23 April 2026 - drawn together

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.

On one level, people coming to Jesus was the result of curiosity leading to investigation. The crowds heard he was performing signs and came to see for themselves. But in order to understand the meaning of the signs needed the Father to draw them. In their fallen condition, with their intellects darkened by sin, an objective analysis of the data was only possible in theory, but not in fact. They needed the Father to lead them beyond the enclosed prison walls of their egos so as to become actually open to the truth, to become docile and teachable. Human pride would have preferred to solve such a momentous mystery without assistance. It pushed against the need for revelation. But the questions in view were too transcendent. They required revelation from those with firsthand expertise. Fortunately God had indicated through the prophet Isaiah that he himself would be our teacher.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.

The crowds might have thought that if they were going to be drawn by the Father and taught by God that there was not after all any great need for Jesus himself. But Jesus made it clear that it was not possible to do an end-run around him, to bypass him and go directly to the Father. No, the Father himself was only guiding insofar as he guided the hearts of the people to be open to Jesus. It was his delight that Jesus be the one to reveal him to the world.

We see the same logic in a different form later, with the request of Philip the Apostle (different from the deacon in our reading today from Acts) to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us". Jesus made it clear to Philip that he himself, by his very presence among them, was showing them the Father: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?" (see John 14:8-11).

The Father made Jesus the center of everything, such that it was belief in him that opened the door to eternal life. Believing in him had much greater power than the manna in the desert, since those who ate even that miraculous food ultimately perished. It did not free them from the curse incurred when our first parents chose to submit to the devil in the Garden of Eden. Such a thing could not be overcome by the manna of Moses. But Jesus did what no one else could when he gave his Flesh for the life of the world. He became bread that availed to eternal life when he offered himself as a saving sacrifice for the sins of the world. The truth of this did not stop at the level of the spiritual. At the Last Supper his Flesh was revealed as true food. It promised not merely immortality in some disembodied nonphysical state, but the resurrection of the body on the last day. It was, after all, the risen Flesh of Jesus that he gave to the world. When this risen Flesh was received by the faithful the seeds of their own future resurrection was planted and nourished.

Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.

We said above that the Father delighted to make Jesus the center of his plans for the world, and the focal point of his plan to reveal himself to humanity. An upshot to this is demonstrated by Philip in our first reading. The fact of the matter is that everything is connected to Jesus in some way, and everything can be used as the beginning of a conversation about him. He is the source of creation, the reason that science causes us to experience wonder. He is the ground of truth, the reasonability and rationality that makes knowledge of any kind possible. He is the desire of our hearts, the same desire obliquely expressed by artists and storytellers of various kinds throughout the ages. It has been said that all truth, properly understand, is Christian truth. So too all beauty. So too all goodness. When we understand this we will have a compelling case to make. People will listen not because we are imposing on them, but because we are speaking to something deep within their hearts. Many will respond as rapidly and fully as the Ethiopian eunuch.

the eunuch said, "Look, there is water.
What is to prevent my being baptized?"

Vertical Worship Band - Open Up The Heavens

 

22 April 2026 - second chances

Today's Readings
(Audio)

They had said, "Sir, give us this bread always". But Jesus answered, "I am the bread of life". It was not something they could take and run, nor something that could be had apart from receiving Jesus himself. But although they were interested in what Jesus had to say they were unwilling to embrace a belief deep enough to receive his gift of himself. If he was a prophet, even a great prophet, what sense would it make to consider him bread to be received? Was it not rather the word of God and the wisdom of God that were true bread, and the role of the prophet more to lead people to the feast? They did not realize that Jesus was himself both the word and the wisdom of God, far more than the words contained on the scrolls of the Scriptures. Yet there was definitely a different in order of magnitude of what Jesus promised as a result of receiving him, compared with what was possible through an unassisted reading the Scriptures.

whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

The centrality Jesus claimed for himself in satisfying the desires of the human race was breathtaking. Truly, only God himself could be the one to legitimately make such a claim. The crowds were willing to accept that Jesus might be a prophet, powerful and word and deed. But they would not go so far as to believe in him as their God. They had seen signs attesting to that reality. But they refused to open their hearts to him completely and understand.

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

Jesus did not mention the Father's plan in order to indict the crowds as among those not chosen by God, who would therefore be incapable of salvation. Rather, he wanted the crowds to let the Father work in their hearts so that he himself could draw them to Jesus. This was, after a fashion, a plea for them to open their hearts so that he could accept them, because he desired to do so. They probably had a hard time coming to one who appeared to be as human as any one of them. Humans typically expressed favoritism for one person over another. Even the very generous were not entirely equitable when they distributed blessings to others. They will often accept those who were similar and reject those who are too different or who seem to be in competition with them somehow. But Jesus held no such vested self-interest. There were in him none of the human failings that made people so reluctant to trust any normal person so completely. That very fact itself was further evidence that he was not merely a man like any other.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.

