“They Shall Eat” by Diane Bayne
“For thus says the LORD,
‘ They shall eat and there shall be some left over.’”
And when they had eaten, there was some left over,
as the Lord had said. (2 Kings 4:43-44)
“I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
. . . bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:1-3)
“Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them . . .
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over. . .
So, they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.” (John 6:11-13)
Piety
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us;
he answers all our needs.
Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord,
and let your faithful ones bless you
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom,
and speak of your might. Psalm 145:10-11
Study
In today’s readings, we see that the Lord never tires of answering the prayers of His people. Both tell of a miraculous feeding of hungry people. In the Old Testament, He uses his servant, Elisha, to multiply the loaves and grain to satisfy the needs of His people and, in the New, He responds to the requests of His son, Jesus in a similar manner.
Following are some comments concerning the feeding of the five thousand from the Irish Association of Catholic Priests:
“Seeing the hungry crowd and the scarce number of loaves, Jesus was aware of the enormity of the task of feeding them all...We cannot imagine what exactly happened on that day out in the wilderness but it is clear that the small boy with five barley loaves and a couple of fish played a vital role. It was just enough food for a simple meal for a poor family. Yet the boy was willing to part with his barley loaves and his fish. When he handed them over, in some mysterious way, Jesus was able to work with the young boy’s generous gift to feed everyone. One generous boy was the key to feeding the multitude.”
Action
As Paul puts it in the second reading today: as disciples today, we also are called to “. . . live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit.”
As the Association of Catholic Priests concludes, “The Lord can work powerfully in and through the very little that we possess if we are generous with that little. The Lord does not work in a vacuum; he needs us to create an opening for him to work.”
Today’s gospel teaches us never to underestimate the significance of even the tiniest efforts we make to be generous with the resources we have at our disposal, whether it is resources of money, or time or some ability or other.
All of the evangelists taught that the way the Lord works in the Eucharist is how he works in us for the rest of our lives.
Can we help those who celebrate the Eucharist with us this Sunday to see a link between it and the hunger of the world?
Has the parish some project to support a missionary helping in the developing world, or can some local people be enlisted in telling the story of such a project?
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