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What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

05/02/14

John 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.”
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

This popular story is often told in an interesting fashion. Those that want to demystify the historical Christ will come up with crazy notions and say things like “the real miracle here is the miracle of sharing”. What??? What are they missing? Yes, this episode falls apart with out the initial gracious attitude of the boy with the basket, but it's not his miracle. It might be a virtue, but not the miracle.

This is the foreshadowing of Christ's Eucharistic reality. A little later we'll hear Jesus talk about the real food and real drink that his body and blood are. He will watch people who follow him walk away because they don't get it and we'll see his disciples stick by him through not fully understanding. They know he has the words of eternal life, and soon enough they'll get the Eucharistic elements.

As I said, the boy is instrumental. He has a meager offering. Who's that remind you of? What do we have that's really much different? None of us have an adequate offering. Not compared to the sacrifice of Christ. That shouldn't deter us. We need to forge ahead in our faith giving God all that we can regardless. We have a basket. It might be all we have and if so, all the better. Now give it to God. It's all you have. However, holding onto it means it's gone all too soon. Giving it to Jesus ensures that not only you get fed, but so do five thousand of your closest friends.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown