You give them something to eat - 3 August 2014 Sunday Gospel Reflection

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Eighteenth Sunday of the Year A

3 August 2014

Matthew 14: 13-21

You give them something to eat 

 Jesus is busy healing those sick and malnourished people brought to him from all over. He does so, according to the evangelist, because their suffering moves him deeply. Meanwhile, his disciples notice that it is getting very late. Their dialogue with Jesus allows us to enter deeper into the profound significance of the episode wrongly called “the multiplication of loaves”. 

 The disciples make Jesus a realistic and reasonable proposal: “Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Jesus has already given them the attention they needed. Now let each one return to his/her village and buy themselves something to eat according to their resources and possibilities.

 The reaction of Jesus is surprising: “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” Hunger is too serious a problem to allow us to wash our hands of each other and let people solve their own problem as best they can in their own villages. It is not the time to drift apart, but to get together closely more than ever to share all there is with one another without excluding anyone.

 The disciples make him realize that there are only five loaves and two fishes. It does not matter. The little there is suffices when people share generously. Jesus orders all to be seated on the ground to celebrate a grand meal. Suddenly everything changes. Those who were about to separate from each other to satisfy their hunger in their own village, feel themselves united around Jesus to share the little they have. This is how Jesus wishes to see the human community.

 What happens to the loaves and the fish in the hands of Jesus? He does not “multiply” them. First he praises and thanks God; that nourishment comes from God - it belongs to all. Then he keeps breaking them and giving them to his disciples. These in turn keep giving them to the people. The bread and the fish have been passed on from one to another. Thus they have been able to satisfy their hunger – all of them.

 The archbishop of Tanger has raised his voice once more to remind us that “the suffering of thousands of men, women and children who, left to their fate or persecuted by governments and abandoned to the enslaving power of usury of mafias, beg, survive, suffer and die on emigration routes.”

 Instead of joining forces to eradicate hunger in the world from its roots, all that occurs to us is to enclose ourselves in our “selfish well being” by raising barriers ever more degrading and murderous. In the name of which God do we see them off to drown in their misery? Where can we find the followers of Jesus? When do we hear in our Eucharistic celebrations the cry of Jesus: “You give them to eat”?

Translated by Rev. Fr. Valentine de Souza