Jesus was entirely committed to his Father's plan that all people be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. Where as normally people would take a failure to respond to the generous offer  personally, Jesus' ego was not bruised by the response he received from the crowds. It was as though he said that he would not give up on them even if they seemed to have rejected him. His message was like a plea, but it was also like a challenge. It was like a plea in the sense that he tried to clear the deck of their preconceptions and invite them to consider him with fresh eyes. It was like a challenge, inviting them to consider that they might have had deeper semiconscious reasons for rejecting him of which only the Father could heal them. They no doubt liked to imagine themselves as savvy rational actors. But the spiritual forces fighting for their destiny were bigger than any of them on their own.

and I will not reject anyone who comes to me

After Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden they were cast out. But Jesus, who was himself the new fruit of the new Tree of Life, would not reject or cast out anyone who came to him. People were all living in various states of having been cast out and rejected by God from the initial state of paradise and immortality in Eden. But in Jesus they could have a second chance to choose to eat from the correct tree. The result, as he said, would indeed be life.

For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.

Much of the crowd who heard the discourse about the bread of life initially rejected Jesus. But this did not mean the Gospel had failed. Rather, initial rejection often yielded unexpected opportunities in the future. This was what happened in Acts after a severe persecution of the Church, which was itself now the mystical body of the one who was himself the bread of life.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

We ourselves have a role in bringing the bread of life to the world. We who have experienced the peace that only Jesus can give are meant to help bring that peace to the world who still does not know it. And on this journey we will experience rejection, as both Jesus and his disciples did before us. But we must learn to have the commitment of Jesus to the plan of the Father, enough so to extract our personal predilections and vested interests from the process. We must learn to be unfazed by rejection, as Jesus was, and as he also trained his disciples to be. Rejection, is, after all, never final, as long as this life shall last.

With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

There are many things that characterize our modern cities. But great joy is not often one that comes to mind. But it can be. It is meant to be. And it will be if we take Jesus at his word.

There was great joy in that city.

 

Kutless - All Who Are Thirsty

 

21 April 2026 - bread weak?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Jesus had tried to tell them that they had not understood the signs that he had already done. Now they seemed to be provoking him by suggesting that he needed to do a still greater sign that they could not ignore. Rather than merely feeding the crowd with loaves and wish he should do something even more obviously supernatural, similar to the manna that God gave to Israelites in the desert through Moses. Never mind how that generation quickly tired of the manna and grumbled against God longing for meat. They tried to refer to a related but apparently more supernatural miracle involving food in order to force Jesus to escalate what he himself was doing, if he could. But they did not even understand the context of their reference. They wanted to see if he was one greater than Moses, as though Moses had been the source of the heavenly bread. Was Jesus therefore a prophet with a capacity to feed the people more effectively than Moses? Clearly he was at least that. But he was so much more that the comparison was not altogether helpful.

“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

Jesus was more than a prophet and his mission was more than temporarily satisfying the bodily appetites of the people of his generation. He wasn't competing with Moses to see who could ask the Father for more and greater favors. He himself was the great blessing the Father desired to give to the world, a blessing which was only foreshadowed in all that had gone before. What God had given the people through Moses availed for a while as they journeyed through the desert. But it did not satisfy their longings at the deepest levels. It satisfied their physical hunger. But by their grumbling they proved that merely to eat and be satisfied was not their goal. They longed for more. And that more, though they didn't realize it, was Jesus himself.

So they said to Jesus,
“Sir, give us this bread always.” 
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Jesus himself was the gift of the Father that could sate the deepest spiritual longings of those who received him. More than merely filling the stomach for a day he could so satisfy those who received him that they no longer felt the need to grumble for new and different stimulation. He himself was the sign greater than which no sign was necessary or indeed possible. 

It is true that one taste of Jesus does not fulfill us all at once and forever after. But with him it is not a cycle of emptiness and feeding that never ends. Rather, it is constant upward growth to ever deeper levels of rest in him. Or it can be. We can still forget the magnitude of the gift we have been given and grumble for something else, we know not what. But when we bring our careful attention to even a taste of this true bread from heaven we recognize that there is nothing else like it, nor could there be.

The fullness of Spirit we experience when we consume the bread from heaven is what makes it possible for us to forsake even the good things of this world for the sake of Jesus, since we know that, however good they may be, he is far better. Rather than looking all around us at what we have lost and are in the process of losing we, like Stephen, look to heaven, and are drawn inexorable hence, as though by a powerful magnetic pull.

