He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."
Read at the superficial level, the story of the feeding of the five thousand was about a miracle Jesus performed for the crowds. It demonstrated his compassion and sympathy for their human needs, and a desire that they not have to leave his presence to address those needs. He knew that it was already getting late and that it would be difficult for them to fend for themselves. He did not want to send away so many who were benefiting from his teaching and his healing power. And the way he thought to rectify this problem demonstrated the way that he wanted his disciples to share his compassion and to be involved in addressing the needs of his flock. He did so by taking what they had, which was far too little for so large a crowd, and multiplying it, making it more than sufficient, such that there were twelve baskets left over.
Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,
and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing over them, broke them,
and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
If, however, we only read this story at a superficial level we will miss its deeper spiritual meaning. Given that there isn't an ongoing multiplication of physical bread in our age, many of the lessons would then seem inapplicable. But when we see this story as a preparation for the gift of the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist there is much more to learn.
Dismiss the crowd
When it is the spiritual needs of the crowds that are in question then there is no question or relying on the surrounding villages for help. When the crowd we are talking about is the Church then especially dispersal is antithetical to his motivation of gathering. He came to seek and save the lost, making them one flock under one shepherd. This means that the Church cannot settle for spiritual impotence. It is her mission to provide this nourishment for her people. When she fails it may seem that she fails because of her insufficiency. But we see from this story that the only failure that is really insurmountable is a failure to entrust our insufficiency to Christ. This can happen at any level, from a Sunday school teacher, to a musician, to the pastor of a Church, all the way up through the hierarchy.
He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."
It is not unusual to hear this command of Jesus to do something for others, particularly in a spiritual context, and to be unable to identify the necessary resources. In a spiritual sense we never have what others need. Only Jesus does. The only way we can give it to them is to first get it from him. So we should expect to be challenged by Jesus in this way. He expects us in turn to learn to walk by faith and to trust in his ability to help us do what he commands of us. The only alternative to the Church learning to do this is to send the crowds to the surrounding world. And while that world may have enough food to go around if one can pay for it they have nothing to satisfy the human soul, no matter what they advertise.
Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,
and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing over them, broke them,
and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
In the multiplication of the loaves and fish we are prepared to see the still greater miracle of the abundance of the gift of the Body of Christ. No matter how many times it is divided it is never diminished. However small a fragment of the host, or however small the sip we receive from the chalice, in each we receive the whole Christ, and not only we, but everyone gathered around all of the altars of the world were the Sacrament is celebrated.
They all ate and were satisfied.
Only Jesus himself can truly satisfy our hearts. There is a real sense in which before our first communion the above sentence from the Gospel could not be said of us truly, whereas after it could. But that the Eucharist doesn't always seem so overwhelming satisfy subjectively is not because of anything lacking on the part of Jesus. We receive, as has been said, according to the mode of the receiver. That is, our faith, preparation, and expectation have a lot to do with it. If we have made the Eucharist our treasure we tend to experience this satisfaction to a greater degree. If we have treated it more cheaply, like a routine or ritual, we may experience it only to a lesser degree. But provided our souls are in a state of grace Jesus is always working behind the scenes, even when our subjective reality doesn't fully reflect it. What we need to realize is that if we want this level of satisfaction the Eucharist is where it is to be found.
And when the leftover fragments were picked up,
they filled twelve wicker baskets.
This interesting detail seems to reflect our practice of reserving the remaining consecrated bread in the tabernacle. It is not trivial and to be discarded merely because there is an abundance. It is rather a sacred gift that of whose value we must come to understand, both for our sake, and for the world. That there were twelve baskets specifically reminds us of the tribes of Israel. But this in turn points to the new Israel, the Church, and therefore from that generation down through the ages all the way to our own. It points to the time that was then yet to come, but now is, when from the rising of the sun to its setting this sacrificial offering of Christ would be abundant enough for the entire world to receive.
the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
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