The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Today's Reflections

                                        

                               

The Feeding of the Five Thousand 

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Lk 9:11b-17

¹¹[Jesus] spoke to [the crowds] about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. ¹²As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” ¹³He said to them, “Give them some food yourselves.” They replied, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴Now the men there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of [about] fifty.” ¹⁵They did so and made them all sit down. ¹⁶Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. ¹⁷They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.

Reflection:

He said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples. We celebrate today the Body and Blood of Christ, given us to be our food and drink. The Gospel already foreshadows the gift of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus first speaks to the crowd, then feeds them with bread and fish. It is the same in the Eucharist: Jesus speaks to us through the readings and gives us himself in the form of bread. The same Jesus comes to us in his word and the Eucharistic bread.

Jesus associates his disciples in the distribution of the food to the crowd. Today he wants the Church also to be associated with him in bringing his Body and Blood to people as their nourishment for eternal life.

When I was a parochial vicar in the parish of San Antonio, Zambales, we celebrated the Mass in the yards of the barrio people, and the lay people visited every house in the barrio to invite the villagers to attend. In this way we increased the number of participants at our Sunday Mass in the parish church. I did the same when I was parish priest in San Fernando de Dilao in Paco, Manila, with similar results.

Jesus will provide the food, the Eucharist, but he wants both priests and lay people to help bring the Eucharist to people and the people to the Eucharist.

Do you help bring the Eucharist to people

and invite people to come to the Eucharist?