But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

This experience is not something that the world will or can understand on the surface. But at our core it is that for which everyone yearns. Remembering this helps us to be kind even in the face of overwhelming hostility. Again, Stephen is an excellent example.

Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”;
and when he said this, he fell asleep.

Vineyard Worship Featuring Kathryn Scott - Hungry (Falling On My Knees)

 

20 April 2026 - i saw the sign

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

They had seen the signs enough to recognize that extraordinary and possibly supernatural things were happening around the person of Jesus. But although this motivated them to pursue Jesus it did not sufficiently motivate them to pursue truth. The signs were meant to point to a greater reality. But the crowds were content to have signs endlessly multiplied to supply their wants, or at least to supply some interesting entertainment. And there is sometimes a similar challenge for modern disciples of Jesus. We too often content ourselves with stopping at the surface, or of only having interest in what we can get from God in order to fill the contours of a life we have otherwise planned without reference to him. We may treat Scriptures as mere historical curiosities with occasionally interesting anecdotes rather than a power before which our very souls and open and accountable. We may treat the Eucharistic gathering more like a social club, the songs of praise as designed to boost our mood rather than lift God up in exultation. We are all too able to receive miraculous blessings like healings and then get right back to business as usual, forgetting the giver of all good gifts until the next time we are in need.

Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.

A good way to interrupt our tendency to focus narrowly within the horizon of temporary existence is to ask ourselves whether what we are seeking can truly last. We may sometimes be overly invested in things that come with an eventual expiration date. It is true that most things in this mortal life will come to an end. And that does not mean that we are not permitted to find some enjoyment in suchlike. We are. But we are meant to invest our energy in this world with reference to heaven. We are meant to recognize that whatever good we find here exists in full and lasting measure only in God himself. When we know this we can receive the good things of earth with thanksgiving as they come to us. We can let them go without too much disappointment when they are taken. Like Job we learn to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (see Job 1:21). Then even the goodness of temporary things becomes signs that actually point us ever closer to God, rather than becoming a distraction and a hindrance.

How does the food that endures for eternal life differ from mere earthly loaves? It is something that can be built up indefinitely, without the normal fear of loss due to corruption, disintegration, and entropy that marks all created things. It is something with which ever increasing growth is possible, as with our ability to give and receive love. And as we receive bread of this kind we become more rooted in that which is eternal and transcendent. It is like the heavenly treasure that is impervious to rust and inaccessible to thieves. And by desiring such treasure and seeking it our hearts come even now to abide in heaven, where alone such treasure is found.

"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

The crowd assumed that to seek such treasure they must expend effort in many different directions, in an effort to complete all of the good works of God that might be expecting of them. But what they were could  do and what there own efforts could accomplish was not the correct place to begin. It is true that alone and unaided one could never do enough. But joined to Christ in faith we in some sense receive the same "seal" of approval as the Son himself, and actually "become the righteousness of God" (see Second Corinthians 5:21). It is on the basis of what Jesus does within us by faith that we hope to accomplish all the myriad of good works to which we are called. It is his power at work in us that makes them possible. As members of his body we need not be overwhelmed by the multitude of options, since we are a small part of a larger whole, connected through the nervous system of the Church to the guidance of the head, Jesus himself. How else could there ever have been a single martyr? If they felt like they had to do everything themselves they could never let themselves be killed with work still remaining. But as we see in our first reading, Stephen was able to do his part and entrust the rest to God, his face all the while "like the face of an angel", his heart at peace.

John Michael Talbot - I Am The Bread Of Life

 

19 April 2026 - in the breaking of bread

Today's Readings
(Audio)

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

Sometimes Jesus is near us, guiding us, and transforming us, before we realize that is is him. His action in meeting with Cleopas and his companion was subtle at first. He guided their conversation, making rehearse again the very difficult things that had taken place in recent days. But he didn't bring up the things that had occurred in order to re-traumatize these disciples. We can sense a playfulness in the tone with which he spoke, hinting that he himself was the only one who truly understand everything that had happened. Sometimes Jesus brings awareness to our past not in order to set in the stone as the foundation of our future but to re-contextualize it. Others might try to tell us what happened, as with the women who astounded them with talk of angels and the resurrection. But it is altogether possible that such talk is sometimes too distant from our own experience for us to be able to connect with it. Hence we sometimes need Jesus guiding us through our own experiences until we reach a point when we are open to revelation. It may not be obvious that it is him acting. But eventually we will reach the end of what we are able to say about things. We will say what we ourselves witnessed, what the women said, and what the disciples found. We will express that these results are not enough for us to maintain the hope we once had. But when we reach the limits of our perspective and come to the end of ourselves we sometimes able to open ourselves to a higher perspective. We may come to see that there is no way our point of view could be the whole story.

