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Gospel: Mark 6: 34-44
When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go
to the surrounding farms and villages
and buy themselves something to eat.”
He said to them in reply,
“Give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food
and give it to them to eat?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they had found out they said,
“Five loaves and two fish.”
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.
Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples
to set before the people;
he also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments
and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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The multiplication of the loaves is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. Why did it make such an impression upon the disciples?
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The answer that can be lengthy – too much for a short, morning reflection! Allow me to offer just one reason why.
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The multiplication of the loaves reveals two different reactions to human need.
When the disciples see the large crowd and realize how many are tired and hungry, they want to dismiss them. “Send them away,” they say to Jesus.
How many in our world have that same type of attitude?
They see suffering happening all around them – long food lines, empty bank accounts, victims of hatred – and like the disciples, they say, “Send them away.”
Let someone else worry about them.
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Jesus, on the other hand, sees the tired and hungry crowd and decides to feed them.
This is the Christian attitude. We see the same suffering happening around us as others, but we act. We take what little we have – five loaves and two fish – and start feeding the crowds.
Somehow, miraculously, we accomplish more than we ever thought possible.
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If everyone had a Christian attitude, if everyone pitched in to solving the world’s problems, then we’d not only feed five thousand for a day; we’d feed them for a lifetime.
Who, then, is one person I can feed today, either with bread or with love?
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“Give them some food yourselves,” Jesus says.
It’s what Christians do.
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(This picture was taken from the church built upon the site where Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish).