imagine how and we don't have to.  All we need is faith.  The example of our faith and charity may inspire a chain reaction of a million others to do the same.

Ultimately, when Christ had nothing left to give he gave his own body.  He allowed it to be broken into a billion pieces that two thousand years later are still feeding millions of us around the world every day.   Just as the crowds in the gospel story sought Christ out, we come to Him in the Mass and ask for Him to minister to us.  We soak up His Word and we still want more.  We want to be fed with life sustaining bread before we go.  And He gives it to us.  In the Eucharist He divides His one body into enough to feed five thousand times five thousand, over and over again.  And we can never get enough.