Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. The Holy Martyrs Trophimus, Theophilus and those with them (284-305); Miracle of the Pochaiv Icon of the Mother of God against the Invaders (1675).
1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 14:14-22.
Read Matthew 14:14-22
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
How do you feel about crowds? Many people find them daunting. How about the never-ending demands of family meal planning? Combine both and you are beginning to approach the emotional center of the spiritual work Jesus is doing in his apostles in today’s gospel reading.
It might seem that the main work is the “feeding of the five thousand.” That is no small thing, the physical needs of the crowd and the revelation of Jesus as greater than Moses when God provided manna to Israel. The divine intention is highlighted by two things that point beyond the feeding.
First, “Jesus said, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’” Jesus put his apostles in a position that was impossible for them to get out of without him. The apostles didn’t provide for the crowd; they only gave what Jesus provided.
Second, Jesus didn’t only multiply their loaves and fishes. The apostles had an initial concern for the crowd, they just didn’t factor themselves into addressing it. Jesus did, though, and even more so when he left each of the twelve with a leftover basket full of the broken pieces in their hands. Jesus was pointing toward a multiplying of their capacity for compassion in an ongoing ministry of feeding (more than just physically) the “great throngs.”
The day-to-day responsibilities of life can sometimes be daunting. The call to go beyond them, to stretch ourselves in additional outreach to others on whom Jesus has compassion might be seen as someone else’s vocation. But Jesus can and does multiply whatever in our lives is the equivalent of “five loaves and two fish,” whatever we have to offer. What he said to the apostles, he says to us – “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”