Tuesday after Epiphany, January 7, 2025

Mark 6, 34-44

When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.

The fact that this miracle is recounted by all four of the Evangelists tells us of its significance for the first followers of Jesus.  Now, each of the Apostles wrote for a particular audience: Matthew to the Galilean Christians, Mark to the Gentile Christians of Rome, Luke to the Gentile Christians of Syria, and John, for either the Jewish Christians of Judea or the Gentile Christians of Asia Minor (the question is an open one).  The Evangelists all see the necessity of their audiences to know this miracle.  And it is the only one they all recount.  They saw it as a pivotal point in the Lord’s ministry, a sign that summed up who the Lord was and what he had come to do.

St. John tells us Jesus performed this work near the time of the Pasch, that is, a year before the Lord laid down his life for us on the Cross.  His mention of this connects the two events: the feeding of the people with earthly food and the with heavenly food one day at the Wedding Feast in heaven.

“It is already very late.”  Luke 9, 12 tells us that that the day was beginning to decline.  This indicates the mid-afternoon, so the Lord had taught them past the time when it was customary to eat the main meal of the day, at mid-day.  He does not force the people to stay and listen to him; they remain of their own accord, amazed at how “he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees” (Matthew 7, 29).  The people listen despite the urging of their bodies to eat because, for the first time in their lives, their souls are being fed.  We can understand this lateness in another way: that the Son of God had come in the last age of the world to preach and to feed those who believe in him and who have persevered in their faith with his Body.

“Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”  The Apostles here act as tempters, as though the people could find what only Jesus can give them from idols, false prophets, and worldly men.  “Give them some food yourselves.”  The Lord reminds the Apostles of their true role.  Where can they obtain food but from the Lord himself?  But like Peter on the sea (cf. Matthew 14, 30), their faith falters and he must rescue them.

“Five loaves and two fish.”  The Lord has them take stock of their supplies.  They see that they do not suffice even for themselves.  The Lord intervenes and uses what they have on hand to feed the crowd.  The Lord knows our own shortcomings and weaknesses better than we do and takes what we do offer him and completes it.  Indeed, he over-completes it so that not only does it suffice, but there is plenty left over, more than what he began with.  This tells us that we cannot let our own awareness of our lack of skill or resources prevent us from doing his will.  He takes what we offer him and he does the rest.  He takes a young shepherds boy and makes him the king of Israel.  He takes a practically anonymous woman in an insignificant town and makes her the Mother of God.  He takes an animal’s trough and an instrument of torture and makes them divine thrones.  He chooses Simon the fisherman and not Aristotle for his Apostle.  He takes you and me and makes us members of his Body and heirs to eternal bliss.