Unexpected rest and renewal
August 11, 2017
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Matthew 14: 13-21
13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
The familiar, much loved story of the feeding of the 5,000 offers us a window onto the compassion of Jesus. In great need of rest and refreshment himself, he is entirely focused on meeting the needs of the huge crowd of people who had come looking for him and who found themselves stranded late in the day without food. Through Jesus’ loving provision they found unexpected rest and renewal. On many levels the story conveys a message of abiding importance and relevance. Today we follow a single line of reflection.
The only solution to the predicament of which Jesus’ disciples could think was to send the people away to buy food somewhere for themselves. They were flabbergasted when, instead, Jesus instructed them to use the extremely meagre resources available to them to feed the hungry crowd. It seemed impossible, but the resolution lay in Jesus’ further instruction regarding the five loaves and two fish, ‘Bring them here to me’ (verse 18). Having blessed and broken the loaves Jesus handed the food back to the disciples for distribution.
Disciples of Jesus are still called to serve others, especially those most in need. In the words of St. Teresa of Avila, ‘Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks in compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now’
Called to participate in God’s work in the world today, we can at times feel overwhelmed by the discrepancy between our limited resources (of many kinds) and the crying need of so many people. When we feel like that, like these first disciples we must again hear the insistent call of Jesus, ‘Bring them to me.’ In his hands, scarcity mysteriously becomes abundance. St. Catherine of Siena offers us this advice, ‘Start being brave about everything. Drive out darkness and spread light. Don’t look at your weakness. Realise instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything.’
Prayer
Lord make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen (A prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)
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