Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This is perhaps the most well-known gospel in all the bible. The multiplication of the loaves and fish is in all four gospels, which shows its importance. We tend to interpret it as wow, Jesus does magic. How wonderful from five loaves and two fish can he feed so many thousands of people. We are called to look more closely, more profoundly at this gospel because it reflects our lives.
Your life is here. Do you know who you are in this gospel? You are the one with five loaves and two fish or with 200 denarii worth of bread, nothing at all. What is that for so many people, nothing. It is useless and this is a reflection of who we are. I hope we realize our poverty today. The gospel wants to help us see that alone we cannot do anything. By yourself you cannot quench your thirst not to mention provide for someone else. You are not a big deal, a great person; you have next to nothing. You need Jesus Christ to act in your life so that you can be happy, that you can be filled. This idea of being satiated is in all the readings this week.
The first reading said that everyone ate and there were some left over. They didn’t want any more; they were filled. The psalm says open your hand to the Lord and he will satisfy your every desire. You are filled to the brim and can’t take any more. The gospel also says that they ate as much as they wanted and there were leftovers. Jesus tells them to pick up the pieces that were left. He says this when they are already stuffed. He is not a cheapskate; he is not stingy.
The Lord wants you to be filled, especially with the truth. He wants you to experience being filled and poses this question to you. Are you satisfied with having nothing? Even a billionaire wants more money, always more. Sexuality does not satisfy us either. You always want more, and the more you get the emptier you become. You think that beauty will also make you fulfilled and every time you look in the mirror you get uglier, fatter, balder, and more wrinkled. We are made this way, we in some way wasting away. So, what is it that fulfills you, only love!! You are called to receive the fullness of love and nothing else will satisfy you.
What is true love, real love? Your spouse will never fulfill you, neither the love of your children, nor your girlfriend or fiancé. This human love will never, never, never fill you. You will always be dissatisfied. The desire to be fulfilled by the love of the other will leave you totally frustrated because it is human love and this kind of love always ends. When it is over, you cannot make it come back. There has to be something that always unites you to another, that is always present, always real. Your spouse’s love satisfies you today but what about tomorrow. You will be hungry again.
Every day you ask for love and beg for love because you need it. And every day I want to be filled with this sense of being loved. I want them to love me, to like me, to fulfill me. And then it happens all over again the next day until I die. This is how the world lives, as pagans. But a Christian lives fulfilled, because Christ is the one who fills you. He truly satisfies you and it never ends. You cannot say that of human love, only of the love of God. When God’s love is present it fills us and that desire to be loved is met. You don’t need to beg for love since you are already filled with the love of God.
The word we hear today about the multiplication of the loaves and fish fills them. But it must be true bread as Jesus says, I am the Bread that has come down from heaven. Your fathers gave you manna but it is worth nothing because your hunger for true bread will live forever. When you have this, you will not hunger for more. How wonderful it will be. You will be satiated with Jesus Christ. This is the meaning of the gospel today. With the little things we have, we are worth nothing, nothing! You don’t fulfill anyone because you cannot love as God loves you.
Humanly speaking you love your father and your mother, but anyone can do that. What about loving the most violent people, the murderers of the world. Do you love them as you love your family? Do you love those who don’t deserve to be loved, do you love as God loves? Then you are not feeding them. How beautiful it is that the Lord knows our precariousness, he knows that you have almost nothing, five loaves and two fish that will not fill us. And he performs this great miracle and takes the little we have and feeds so many others.
But to fill others you must first be fed. You cannot give this love if you have not experienced it. How beautiful when the gospel says that they were all filled and he told the disciples to collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted. It is wonderful that the Lord invites you to this mission. The Lord does not want to feed you and the later you lose it, no, no. You need to fill yourself so you can fill others, do you understand? You are filled only for the others. When you are really filled with the love of God then your spouse will convert.
You can’t get enough of this love but it is so that you can give it to others, the others experience this love. This is what fills people. This is a deep catechesis for the disciples. It is necessary that you be filled first so out of the excess you can give to others. You need to gather this love so it is not lost and can never be lost. This is the mission the Lord calls you to.
How are you going to reach your spouse or brother or colleague at work who knows nothing of Christ, who never comes to Mass, never listens to a priest; who doesn’t believe in anything? How are you going to save him. You need to eat these words that the Lord is giving you. If you go to the house and say, you are a worthless piece of garbage, and make demands of him, you don’t fill him with anything. Why would he want to have a God like you?
This begs the question of why do you go to Mass every week? Because you want to have God on your side, you want to have your genie in your pocket. We see this at the start of the gospel. Many people are coming to him because they have seen the signs that he was making by curing sick people and feeding everyone for nothing. He is the great one, he feeds me, cures me, this is the politician we need. Imagine the president of the country goes to the stores and says everything is free. Free health care for all, free college education, that is the president we need, no?
This is why they followed Christ and why do you follow him? Think about it. Hopefully, one day you will realize he has a mission for you, that you can feed others. This is the bread that is broken and the bread that is multiplied. Take this bread and eat it; he wants to give you life so you can give life to others. This will make you happy and you will be able to be a Christian at home, at your work and in society so that you can be a light for the world. By giving ourself you will find yourself.
When we die the world will receive life, says St. Paul. While they kill us today, we get life. Look what happened they killed Christ, we received life. Christ has given us back our life. These five loaves and two fish are good for nothing but he has turned it into eternal life for you. Heaven is open, really open, enter it and be full of joy.