7 August 2017 - not enough is enough

Today's Readings

Where can I get meat to give to all this people?
For they are crying to me,
'Give us meat for our food.'

When we deal with difficult people, do we focus on the difficulty, or do we focus on God? Moses focuses on the difficulty.

If this is the way you will deal with me,
then please do me the favor of killing me at once,
so that I need no longer face this distress.

At first the disciples focus more on the situation than on Jesus.

"This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves."

Like Moses, the disciples don't have the resources to give the people what they desire. But that is exactly what Jesus asks them to do.

He said to them, "There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves."

Both Moses and disciples learn that the limitations of circumstances do not limit God. Even when it seems like people are asking the impossible of us we need to consider more what God wants to give than what we have to offer. It is emphatically true that we usually have no more than a few loaves and fishes. But this has never been a limitation for God.

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over–
twelve wicker baskets full.

There are leftovers. This shows us that with God we always have more than we need. It isn't a matter of just barely having enough, and always worrying that we'll come up short. The LORD has an abundance. Our desires are scattered across a myriad of more and less worthy objects. The LORD wants to will us with the bread from heaven. He gives the twelve wicker baskets to the Church he founds on the twelve apostles. If we turn to him to be fed our desire will always be met. We eat and are satisfied.

While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.