The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Today's Reflections  

                       

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

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Mk 6:34-44

³⁴When [Jesus] disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. ³⁵By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. ³⁶Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” ³⁷He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?”

³⁸He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” ³⁹So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. ⁴¹Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to [his] disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴²They all ate and were satisfied. ⁴³And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. ⁴⁴Those who ate [of the loaves] were five thousand men.

Give them some food yourselves. “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love” (First Reading).

In the Gospel, Jesus shows how it is to love. It is already very late and the place is deserted. So the disciples prod Jesus to dismiss the crowd. But instead of discussing with them the pros and cons of their point, Jesus directly commands them, “Give them some food yourselves.” Jesus feels compassion for the hungry crowd which has hungered for the Word of God.

This story continues to come to us through our celebration of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Here, we see the love of God given to us through the offering of Jesus as a sacrifice and as a thanksgiving meal. And so as we conscientiously participate in this rite, we become more and more loving. We realize that even this loving does not end in rituals; it finds expression in our day-to-day living with our fellow human beings and in our “giving them some food” ourselves. For the more loving we are, the more we become like God.

Why is it that giving comes to a point

when one who gives is hurt?

Can you illustrate this with an example?