Gospel: Mt 14:13-21
At that time, when Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he went away in a boat to a deserted place to be alone. As soon as the people heard of it, they left the cities and followed him on foot. When he disembarked, Jesus saw a large crowd and, taking pity on them, he healed the sick. When evening came, the disciples came to him and said, «This is a deserted place, and it is getting late; send the crowd away so that they may go to the cities and buy food.» But Jesus said to them, «You need not go away; feed them yourselves.» They answered, «Here we have only five loaves and two fish.» «Bring them here to me,» he said to them. And when he had commanded the crowd to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, gave them to his disciples, and they distributed them among the crowd. They all ate their fill, and with the leftover pieces twelve baskets were filled. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting the women and children.
Fruit: Give God my two loaves and five fish so that he may multiply them and so that I may bear witness to his love.
Guidelines for reflection
Our Lord performs a miracle that is recorded in the Gospel, the multiplication of five loaves and two fish to feed a thousand people. It is undoubtedly a prefiguration of the Eucharist where He Himself multiplies in the species of bread and wine to feed us and to feed all generations. A multiplication that is perpetuated in time. The miracle can also happen in us if we allow our bread and fish, placed in God's hands, to multiply them for the good of others.
Jesus sees the crowd and has compassion on them.
The heart of Jesus is compassionate and merciful. In the face of human misery, he is always compassionate and seeks all the means at his disposal to satisfy the most essential needs of the people: to satisfy hunger, to heal the sick, to encourage the sad. Compassion is proper to magnanimous hearts and is far from the selfish heart. A selfish heart looks only to itself, and not to others. We see it today in the face of the enormous need for civil cooperation to help contain a pandemic. A magnanimous heart joins in, supports, pushes aside false news from “experts” who are not. A magnanimous heart, like that of Jesus, sees the need of the multitude and sympathizes (“suffers with”), helps, supports without a second thought. Where are we?
2. The five loaves and two fish
It is the means to satisfy hunger that counts. Two fish and five loaves of bread are enough for Jesus. Do we have faith in Him? How can He produce the miracle of multiplying blessings in our lives with the few resources at our disposal? In the whole Gospel, we do not see that Jesus uses great, unattainable, unobtainable means to produce a miracle. He uses mud and spittle to cure blindness, he lays his hands to heal illnesses, with the power of prayer (and fasting) he casts out demons. With loaves and fishes he feeds a multitude. God is not going to ask us for a large amount of means to bless us, to produce the miracle of changing our lives for the better. What are my two fish and five loaves? Perhaps my mere willingness to cooperate with Him, perhaps my illusion to do great things for Him, perhaps my smallness in the face of a mission that transcends me. But we have to give Him everything, without holding back, all that we are, including our insecurities, uncertainties, fears, failures. EVERYTHING. He will work the miracle.
3. Feed them yourself
We give God our gifts, our five loaves and two fish, He blesses them, He multiplies them, but He asks us to “feed” the multitude. He wants to need us to reach out to others, a great daily mission! The gifts that God gives us, the multiplication of blessings, are not for merely personal use but to give, to spread, to give to others. How will it reach others if we hide his grace in our groups, associations, movements, and do not transmit it to others? He already produced the miracle, what are we going to do?
Purpose: To analyze and concretize how to transmit God's blessings, which He offers us daily, to others, perhaps in the virtual media available to us.
Listen also to our monthly online retreat.
You may be interested in: I give you my five loaves and two fishes.
