Five Loaves And Two Fish (Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time)

Reflection

Five Loaves and Two Fish (Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Isaiah 55:1-3,

Romans 8:35,

Romans 8: 37-39,

Matthew 14:13-21.

Dear sisters and brothers,

It is the eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

This Sunday, we hear from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 14:13-21):

“When Jesus heard of it,

he withdrew in a boat

to a deserted place by himself.

The crowds heard of this

and followed him on foot from their towns.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,

his heart was moved with pity for them,

and he cured their sick.

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.”

[Jesus] said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;

give them some food yourselves.”

But they said to him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”

Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”

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.

They all ate and were satisfied,

and they picked up the fragments left over—

twelve wicker baskets full.

Those who ate were about five thousand men,

not counting women and children.”

The miracle of feeding is mentioned in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13–21; Matthew 15:32–38; Mark 6:32–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–13).

As Christians and as the followers of Jesus Christ, the miracle of feeding, is significant for us. I think, mentioning of the miracle of feeding, in all four gospels, conveys something more important than, what we usually understand in the text.

Particularly, the miracle of feeding, is focused on the hunger of the people.

Mother Teresa would say that people would die in large number, not because of hunger but because of loneliness.

We suffer all kinds of hunger: for food, for love, for peace as individuals, as communities and as a world. God wills to satisfy all our hungers. But God waits for us to come with our five loaves and two fish. We too experience the miracle when we give up our share to God.

I will not focus my reflection on the physical hunger rather I would like to focus on the hungers of human life.

1. A Deserted Place:

Jesus withdrew to a deserted place to be with himself and with his Father in prayer. Biblically, a deserted place means a place of solitude and silence. Jesus chose those places.

For me, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, a ‘deserted place’ means:

It was an abandoned place, where those people, who were deserted by their own children gathered.

It was a forsaken place, where those people, who were abandoned by their own parents gathered.

It was a betrayed place, where those people, who had unfaithful friends gathered.

It was a shunned place, where those people, who were avoided by their office colleagues gathered.

It was a neglected place, where those people, who were uncared by their rich neighbours gathered.

It was a rejected place, where those people, who were persecuted because of their faith gathered.

It was a renounced place, where those people, who have given up their lives in order to see God gathered.

It was an empty place, where those people, who felt meaningless in their lives gathered.

It was an uninhabited place, where those people, who were unsettled in their lives gathered.

It was an evacuated place, where those people, who were removed from their native places gathered.

It was a vacated place, where those people, who have migrated from their places gathered.

It was a secluded place, where those people, who had no shelter gathered.

It was an isolated place, where those people, who were isolated because of their sickness and diseases gathered.

It was a desolate place, where those people, who were barren in their lives gathered.

It was a lonely place, where those people, who were lonely in their lives gathered.

It was a solitary place, where those people, who did not have companionship in their lives gathered.

These people gathered together because people heard that Jesus was going to a deserted place. They followed Jesus not by a boat but on foot from their towns.

‘On foot’ simply signifies that people took initiative and effort to reach Jesus from their towns not from their villages.

The disciples said that they could go to the villages to get something to eat. There are lot of differences between a town and a village. For example, we observe the individual life in towns and community life in villages. Now, we know who has gathered around Jesus.