The ‘Twelve’ have just returned from preaching, teaching and healing and are celebrating what Jesus has given to them. Looking forward to some R and R (rest and recuperation) they are advanced upon by a new crowd. Notice how Jesus welcomes them! What looks like an interruption becomes a moment of grace, and Jesus will use the events to teach a very important lesson to the ‘Twelve’.
As night falls in the ‘desert place’ the leadership see a problem and want to get rid of it by sending the crowds away. The ones Jesus has welcomed, His apostles want to dismiss and make them take care of themselves. But this desire does not reflect the values Jesus wants to teach. In His Kingdom, people take care of each other. They don’t push people away when they are inconvenient. The future leaders of the Church must learn this lesson and pass it on. Jesus challenges them to take care of the people who are gathered but they object that they don’t have enough resources. Five loaves and two fish are set against a backdrop of 5000 mouths. The twelve do the maths and decide it can’t work. But Jesus takes a very, very different approach. He seats his guests, He accepts the five and the two and He looks to heaven, to the source of every blessing, to the One who provides. He blesses what He has and gives thanks for it. He breaks it and shares it. The bread and fish move towards the 5000 in the hands of the Twelve. The people eat and have their fill and there is a basket of food; one for each of the Twelve who did not know what they had.
The Parable is clear. It is very human to notice what we do not have. This is especially true when times are dark and friends are few. It is almost impossible for us to decide that there is enough to meet the need of everyone. So, we push those in need down the road, telling them that they will have to take care of themselves. Jesus, on the other hand, invites us to gather and to give thanks for what we have. To view our resources as a gift and not as an inadequacy. Gifts fall under the spiritual law which goes, ‘Freely, freely you have received, freely, freely give. And when we do this, we are blessed by the second spiritual law which says if we try to hold on to what we have, we lose it, but if we lose it for the sake of the Kingdom of God, we will find it. Those who receive the gifts in our hands will be satisfied and there will be gifts in return for the givers.
As you go through your life this week, try to take a good look at the people around you. It is amazing to watch our sisters and brothers return again and again to the challenges of life, companionship and work. It seems to be written in our DNA that we are at our best, and our happiest, when we find people and places to give ourselves to. Watch people break their bodies and pour out their blood in the pursuit of love and truth. In Sacred language they are engaged in the work of sacrifice and sacrifice is about making life holy by giving something back.
The Catholic community, in its Eucharistic joy, has been promoting this approach for centuries. And when the narratives of the suppers of Jesus, and especially the last Supper are reflected on with depth we see something truly beautiful. Jesus injunction to ‘Do this in memory of me’, is an invitation to imitate Him and to follow His Wisdom.
Jesus takes bread in His Sacred Hands. He identifies this bread with his embodied life. The very fact that He takes it is His hands should not be lost to us. He is much more than He seems. His transcendent self is ready for action and so must ours. This understanding allows us to return again and again to this place not as a random act but as who we really are. Once Jesus has gathered His life in His hands, He gives thanks for it. It is a gift! It is a gift given by God, moment by moment, breath by breath, just like ours. Holding fast to this truth will increase our gratitude and gratitude will fill us up from the inside. Filled within, we flow without. The life freely given and received becomes the life we seek to freely give away – to break the bread and pour out the blood.
As we ponder the Eucharistic gestures of Jesus, we can become better at sacrificing! The teaching is clear. Transcendence, Gratitude and Sacrificing must be held together for full living. If we focus only on the transcendent, we run the risk of spiritual snobbery or that we are never really in the life we are living. If we only have gratitude, we risk becoming selfish and self-absorbed. We do not realise that as we are counting our blessings, we are separating ourselves from the communion of love. If we try to sacrifice without grateful hearts, we run the risk of becoming resentful. We pour ourselves out and find we are running on empty, so we short circuit the process and stop giving ourselves away.
So, whatever life sets before us in the days to come, remember to consult the One who knows how to break His body and pour out His blood.
