Post-feast of the Exaltation of the Cross; Holy Great-Martyr Eustathius and those with him (276-82); Holy Martyrs and Confessors for the Faith, the Grand Prince Michael, and His Nobleman Theodore, Wonderworkers of Chernihiv (1245)
Read
Galatians 4:8-21; Mark 6:45-53
“[F]or they did not understand about the loaves” is one of the more troubling passages. One would think even if the disciples did get that they were in the presence of Jesus–someone who has the power over simple elements of food—that water, the mighty sea of Galilee, this body of water would be surely out of the league of control. Bread can fit in your hand, a body of water could swallow you alive and crush you if you are not careful. Notice however that the narrator speaks about “understanding.” The word for understanding in the Greek has the sense of putting things together. To “understand” in this context then means to hold different truths together in order to make an account for something. In the same way that a scientist builds theories based on available data, the disciples’ faith is due in part that they cannot hold together all these facts about Jesus and make a decision about him based out of that. The one who called them from their boats, broke bread in his hand to feed the multitudes, no stands with a powerful hand in control of the sea, his feet floating safely underfoot.
Our act of faith requires this same kind of memory, holding together these facts that we are in the relationship with the same God who has the power over house rolls and the hostile sea. If faith is “assurance of those things hoped for” our faith requires holding in view those things even in the most troubling times. The alternative is more than faithlessness, it is a reductive view of the world. An imagined reality of a world without God in it. In the midst of your wavy day: don’t forget the loaves.