And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?"

In most normal circumstances when a stranger says such apparently unkind things to us we are likely to push back and argue. We might launch into an explanation for why what we saw looks nothing like any sort of prophetic fulfillment we can imagine. We might even try to tell the stranger how the darkness of Good Friday could not possibly be part of any plan. But when Jesus is the one with whom we are walking, and the one who chastises us for our foolishness, we can realize that yes, he is right, we have been foolish, and that the seeds of hope were there all along. We remember that Jesus didn't start by making this point, but first guided them to a place in their own hearts where they could receive it. It was something that he all but had to do incognito. Too much of his presence too soon might have only confused things and prevented their continued openness to his guidance. Giving them an objective explanation up front would not likely have been something they could connect with their own experience. 

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.

The second part of the plan of Jesus for these disciples was what must have been the greatest Scripture study of all times. We might have thought that his revelation of himself would come first and that he would then use Scripture to explain the details of the story. But Scripture was foundational for how he desired to reveal himself. It wasn't that they hadn't known Jesus in some sense before. But they hadn't yet truly known him as Lord. To know him in this way was only possible with some understanding of his context, from which they could know that he was the fulfillment of God's plan for humanity, and begin to make sense of the necessity of the Paschal mystery, both of his dying and his rising.

As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, "Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."

We might have thought that the Scriptural exegesis of Jesus would have been sufficient to accomplish his revealing himself to Cleopas and the other disciple. Certainly it contained all of the salient context. It demonstrated how the all of the word of God pointed directly to the Word of God who was himself opening the Scriptures to them. And yet, even with that, they weren't all the way there. They did not yet recognize him. But they knew that they wanted more, and so they asked him to stay.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.

Jesus leads us to the mass and opens the Scriptures to us. But it is in the Eucharist that we have the fullest revelation of who he is. He is genuinely present in the Scriptures through his Spirit, which is why we say that they are living and active. But in the Eucharist we taste and see the reality of the presence of Jesus himself. Everything else is meant to prepare us to be open to this revelation, to this gift of himself, that he becomes for us, in order that we may receive him. After that, it is no longer just knowledge. We ourselves have tasted the very Body and Blood of the risen Lord. Suddenly and unexpectedly the clouds hanging over us clear and we discover a new and profound sense of purpose. Where we were before heading in the wrong direction we now about face toward Jerusalem. Our one desire becomes conveying the transformative reality of the resurrection which we ourselves now know firsthand.

Shane and Shane - Psalm 34 (Taste And See)

 

18 April 2026 - small craft advisory

Today's Readings
(Audio)

We know from the other Gospels that it was at the word of Jesus that the disciples set out to cross the sea toward Capernaum. This must have made the storm that encountered all the more discouraging. Would they have blamed Jesus for failing to foresee it? Or, if they didn't expect that he could foresee it, would they have been discouraged that even the commands of Jesus could be compromised by unforeseen circumstances in the same way as any other plans? Either way, the danger they faced was obvious. And Jesus did not seem like a likely candidate to help, since it was because of him that they were out there. 

The disciples were like those men in Psalm 107 who "went down to the sea in ships" (see Psalm 107:23-30) and experienced "the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea", the raw, unconquerable power of God expressed in nature. The disciples themselves no doubt "reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end". But Jesus himself came to them, walking on the waves, as only the Lord himself could do. So the disciples responded as like the men in the psalm:

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress. 
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.

At first they were terrified because that was the normal human response to the revelation of divinity. It was another form of what Peter experienced when he said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (see Luke 5:8). The power and unpredictability of divinity was greater than any storm. Indeed, the existence of a storm was only possible because God allowed it. Thus the disciples were uncertain that they were any safer in the immediate presence of the Lord than they were in the storm. That is, they were uncertain until he spoke, saying "It is I. Do not be afraid". His greeting cast out the fear from their hearts, and his presence stilled the wind and the waves around them. He was not, finally a God of confusion or of chaos but of peace (see First Corinthians 14:33). Yet he was not a force that could be tamed. They wanted to take him into the boat with them, to themselves manipulate the forces of divinity for their own purposes. No doubt they thought they wouldn't have to worry about the weather if he was with them. But this proved both impossible and unnecessary. Somehow it was as though the space between them and their destination was shortened such that "the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading". This was just as the psalm described:

Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.

