The feeding of Five Thousand people

July 29, 2018Sunday, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: 2 Kings 4:42–44 2nd Reading: Eph 4:1–6 Gospel: Jn 6:1–15

Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, near Tiberias, and large crowds followed him because of the miraculous signs they saw when he healed the sick. So he went up into the hills and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.Then lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw the crowds that were coming to him and said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread so that these people may eat?” He said this to test Philip, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred silver coins would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece.”Then one of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass there so the people, about five thousand men, sat down to rest. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish and gave them as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten enough, he told his disciples, “Gather up the pieces left over, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with bread (…). When the people saw this sign that Jesus had just given, they said, “This is really the Prophet, he who is to come into the world.” Jesus realized that they would come and take him by force to make him king; so he fled to the hills by himself.

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)

Interpretations regarding the miraculous nature of the multiplication of the loaves run to opposite extremes. One side maintains the ‘warehouse effect’ denying that any miraculous multiplication happened at all. Proponents suggest that the people, seeing the five loaves passed around, began taking out their own secret provisions. This theory undermines Jesus’ power over bread. But this disturbs our faith in the Eucharist. The other side maintains the magical multiplication of loaves. But this would have reduced Jesus to a mere magician.

We maintain that a miracle was involved, not in the multiplication of the loaves but in the feeding of the five thousand. There were five and only five loaves the people shared among themselves. How they maintained generosity despite apparent scarcity was the miracle. What Jesus did brings out best the confluence of God’s abundance and the peoples’ concern for one another. —(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M . Email: [email protected].

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