Jesus feeds us.  He wants us to do for others what he does for us, giving him the little we have, so that we all may have our fill.

The disciples think that to answer for those who have nothing to eat means not to answer for them at all. That is because, according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, the disciples ask Jesus to send the crowd away. In that way, the people can buy themselves something to eat. Admitting they have little, the disciples, in effect, are saying, “Every man for himself.”

Such way of thinking is not wholly odd. It is the thinking of realists like Philip and Andrew, in the gospel of John. Philip acknowledges that two hundred days’ wages worth of food will not be enough. Andrew, for his part, has good news and bad news. The good news:  a boy has five barley loaves and two fish. And the bad news, of course:  what they have is too little for so many.

Realists also are those who think that efforts to root out poverty matter little. They want to make us aware of the reality that we will always have the poor with us. But what Jesus says is a prediction of his death, not of a permanent underclass (see D. Hamm). In fact, the account in original Greek uses the present tense, “have,” not “will have,” as in most English translations.

Jesus, of course, sends us back to Dt 15, 11 that also commands that we open our hand to our needy kinsman. One, then, cannot conclude from this passage that helping the poor is of little value.

Though he recognizes that he and his followers have little, Jesus dismisses the easy solution.

In the Synoptic accounts, Jesus tells those who want to send the crowd away, “Give them some food yourselves.” And he asks, in the gospel of John (Revised Standard Version), “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” There is a suggestion, yes, that he and his group are happy with having little. But it is clear, too, that he is testing Philip; Jesus knows exactly what to do.

That is to say, he does not completely settle for being realistic. He shows those who are present something they know little about.  He gives them a glimpse of the ideal that better than hoarding is sharing. The multiplication of a poor boy’s contribution is a sign of the ideal and of the Eucharist.

And great contributions, like the “good work in Poland,” imply faithfulness in “more humble beginnings” and in little matters (SV.EN II:351; SV.EN VII:474).

Father of all, make us, as your good children, share the little we have with our needy brothers and sisters. May we put into practice Jesus’ teaching, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” May we, moreover, see to it that nothing goes to waste.

29 July 2018
17th Sunday in O.T. (B)
2 Kgs 4, 42-44; Eph 4, 1-6; Jn 6, 1-15