26 July 2015 - some left over

Our lack is resources often stop us from making efforts at building the kingdom. Maybe we only see twenty barley loaves to feed one hundred people. Or maybe there are only five loaves and two fish for five thousand. Either way, our resources aren't going to cut it. Yet it is precisely for these which we are asked.

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.

But just as with Philip and just as with the man from Baal-shalishah it doesn't ultimately come down to our own resources. We are forced to confront our limits because we are called to bring forth our loves and fishes and spite of the fact that these are insufficient.

“How can I set this before a hundred people?” 
Elisha insisted, “Give it to the people to eat.” 
“For thus says the LORD,
‘They shall eat and there shall be some left over.’” 

We bring what we have even though it is comically insufficient. And yet the LORD is able to take it and feed the multitude. His hand can take what we have and feed the multitudes. When our resources are in his hands they are sufficient for him to answer all our needs.

As we approach the Eucharist our ability to appreciate and understand what we receive is comically limited. Let us place that in his hands together with humble bread and wine. Let us trust that he can transform these earthly resources to give us that which he truly desires to give.

you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

When we give Jesus all that we are we receive so much more than we can ask or even imagine (cf. Eph. 3:20). There is no proportion between the offering and the blessing. Yet if the boy didn't tentatively offer his loaves and fishes the crowd would go hungry. If we don't offer Jesus our hearts we too will go spiritually hungry. 

We are invited to the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace which only Jesus can provide. It is unity with our brothers, with Jesus himself, and with the Father "who is over all and through all and in all." When we offer ourselves to him he unites us even more completely to him so that he might be all in all (cf. 1 Cor. 15:28).

When we feel overwhelmed let us remember how close he is to us.

The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.

When God calls us out into the deep and we feel we don't have enough strength or intelligence or skill to go let us hear him speak this word: "They shall eat and there shall be some left over."