The miracle arises when we share.

Good morning, happy Friday, and many blessings.

Today's Gospel (John 6: 1-15) helps us understand how Jesus meets needs. This is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels, which shows its significance. The feeding of the 5.000 men (and probably 7,000 women and children) precedes Jesus’ discourse on being the living Bread that comes down out of heaven to give His life for the world (6:32-58). So, it’s also a miracle that points to salvation. John wrote this sign “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31).

There are several teachings that I want to emphasize from this miracle of sharing what we have.

One of the important lessons in today’s reading is that people are needy. But Jesus Christ uses inadequate people who surrender what they have to Him to meet the overwhelming needs of others.

Another teaching is that Jesus is more concerned for needy people than we are. The disciples wanted to solve this problem by sending the multitude away to buy their own bread. They were more focused on their own need for a break than they were with the multitude’s need for food. They viewed the hungry multitude as a bother. But Christ was concerned for them. He wants us to learn to look at needy people through their eyes. He has compassion for them and delights to meet their needs.

An Additional lesson from this reading is that Christ is not limited by our inadequate resources. When Philip came up with his 200 denarii estimate (that he didn’t have), Jesus didn’t say, “Go take a collection from the crowd and see how much we can get.” When Andrew offered his apology, “But what are these for so many people?” Jesus didn’t say, “I’ll bet there’s more food in this crowd. Let’s get everyone to share!” Jesus wasn’t limited in any way by this meager lunch. And, He isn’t limited today by the fact that we don’t have enough money or time or talent to get the gospel to the whole world.

One more lesson is that Jesus Christ uses people to meet the needs of people. John does not specifically state what the other gospels state, that Jesus used the disciples to distribute the bread and fish to the people. But he does show how Jesus involved Philip and Andrew and it’s only from John that we learn that the five loaves and two fish came from a boy’s lunch. As I said, Jesus easily could have prayed and called down bread from heaven without involving anyone else. But He used people, including a boy and his lunch, to meet the needs of other people. If you know Him, He wants to use you to meet others’ needs.

And finally, Christ uses inadequate people to meet the needs of people. Jesus could have looked around the crowd for the obviously rich and appealed to them for the funds to feed the crowd. He could have asked those with plenty of food to share. But instead, He used people who were painfully inadequate to meet this overwhelming need. Are you ready for God to use you today?

Blessings

Fr. Luis+