In performing the miracle of the multiplication of loaves, Jesus not only desired to feed the great multitude, but also had a much higher end in mind: to prepare their souls to accept the Eucharist.
Gospel for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
13 When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, He withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed Him on foot from their towns.
14 When He disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, and He cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples approached Him and said, “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.” 16 Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” 17 But they said to Him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
18 Then He said, “Bring them here to Me,” 19 and He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. 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.
20 They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over – twelve wicker baskets full. 21 Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children (Mt 14:13-21).
I – The Compassion of the God-Man
In referring to the divine attributes, we tend to use language that “humanizes” the idea of God in order to aid comprehension. For example, God is often described as expressing His wrath or His mercy, when in reality He not only possesses the virtues, but is each one of them. Accordingly, God is not only good, but is Goodness, and is, in turn, the essence of the entire succession of virtues. A merely theoretical notion, however, is insufficient for us to comprehend that God is Goodness; it becomes necessary to experience His activity in our soul, as the Psalmist counsels: “Gustate et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus – O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps 34:8). The Gospel and the other readings of the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time prepare the faithful to open themselves to contemplate the infinite Goodness that is God.
It delighted Jesus, as Man, to pray to God
13a When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, He withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
After the death of the Precursor, Jesus set out for a region situated beyond the jurisdiction of Herod, who was becoming rankled by Jesus’ work and might begin to persecute Him (cf. Mt 14:1-2; Mk 6:14-16; Lk 9:7-9). However, it was not for fear of Herod that Jesus left, but because “His hour had not yet come” (Jn 7:30). He was also prompted by the desire to withdraw with His disciples for a time of prayer, at the close of the first evangelizing mission He had assigned to them (cf. Mk 6:7,30-32).
The fittingness, and even necessity of the Apostles’ retiring after a period of intense activity is easily understood. But when we consider the Redeemer doing this, we find this decision surprising, for He is God. Could He have intended to pray to himself? Did He need to reserve part of His time for prayer? Yes, He did, for He is also Man. And with His human intelligence, will and sensibility, Jesus prayed to himself as God – in His humanity, He had recourse to His divinity. This entails a mystery that transcends the scope of our horizons.
In this way, He shows us the extraordinary value of prayer in obtaining favours from Heaven, such as that of providing those multitudes with added graces to understand Him better.
Unmindful of self, Christ is concerned with others
13b The crowds heard of this and followed Him on foot from their towns. 14 When He disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, and He cured their sick.
Filled with admiration upon beholding the truth, goodness and beauty radiating from the Teacher, the people followed Him without a thought to petty concerns, moved by the desire to be with Him, to hear His teachings and to witness His miracles. They received ineffable graces of consolation and fervour that led them to measure neither distance nor sacrifices. On this occasion, they moved hurriedly along the shores of the Sea of Galilee by foot, while Jesus travelled by boat in search of solitude.
It is not difficult to imagine the scene: as He prepares to step off the boat into retreat, Our Lord finds a multitude awaiting Him on the shore. An egoistic individual, unconcerned with benefiting others, would have been annoyed at seeing his plans for seclusion thwarted. The Saviour’s reaction is different: “His heart was moved with pity for them.” He gladly foregoes His plan and begins curing the sick and teaching about the Kingdom of God until evening sets in. He attends to all; no one goes away empty-handed.
This is the reward in store for those who conserve the sense of truth, goodness, and beauty within them and allow themselves to be guided by it. “For great as their assiduity was, yet nevertheless His doings exceeded what any diligence could earn.”1 As the perfect superior, He knew how to care for His subordinates and show compassion, that is, to suffer with them.
The disciples were concerned with themselves
15 When it was evening, the disciples approached Him and said, “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.”
As their enchantment with the Teacher grew, those people forgot all about food, for “they reverenced Him exceedingly, and felt not even their hunger, through their longing to stay with Him.”2
It was the disciples, instead, who noted that the day was waning, and who feared the task of having to provide food for so many people. Now, they had already seen Jesus convert water into wine at Cana, and perform numerous other miracles which proved that He was truly God or, at the very least, a great prophet with uncommon miraculous powers. “Nevertheless, not even from this did they expect the miracle of the loaves; so imperfect were they as yet.”3
St. John adds a detail to his Gospel: Jesus asks Philip how they were to buy bread for such a multitude, and the latter replies that they would need more than two hundred denarii worth of bread (cf. Jn 6:5-7). It was clear that the Lord had no intention of sending them to buy such a quantity of bread which, moreover, could not have been available in the vicinity, and perhaps there was not even the necessary money at hand. But, from all eternity, the Word of God knew what He would do, and He wanted to test the faith that His disciples placed in His unlimited power to perform miracles.
The disciples demonstrate feeble faith
16 Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” 17 But they said to Him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
The Lord’s reply is decisive: there “is no need” for those thousands of men “to go away” to buy food. Since material resources were obviously lacking, the moment had come for God to act, for “the hour of our most desperate troubles is the time He has appointed to come to our assistance.”4
The Redeemer also wished to help His disciples to practise the virtue of humility, for in seeing that the number of people did not prove an obstacle for the Lord, they should have confessed their own incapacity to rise above that impasse, and have placed themselves at the service of the Divine Wonderworker, in the miracle that He, as Goodness in essence, would perform in favour of that multitude.
