Saturday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 11, 2023

Mark 8, 1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

The Gospels relate two miraculous feedings of crowds.  The first, of five thousand men, plus the women and children, took place near Bethsaida, near the Sea of Galilee.  In the Gospel of St. Mark, we find this in Mark 6, 30-44.  The location for the feeding of the four thousand is not given.  Because St. Mark places this feeding just after the Lord’s healing of the deaf-mute in the region of the Decapolis, some scholars say that this feeding was of Gentiles, not Jews.  This is an interesting idea, but without a direct statement to this by the Evangelist, there is no reason to think so.  For one thing, Mark omits the location of the Lord’s preaching and miracles a number of times as though he does not think it necessary for us to know.  He is not St. Luke or St. John, who are very careful with locations and sequences of events.  His use of “in those days” is so general that he could mean any time around the events he has previously related.  It is as though he just slips this account in.

“Jesus summoned the disciples.”  That is, his Apostles.  After preaching for some time, he stopped.  He may have stopped a number of times during the course of a day’s preaching in order to allow the crowd to discuss and absorb some word of his.  Here, he also “summons” his Apostles, as though they had been dispersed.  “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.”  Because of the manner in which the Jews count the day — from sunset to sunset rather than from midnight to midnight, as we do — this could mean part of one day, say, after the midday meal, then a whole day, and then part of the next day, say, to the midday meal.  This seems right because it would make sense for the Lord to feed them at the accustomed time of the main meal of the day, which was eaten at midday.  Though this is a long time for us modern folks to go without food, the ancient Jews were used to periods of hard fasting.  Still, the people in the crowd would have grown hungry by then.  “If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.”  This line reveals that Jesus knew these people and where they were from, though he had never set his (human) eyes upon them before.  His knowledge of them and his concern for them is very touching.

“Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”  it is interesting that the Apostles thought to respond at all.  We know from St. John that in the feeding of the five thousand, the Lord first asked the disciples to feed the people, but after rummaging around, all they could find was a few fish and loaves carried in a basket by a boy.  Curiously, the Apostles do not think to suggest to Jesus that he produce food for the people as he had before.  This may be because some time had elapsed since the first feeding and they simply had forgotten what he had done then, so overwhelmed were they with all else that he had done.  Or they may have not seen anyone like the boy with his little store of food, and all the food available was what they themselves had, and they did not want to part from that, little as it was.  

“ ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They replied, ‘Seven.’ ”  The Apostles customarily carried provisions with them, as we see from Matthew 16, 5, where the Evangelist remarks that they had forgotten on this occasion to bring bread with them.  “He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.”  He did this so that they could eat.  They had stood while he had taught them, as was customary at the time.  “Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.”  Jesus thanked his Father for the little food that was then available.  This blessings or thanksgiving was short.  The one for bread used by Jews today, which seems very old, runs: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”  This prayer could also be used for all other types of food.  According to the oral traditions of the Jews collected in the Talmud, the term “breaking bread” refers to the prayer itself, not necessarily to a physical breaking of the bread.  Now, the Lord may have introduced the physical breaking of the bread to the Apostles to prepare them for his Sacrifice.  They would have understood this when he took the bread st the Last Supper, physically broke it, and said, “This is my Body which will be given up for you”.  The Lord introducing this practice would also explain how the disciples on their way to Emmaus recognized the risen Christ in the breaking of the bread (cf. Luke 24, 35).  Otherwise it is hard to see how the recitation of such a short prayer could have revealed him to them.

“They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.”  The fish are mentioned separately because a particular blessing was reserved for fish that was to be eaten.

“They ate and were satisfied.”  That is, they took the bread and fish that was provided for them as though they were indigent, and they took it from the hands of the Apostles at the Lord’s direction.  They were fed by him.  This is a sign of his feeding them his teaching, and also of the grace with which he would fill his followers in the future — it would super-abound, just as there was much food left over after the people had eaten the Lord’s bread and fish.  “He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.”  Typically after the midday meal, workers and their families slept.  This was a fitting use of the time when the day was at its hottest anyway.  The Lord dismissed the people so that they can go home and do this.  Those from far away could get a good start on their return before sunset.  

“Dalmanutha.”  This name only crops up once in Greek literature, and it is not certain where this place was.  It would seem to be an Aramaic name.  Conjecture has it near Magdala, on the Sea of Galilee.

As the Lord has broken the bread of his Body and offered it for our salvation, we ought to be eager to offer him our lives in thanksgiving for his Sacrifice.