GOSPEL John 6:1-15
Translated from a
homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don Fabio’s
reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .
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Reflection)
Jesus went off to the other side of
the Sea of Galilee or of Tiberias and a large crowd followed him, impressed by
the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down
there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.
Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds
approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people
to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was
going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to
give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s
brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish;
but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit
down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat
down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who
were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was
wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the
pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and
filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley
loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is
the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who could see they were
about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the
hills by himself.
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord
Jesus Christ
Kieran’s summary . . . The multiplication
of the loaves and fishes occurs at the time of Passover and just after Jesus
crosses the sea. These references to the great events in Jewish history are no
coincidence. The multiplication of the loaves is an event of similar significance.
Jesus enters into a dialogue with the disciples regarding what they should do
about feeding such a large crowd. He knows what he intends to do, but he wants
the disciples to come to the realisation that they are up against the wall of
human limitations. Too often, when we find ourselves in difficult situations,
we throw up our hands and say “There is nothing that I can do here”. This is a
mediocre response. The Church is not the place of mediocre responses because we
do not merely talk about what is possible. Instead we speak about what is
impossible, what is extraordinary. Our sacramental life involves the eruption of
God into our existence. If the
church confined itself solely to what is possible, then it would not speak of
the resurrection. It would confine itself (as unfortunately sometimes it does)
to speak of a set of ethical principles. Instead, in the context of the Eucharistic
celebration where the bread becomes Christ, we point to a reality that goes
beyond what we can accomplish with our good intentions. If our marriages, our
priestly vocations, our ecclesial lives are measured solely in terms of our own
capacities, then these efforts are sure to fail because they do not leave space
for the power of God. The Gospel
recounts how a boy gives the little he has, an amount that is clearly insufficient,
but he places it into the hands of Christ. When we try to keep things in our
own hands they remain mediocre! We need someone who will offer to the Father
the five loaves and two fishes. We need to cease being the manager of things
and instead become the deliverer of things into the hands of the Lord. If we
let go of the steering wheel and hand over to God all that we are, then we will
see the meaning of true abundance! If things are as small as we are, then they
will indeed be disappointing, but if we consign them into the hands of God,
then the sea opens before us, and we experience Easter.
The multiplication of loaves
occurs at the time of Passover and just after Jesus crosses the se. This evokes
the most important event in Jewish history, the exodus from Egypt and the
crossing of the Red Sea.
The first reading presents the account
of the multiplication of barley loaves by the prophet Elisha. The prophet’s
servant has only twenty loaves to be distributed among one hundred men, but the
Lord is able to produce great abundance from this small offering. The reading
is a perfect key for approaching this Sunday’s Gospel – the multiplication of
the loaves and fishes in Chapter 6 of St John’s account. This description of
events has much in common with the accounts presented by the other Gospels, but
there are two peculiarities of St John’s version. Firstly, John tells us that
it is around the time of the Passover and that they go to the other side of the
sea. Passover and the crossing of the sea are highly significant references
that should not be ignored. The event of the multiplication of the loaves is
placed in this very special context. The Passover (with the memory of the
subsequent of the Red Sea) is the feast of feasts for the Jews.
Jesu wants to disciples to see
that they are confronted by a problem that cannot be solved by human means
Secondly, John’s description of the
multiplication of the loaves has a different approach to that of the Synoptic
Gospels. In the Synoptics, the disciples are the ones who present the
problematic situation to Jesus. “Let’s disperse this crowd. They are hungry. We
have nothing to give them.” In John’s version, however, it is Jesus who takes
the initiative. Before anything happens, he himself knows exactly what he is
going to do. He enters into a dialogue with the disciples with the intention of
teaching them. Firstly, he asks Philip where they are going to find bread for
all of these people. Philip is a Greek name, and, as such, represents the world
of human intellect and the capacity of reason to resolve problematic
situations. Philip, true to his name, measures the situation rationally and
declares that two hundred denarii would not be sufficient to buy bread for
everyone. Andrew points out that a boy in the crowd had five barley loaves and two
fishes, but then - with a collapse of enthusiasm – remarks that this is of no
use for such a great crowd of people. This is exactly the same phrased used by
the servant of Elisha in the first reading and it is exactly hear that Jesus
wants to bring the disciples: to measure themselves against that which is
greater than them, that wall which marks our limits, that point which sometimes
we even seek to arrive at.
When we are in a difficult
situation, we can throw up our hands and say that there is nothing to be done,
or we can believe in the power of God to work marvels in our lives
Often, when we arrive at this limit, we
feel that our problems are no longer our responsibility. When things get to
this stage, we say, “In any case I am unable to solve this problem. There is
nothing I can do here”. Phrases like these are the mark of a mediocre response,
the mark of one who wishes to abdicate responsibility for the situation
confronting him. Sure, such responses are natural given the situation, but when
we are talking about the Lord Jesus, are we talking
merely about what is possible or are we talking about what is extraordinary? Is
our attitude as Christians content to limit itself to what is possible? Do we
not celebrate in the sacraments the eruption of God among us? Our departure
point is our identity as children of God and our call to enter into a life that
has been transformed by the incarnation of God made man. We are the people of
the extraordinary, the people of the impossible, the people of the glory of God
that erupts into human life! The events of this Gospel occur at Passover time,
the time when God manifests himself. If the church confined itself solely to
what is possible, then it would not speak of the resurrection. It could confine
itself (as unfortunately sometimes it does) to speak of a set of ethical
principles. Instead, in the context of the Eucharistic celebration where the
bread becomes Christ, we point to a reality that goes beyond what we can accomplish
with our good intentions. We point to those things which, by the grace of God,
manifest the divine to the world. If our marriages, our priestly vocations, our
ecclesial lives are measured solely in terms of our own capacities, then these
efforts are sure to fail because they do not leave space for the power of God.
If we hand what little we have
and are over to the Lord, then we will see how he can bring about abundance
The Gospel recounts how a boy gives the
little he has, an amount that is clearly insufficient, but he places it into the
hands of Christ. Often we are in the community of the Church, in marriages, in
the religious life, in pastoral work with the youth, and we find that things
fail or come up short because we are trying to control things with our own
hands. It is for that very reason that things are mediocre! We need someone who
will offer to the Father the five loaves and two fishes. We need to empty our
pockets into the hands of Christ. We need to cease being the manager of things
and instead become the deliverer of things into the hands of the Lord. We must
entrust, abandon things into the hands of the Father so that Christ will become
the director of how things proceed. If we let go of the steering wheel and hand
over to God all that we are, then we will see the meaning of true abundance! If
things are as small as we are, then they will indeed be disappointing, but if
we consign them into the hands of God, then surprises and solutions appear. The
sea opens before us, we experience Easter, we see life being snatched out of
the hands of death, we see what is little become great, sparsity becoming
abundance.
