Friday of the Second Week after Easter, April 24, 2020

John 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

I hope you and your families are well!  The priests in the rectory at Blessed Sacrament are doing okay.  Each of us has our work to do.  We meet over the internet with couples preparing for marriage, sometimes we do spiritual direction that way, too.  We hear confessions in the church, offer our Masses, pray the breviary, and visit the hospital for last rites.  I answer questions and offer counsel through email (feel free to contact me: my address is mfcaime@cs.com).  I visit local monasteries and convents to hear the confessions of religious sisters.  These days I am also translating a document in Latin from Rome for a chancery office here, something I am asked to do occasionally.  Please pray that I don’t mess this up!

“When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.”  This strikes one as curious.  What does it mean that Jesus was “testing” Philip?  Was he hearing him?  It is an impossible question, after all.  But why would Jesus test Philip if he knew what Philip would answer?  And no matter what Philip answered, Jesus already knew what he was going to do, so why ask in the first place?  Is Jesus showing contempt for Philip?

Now, this word “testing” does not mean here that there is a right or wrong answer.  This is not a school exercise.  The ancient idea of “testing” had to do with finding out what was inside of something, usually by heating it.  It also could mean the process by which impurities were driven out of a thing, as in the case of metals.  Jesus, then, is “testing” Philip so that Philip might learn about himself.  Here is Philip’s answer: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.”  Philip answers with a practical observation, and, as far as it goes, it is a good one.  But it is the Lord who is asking, and the answer does not go far enough.  What Jesus is seeking here from Philip is an act of faith.  After his Resurrection, the Lord will test Peter regarding his love to the point of exasperation, and Peter will say, “Lord, you know all things, you know well that I love you!” (John 21, 17).  Philip, at this point in his faith, is not ready to make this kind of act, to say, “Lord, you know all things.  You know what you will do.”

When we are presented with a mundane problem, do we first try to understand it in a mundane way?  Most of the time we do, and then we try to solve the problem in a mundane way.  That is the way of a worldly person for whom God is not relevant, even if there is one.  The Christian approaches a problem very differently.  The Christian tries to see God’s will in the decisions he or she has to make, and then calls upon the Lord for guidance and the graces and virtues necessary to know what to do and to carry it out the actions that are required, prepared to adjust as needed in light of further discernment.  What the Christian does not do is to look at a situation from a selfish point of few (“What can I get out of it?”).  The Christian also does not adopt a utilitarian point of view (“The greatest good for the greatest number.”).  We try to take up a supernatural point of view, to put on the spiritual mind, as St. Paul would say, and to proceed to do God’s will as best as we understand it with our best effort.

Later, St. Philip will follow the Lord Jesus in the fullness of faith and love to his own cross, in Hierapolis, in Asia Minor.  He would have looked back at the simple beginnings of his faith in the Lord and marveled how it had grown.  Seeing this in himself would have enabled him to sympathize with the converts he made.  We ought also to see how our faith in Jesus has grown over the years, and to consider whether it is strong enough that we might also die for the Lord, if called upon.