They all ate and were satisfied.

Matthew 14: 13-21

When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” [Jesus] said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” Then he said, “Bring them here to me,” and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over, twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

Discussion Questions:

1. Can you remember a time when another person’s suffering genuinely moved your heart? How did you respond?
2. Can you remember a time when God used you to encourage, comfort, or strengthen someone else? Looking back, what did you discover about what God was able to do through your willingness?
3. When have you discovered that the more generously you gave of yourself, your time, compassion, encouragement, or faith, the more there seemed to be to give?
4. When have you experienced God calling you to do something you felt was beyond your ability? What were the circumstances, and what was the outcome?

Biblical Context

Matthew 14: 13-21
Margaret Nutting Ralph

Between last Sunday’s Gospel and this Sunday’s Gospel two things have occurred: Jesus has returned to his hometown in Nazareth only to be rejected (see Matt 13:54- 58), and Herod has killed John the Baptist. Matthew is keeping his readers informed of the growing antagonism against Jesus as a way of foreshadowing Jesus’ coming crucifixion.

On hearing that John the Baptist has been killed Jesus goes out by himself in a boat to have some time alone. He needs it. However, the crowd needs Jesus. They follow Jesus so that when he returns to shore, they are waiting for him. Instead of putting his own needs first and heading back out in the boat Jesus responds to the crowd’s needs: His “heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.”

In contrast to Jesus, when the disciples see the crowd in need they feel helpless. Instead of trying to respond to the crowd’s needs the disciples suggest to Jesus that the people be sent away: “This, is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus does not want to send the crowd away. He tells the disciples to feed them: “…give them some food yourselves.” The disciples claim that this is impossible: “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”

The story that, follows is often called “the multiplication of the loaves.” This title centers our attention on a miracle. However, when Gospel authors want to center our attention on a miracle, which they often do, they use the form called miracle story. In a miracle story the author describes the problem that needs to be solved, gives a description of Jesus acting to solve the problem, and ends by telling us how those who witness Jesus’ act of power respond with awe. The story we read today lacks the form of a miracle story. The text describes Jesus’ actions, but it refrains from stating that Jesus multiplied the loaves. In addition, there is no description of a reaction from the crowd or from the apostles that draws our attention to an act of power by Jesus. Since this story does not have the form of a miracle story, we are invited to look for some other lesson that Matthew is teaching us by the way he tells the story.

Jesus has told the disciples to feed the crowd themselves, but they feel powerless to do it. Jesus takes the little food the disciples have, five loaves and two fishes, “… and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.” Here Matthew is describing Jesus doing and saying just what he will do and say at the last supper: “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body ” (Matt 2.6:26)* that this bread, blessed and broken, is Christ’s own body and is spiritual nourishment for Jesus’ followers. Eating this bread gives Jesus’ disciples the nourishment, the strength they need to carry out their mission. That is why Matthew pictures Jesus giving the bread to the disciples to distribute rather than distributing it himself. Jesus had told the disciples to feed the crowd themselves. Now Jesus is making it possible for them to follow his instructions.

After all have eaten there are twelve full baskets left: over. Twelve is a symbolic number. It reminds us of the twelve tribes and the twelve Apostles, and represents the whole church. Matthew is not just telling us a story in which Jesus makes it possible for his disciples to feed the hungry. Matthew is teaching his contemporaries and us that through Christ’s eucharistic presence we receive the spiritual nourishment we need to respond to the needs of others. We, too, can and should feed the hungry.

Savoring Desire

Reflection
Fr. Patrick Gilger SJ

You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

—Psalm 145:16

For St. Ignatius of Loyola, it is desire that lies at the heart of the spiritual life. In The Spiritual Exercises, for example, he suggests that we open every prayer by making our desires as transparent to God as we are able. Clear as glass. And when we are praying—when we are imagining Christ’s life or remembering how God has been active in our own—we are to stop as soon as we encounter the thing we are searching for. “Where I find what I desire,” Ignatius writes, “I will settle down” and savor. 

So, desire is the heart of the spiritual life. The problem is that, for us fallible beings, there are desires and there are desires. What I mean is that, on the one hand, there are the deep and holy and dependable desires. Those that remain. These are the desires that, when they inflame us, make us only more ourselves and, when they soften, leave us satiated and stable. But then there are the others. 

It’s because this conflict of desires is so sharp that we are, sometimes, tricked into thinking that desire ought not be the heart of the spiritual life. That they are not a path to sanctity but a danger. And when we are so convinced, it becomes quite reasonable to think that desires ought not be trusted and that our task as rational animals is to suppress, deny, or otherwise eliminate them. 

This is not, thank God, Jesus’ way. He does not look with distain upon the desires of the crowd for healing, wholeness, cessation of hunger. No, instead it is his desire to satisfy their desires. In this meeting of desires, the heart beats, full of passion. It is because we live desirous of such a union that we can learn from the commandment of the great rabbi Martin Buber: “Do not rebel against your desires, but seize them and tend them to God. You shall not stifle your surging powers, but let them work a holy work and rest a holy rest in God.”

Selections from Breaking Open the Lectionary: Lectionary Readings in Their Biblical Context for RCIA, Faith Sharing Groups, and Lectors—Cycle A, by Margaret Nutting Ralph, Copyright © 2007 by Margaret Nutting Ralph. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com.

Reflection from Give Us This Day, Fr. Patrick Gilger, SJ, is assistant professor of sociology at Loyola University Chicago and contributing editor for culture at America Media.