O.T. XVII [B]: 2Kgs 4:42-44, Eph 4:1-6, John 6:1-15

Today’s readings invite us to become humble instruments in God’s hands by sharing our blessings with our needy brothers and sisters. 

The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 is found in all four Gospels, although the context and emphasis vary.  This is the only miracle, other than the resurrection, that is told in all the Gospels, a fact that speaks of its importance to the early Church.

No Bible scholar doubts that all six bread miracles in the Gospels are about the Eucharist. John uses this story in his Gospel to introduce Jesus’ profound and extended reflection on the Eucharist and the Bread of Life. John makes a special mention here that the Jewish feast of Passover was near, drawing a connection of this miracle with ancient Passover. 

This miraculous feeding in the deserted place had precedents: Moses, Elijah, and Elisha had each fed people without resources.  The present miracle resembles particularly the one performed by Elisha (2 Kgs 4:42-44).  In both cases, unlike the manna in the desert, there were leftovers, for everyone there ate, and had enough and more than enough to be filled. The apostles were told to collect the left over-s. That itself has a Eucharistic overtone. Otherwise, broken crumbs of bread which could not be decently used again may not be ordered to be collected. It also can mean we shall not waste any food that we have. Because everyone needs bread to live and no one can survive without food. And if there are people not able to get sleep because their stomach is hurting due to hunger while we waste food, is certainly a sin.

At the sight of the crowd who had been listening to Jesus for long his sympathy was kindled. They were hungry and tired, and they must be fed. No one asked Jesus to provide the crowd with food.  It was Jesus who first expressed his concern about the people's need for food.

One of the greatest tragedies of our times is the fact that millions of people are reduced to starvation throughout the world.  In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty". Every year 15 million children die of hunger. For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years. 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days! The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40%, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world. Nearly one in four people, 1.8 billion - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people. When you get on the internet these days you see the ad asking help for hungry children in Yemen. Children are dying there from hunger. It is a country with 100% Muslim population. But the rich Islamic countries won’t help them because that is not their concern. Saudi Arabia offered to help Canada build 100 mosques for the Muslim immigrants, but not to help the poor, even the poor in Islamic countries. (That is another issue altogether).

God has arranged the world in such a way, that every person may have the food he or she needs. Food in the world should suffice to feed God's children but it will never suffice to fill the greed of men. One of the reasons for world hunger is priorities. Those of us who live in an industrialized society place a high priority on comfort and convenience. Our standard of living places a significant strain on the world economy. Certainly this is something Christians must consider in terms of their own economic lifestyle. At a time when people are not getting enough to eat, we are living a lifestyle far beyond what many could even imagine. We have a great challenge before us. We must not only consider what we can do to feed the hungry, but we must also consider what we should do to limit our indulgent lifestyle.

Hunger and poverty are the consequences of the selfishness of people. So the solution to this devastating problem lies with man alone. One doesn’t have to be rich to help others. Pointing to the poor widow who put two coins in the temple treasury Jesus said, others gave from their abundance but this poor widow gave from her shortage. The boy that shared his bread with Jesus had a similar attitude too.

He had not much to offer but in what he had Jesus found the materials for a miracle. Jesus needs what we can bring him. It may not be much but he needs it. It may well be that the world is denied miracle after miracle and triumph after triumph because we will not bring to Jesus what we have. He wants us to make good use of all his gifts. And the generosity of the boy contains a lesson for us. And Jesus reminds us as he did the Apostles: “Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”