The reply has us glimpse the disciples’ reaction to Jesus’ words: “This man demands the impossible… How are we going to feed all of these people with five loaves and two fish? Does He have any idea how many people are here?” Their objection shows how far they were living from the conviction that everything comes from God, everything is within Him and guided by Him; in other words, nothing happens without His permission.
Some thoughts on this topic are timely. There is a chasm that divides people into two well-defined categories: those who have faith and those who do not; those who are guided by the supernatural outlook of faith and those who regulate their life according to the practical, the material, whatever can be seen and felt. The second category encompasses a large portion of humanity, perhaps overwhelmingly more numerous than the men of faith, who, for their part, know how to see the finger of God in everything, even suffering, but especially when He resolves situations in a marvellous way.
The multiplication of the loaves and the fish
18 Then He said, “Bring them here to Me,” 19 and He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. 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.
Against the Apostles’ wishes, Our Lord does not dismiss the crowd, but rather takes upon himself the responsibility of feeding those people; He does not abandon the thousands of men, women and children who had put themselves under His protection with such confidence and enthusiasm. His care in arranging them upon the grass – which would have been in its springtime lushness – facilitated the calculation of how many people were present, and was in keeping with the Middle Eastern custom of having meals in groups.
Jesus takes the bread and the fish, raises His eyes to Heaven – He to Whom belong Heaven, earth and the entire universe – blesses the food, and gives it to His disciples to distribute to everyone present. Maldonado comments that, according to St. John Chrysostom and Leontius, Jesus ordered them to bring the loaves to show that “who gives food for the whole world is the Lord, and He does not depend on any moment or time, for on whatever occasion or juncture He can make as many loaves as He wishes out of any material.”5
Fr. Manuel de Tuya6 poses an interesting question: Were these loaves multiplied in the hands of Christ, or in the hands of the Apostles when they distributed them? He answers that a sure conclusion cannot be reached from such a concise Gospel narrative.
St. John Chrysostom, in turn, notes that in giving the loaves to the disciples to distribute, thus having them personally testify to the grandeur of the miracle, the Divine Teacher acted “not in honour to them only, but also that, when the miracle had been done they might not disbelieve it, nor forget it when it had passed, their own hands having borne them witness. […] Therefore also, from them He receives the loaves, that the testimonies of what He was doing might be many, and that they might have memorials of the miracle.”7
The superabundance of a miracle
20 They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over – twelve wicker baskets full. 21 Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.
An abundance of loaves remained after the miraculous meal, which were gathered up as customs of the time dictated; each of the Apostles had to carry a basketful on the return. This stood in curious contrast with the beginning of the distribution, when they had so little bread to carry. The crowds must have been deeply impressed with the magnitude of this prodigy.
According to widespread Jewish belief, the Messiah would make manna fall from Heaven, in greater abundance than Moses had done in the desert,8 and because of this, food would be plentiful in the land of Israel.9
After having witnessed Our Lord cure so many sick people and having eaten a bread of such incomparable flavour – fruit of yet another great miracle – it is understandable that those people were loath to leave the side of the worker of so many wonders, for they believed Him to be the long-awaited Messiah.
“This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (Jn 6:14), they affirmed, as they witnessed Him resolve every kind of problem.
He meets all needs and heals all ills
The Gospel shows how Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One who meets all our needs and strengthens us in our weakness. Among these, more critical than any physical deficiency, is our tendency to evil and our disordered passions that we cannot dominate without the permanent aid of grace. These woes, nonetheless, help us to recognize our utter dependence on the true lifeblood that flows from Him.
The first reading (Is 55:1-3), from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, clearly teaches this: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!” (55:1).
Symbolic language is employed here, as is so frequent in Scripture. The thirst to which the prophet refers is principally spiritual. Indeed, our souls have an insatiable appetite for happiness, having been created for the infinite. As St. Augustine10 wrote, we were made for God and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. When we finally see God face to face, everything else will amount to nothing in our estimation, for we will recognize that only He entirely satisfies this thirst for the limpid waters of grace.
A beautiful prefigure of the Eucharist
With a mere five loaves and two fish, Our Lord fed a multitude of five thousand men, not counting women and children. In an age in which families were generally large in number, it is reasonable to assume that the number of people was much greater than five thousand – easily double, triple, or even more. The import of this miracle can be measured by the fact that it is the only one recorded by all four Evangelists.
It also had far-reaching impact since there were caravans travelling through that region from diverse districts en route to Jerusalem for the approaching Passover feast.
In performing it, Jesus had in view not only the nourishment of bodies, but especially the preparation of souls to accept the Eucharist. By multiplying the loaves and fish, He manifested His power over matter. Walking upon the water a few hours later, He would give evidence of His dominion over His own Body (cf. Mt 14:22-27).