When it comes to the signs of Jesus we tend to prefer those like the multiplication of the loaves which satisfy our human needs and desires. But signs like the calming of the storm at the sea do more to reveal the identity of Jesus to us than could any miracle involving satiating our appetites. We would prefer it if we could come to fully realize the reality of the divinity of Jesus without having to experience it from within storms of trials and difficult circumstances. We like to imagine that we would believe it if he simply used his power to keep us always and everywhere safe from such distress. But the fact of the matter is that he permitted and indeed caused his disciples to experience that storm for the precise purpose of revealing that he was a power greater than the wind and the waves, greater even than the chaos of the tohu wa-bohu of the creation narrative in Genesis. It was only from that perspective that they could truly understand that they were in fact dealing with one who was above all of the forces of the creation, that those forces themselves obeyed him.

From our own trials we are meant to learn both that God is beyond are control but also that he is good and on our side. He does not often lead us by the paths we would probably choose for ourselves. But he does always, if allow him, lead us to the haven we desire.

See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.

Vineyard Worship - I Stand In Awe

 

17 April 2026 - bring it to Jesus

Today's Readings
(Audio)

A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.

The crowds had a shallow interest in Jesus. They were seeking entertainment more than truth. As we will see, they would be content with an infinitely available earthly bread, and did not know how much better a heavenly food could satisfy them. Noticing the supernatural signs that accompanied Jesus without reading more deeply into the reason for the signs caused the people to attempt to drag Jesus down to the level of an earthly king, rather than allowing themselves to be elevated to participation in a heavenly Kingdom. But this was a problem uniquely affecting the spectators. The disciples who were directly involved had a different set of challenges before them.

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.

Apparently Jesus sometimes allows us to deal with questions that don't have good earthly answers in order that we might respond by placing our trust in him. He allows thoughts about our own insufficiency to arise within us so that we can turn to him in our need. He does not keep the questions from arising in our hearts. But does happily supply us with the answers.

Philip answered him,
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."

Jesus did not immediately and completely resolve the issue, since he wanted to lead his disciples deeper into faith and the circle of grace. Philip hadn't completely surrendered to despair. He had expressed the apparent impossibility of rising to meet the circumstances, but he said so in a way that suggested he may have been open to having his viewpoint corrected. Such a starter place is better than nothing. We tell the Lord that things seem hopeless, at least from our perspective, in order that he can tell us why we're wrong.

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 wanted his disciples to do what they could do so that he could then step in and do what was beyond them. But he was always the necessary center of the action. The loaves and fish wouldn't have been worth mentioning in a normal context. Only in the sense of, 'Maybe Jesus can somehow make use of these', did it make sense to refer to them.

Feeding the crowd was a task that was well beyond what the disciples could accomplish utilizing their own abilities and resources. Normally when we hit a wall like that we expect that if it is to happen at all Jesus will step in and do the whole thing for us without us. But it turns out that he often does something different, something which requires more trust on our part. He asks us to be involved, including our own insufficient ideas and resources in his ultimate supernatural solution. He has, of course, no need of us. But he desires us to entrust ourselves to him so completely as to be actually involved in spite of our insecurities. 

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.

Jesus became for the crowd the good shepherd who made them to recline in green pastures in order to set a table before them. His heart was moved with compassion for the crowd, shallow and superficial though they were. After all, they were like sheep without a shepherd. They had until then lacked leadership that could guide them to a deeper life. But the way he chose to show his mercy was through the sheep of his flock that were already close to him, who had already begun to learn to hear his voice. Thus, we shouldn't be surprised when he wants show his mercy to others through us, even though we ourselves have no more than five loaves in two fish in the grand scheme of things.

When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."

There is an obvious reference to the Eucharist in the feeding of the five thousand. Though John did not include the Institution Narrative in his Gospel he was obviously familiar with it, and used the same language in his description of what Jesus did here. He alluded to it obliquely by its absence. Thus, gathering the fragments had a particular significance for the consecrated bread, that was no longer ordinary, and ought not be wasted. But it has significance for us as well, for the times when Jesus does intervene in our own lives and use us as agents of his grace. Such events do happen first for the people he desires to bless, but also for sake of the transformative effects that they are meant to have on the people through whom grace is given. Yet this latter is less obvious. We are tempted mostly to remember the difficulty and the effort of being involved. We must learn to treasure the words and actions of Jesus in our hearts, as Mary did, if we are not to take them for granted. We see this in the extreme from the disciples who were persecuted by the Sanhedrin in our reading from Acts:

So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,
rejoicing that they had been found worthy
to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.
And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes,
they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus.

Peter Furler - Psalm 23