Jesus spends a lot of time around the beautiful surroundings near the Sea of Galilee. The Multiplication of the Loaves from today’s Gospel reading takes place at this location. There exists a church known as the Church of Multiplication on the shore of the Sea. Today the Benedictine Monks take care of this church. What a beautiful experience for the people to listen to the words of Jesus sitting on the slope near the sea! With the multiplication of the bread, they see another amazing miracle unfolding in front of their eyes!
This story also tells us that these people were spiritually hungry. They have found, in Jesus, someone who was able to fulfill their needs and desires. In this encounter with Jesus, they forget about their physical hunger. But soon the people realized that Jesus had the power to meet their physical needs. Jesus always looked at the people with compassion and love. They were tired and hungry and had traveled a long way to meet him. He embraced them all without looking into their state of life. Jesus healed the sick, listened to them, and became a divine presence for them. He simply loved them, right where they were.
But the multiplication of the bread was the result of a generous act of a little boy from the crowd. No one in the crowd would have thought that this boy mattered. People did not imagine that what he was carrying in his little basket would become an instrument of such a miracle. It was the lunch his mother prepared, and he was waiting for the moment to eat it. But it is the five loaves of bread and two fish that fed the five thousand.
This boy stands as a great example of sharing what we have. It is amazing what God can do with our little gifts for the rest of the community. It is time for us to bring our small talents and abilities to Jesus. Our gifts are given to us, to be shared with others, too. Jesus knows where we are, what we have, and how we can be used. Jesus wants us to become instruments to perform such miracles in our community.
How many of us are willing to share our ‘little something’ with Jesus? Many of us think that there is nothing for us to contribute. But there are many things we can do for our brothers and sisters, especially in meeting their spiritual needs. Jesus invites us to become like this little boy of the crowd who can contribute to the spiritual welfare of our community. God is capable of multiplying our small acts of love to bring a lot of blessings to others. It is up to us to submit ourselves to Jesus so that he can make use of us as his instrument for blessing others.
The miracle of the multiplication of the bread is also an image of the Eucharist. It is through the Holy Communion we continue to experience the presence of the living God in our midst. Jesus continues to live in us, and we continue to grow through the miracle of the Eucharist.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Let us ask the Lord to enable us to rediscover the importance of offering ourselves not only on bread but also on truth, on love, on Christ, on Christ’s Body. Let us try to transform ourselves into a little boy of the Gospel story. We are a community who are spiritually nourished by the Eucharist daily. We are the people of God who are willing to share our time and talents for the building up of our Christian community in our neighborhood.
Rev. Dr. Mathew Charthakuzhiyil