In this way, the Divine Teacher gradually predisposed the Apostles to later believe in the Eucharist, for one capable of performing these prodigies can perfectly well institute a Sacrament in which the substance of bread gives way to that of His sacred Body. This miracle is, then, a splendid prefigure of the Eucharist.
Today, the Blessed Sacrament is completely accessible to us in the daily Masses celebrated throughout the world: it is the multiplication of the Consecrated Loaves, the Bread of Life, until the end of time.
The mystical meaning of the miracle
God could have created man with a different nature, made to survive on just air or water, for example. But He deigned to create him with the need for nutrition, for it was in His divine plan to give him, in due time, the supreme spiritual food: the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Accordingly, it can be reasonably said that, in idealizing wheat and grapes as two possible vegetal creatures, from all eternity, He not only envisioned providing man with the resources for producing good champagne and excellent bread. First and foremost in the mind of the Creator was the Eucharist – the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of His Son, under the species of bread and wine – which, in an overflow of kindness, He would offer to humanity as food.
St. Albert11 the Great explains that in uniting two substances, so that one changes into the other, the superior assimilates the inferior, as it is weaker and less perfect. Now, the Blessed Sacrament is a food so infinitely and substantially superior to the entire order of Creation, that it assumes those who receive it, perfecting and sanctifying their souls. We can illustrate this effect with an evocative example: by adding a droplet of essence of an exquisite perfume to a vessel full of alcohol, the entire liquid is transformed into perfume.
In discussing this theme, St. Thomas12 concludes that this occurs in the Eucharist. With common food, the organism extracts and assimilates the substances that will serve to nourish it. In the Eucharist, on the contrary, it is Christ who assumes and divinizes the person who receives Him.
Thus, He categorically affirms: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:53-54).
What an unfathomable gift, then, is having the Eucharist available to us daily! There was a time in which Communion was received but once a year, and First Holy Communion was made only in adulthood. Nowadays, we are permitted to receive Jesus in the Sacred Host from the dawn of the use of reason, and, in accord with current canonical norms, can even approach the Sacred Banquet twice in one day.
II – God’s Unlimited Love Fills us With Confidence
The Liturgy of the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time should encourage us to have extraordinary confidence in Providence, for, once we are united to Jesus, we can say with St. Paul in today’s second reading:
“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35,37-39).
The Apostle, who had already experienced all of these trials, maintained his strength of soul, apostolic zeal, and burning desire to conquer the world because he felt God’s love envelop him. If we ponder the fact that the Father desired the Incarnation of His Only-begotten Son, equal to Him, into our weak nature, to endure unspeakable suffering and obtain salvation for us, we can acquire a notion of the magnitude of this love.
St. Thomas Aquinas13 teaches that God’s love is so efficacious that it instils goodness in the creature He loves. Thus, when we encounter a person who is very good, we can be certain that God loves him in a special way.
We should request the grace of personally feeling this divine favour, just as the crowds in the desert experienced it in being cured of their infirmities and fed with the most delectable bread ever tasted. He wants to give us everything, yet it is often we who prevent this from happening. As St. Maravillas de Jesús often said: “If you let Him…”14 If we would but let ourselves be sanctified by God…
The sanctity of present and future generations will shine in persons who, acknowledging their shortcomings and debilities, will be faithful despite their frailty and will not offer obstacles to the love that God liberally sheds on all, for they will have tasted the superabundance of divine generosity and, even amidst the greatest trials, will unconditionally confide in the inexhaustible Absolute Goodness, which is God! ◊
Notes
1 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. Homilia XLIX, n.1. In: Obras, vol. II: Homilías sobre el Evangelio de San Mateo (46-90). (Ed.2). Madrid: BAC, 2007, p.53.
[2] Idem, p.54.
3 Idem, ibidem.
4 SAINT LAURENT, Thomas de. The Book of Confidence. Nobleton, ON: Save Me O Holy Queen by the Grace of Jesus! 2010, p.25.
5 MALDONADO, SJ, Juan de. Comentarios a los Cuatro Evangelios, vol. I: Evangelio de San Mateo. Madrid: BAC, 1950, p.532.
6 Cf. TUYA, OP, Manuel de. Biblia Comentada, vol. V: Evangelios. Madrid: BAC, 1964, p.340.
7 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, op. cit., n.2, p.58.
8 Cf. TUYA, op. cit., p.341.
9 Cf. BONSIRVEN, SJ, Joseph. Le judaïsme palestinien au temps de Jésus-Christ. Paris: Beauchesne, 1950, p.193-194.
10 Cf. ST. AUGUSTINE. Confessionum. L.I, c.1, n.1. In: Obras, vol. II. (Ed.7). Madrid: BAC, 1979, p.73.
11 Cf. ST. ALBERT THE GREAT. IV Sent., d.9, A, a.2, ad quest. ad 1.
12 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. In IV Sent., d.12, q.2, a.1, qc.1.
13 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiæ, I, q.20, a.2.
14 GRANERO, Jesús María. Madre Maravillas de Jesús. Biografía espiritual. Madrid: Fareso, 1979, p.139.
