Optional Memorial for Saint André Bessette, Religious [United States]
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“The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes”
by Tintoretto 1579-81 |
Readings for Tuesday after Epiphany [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading I: 1 John 4:7-10
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
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Commentary on 1 Jn 4:7-10
This wonderful selection from St. John’s first letter is a summary of the apostle’s major contribution to our understanding of God as revealed through his Only Begotten Son. The exhortation to love one another is repeated frequently throughout the author’s Gospel and his letters. The idea that ‘God is love’ is central to our understanding of God and Christ. In this short passage we see not only a glimpse of God’s intent in sending Jesus to the world as a proof of his love for us through “expiation of our sins,” but also our own imperative as Christians to love one another in imitation of him.
"John begins his appeal for love, as a demand which is laid upon every believer who seeks to live as a true child of God, by reminding his readers of the dominical command to “love one another” (see John 13:34–35; 15:12, 17). Characteristically, this ethical injunction is closely linked to a supporting theological statement about the origin of love itself and of the one who loves. Theology and ethics belong together throughout 1 John." [4]
CCC: 1 Jn 4:8 214, 221, 733, 1604; 1 Jn 4:9 458, 516; 1 Jn 4:10 457, 604, 614, 620, 1428
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
R. (see 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
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Commentary on Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
Psalm 72 is one of the Royal Psalms. In this selection we hear an echo of the justice and peace of the king’s rule that is central in Isaiah’s prophecy Isaiah 11:1-10 . It is sung for the king and prays to God for wisdom, that he might be seen as dealing justly with the people and compassionately with the poor. He concludes this selection asking for God’s blessing for himself and all the people he governs. We see this psalm as a song extolling the generous and compassionate rule of the Messiah.
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Gospel: Mark 6:34-44
When Jesus 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.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go
to the surrounding farms and villages
and buy themselves something to eat.”
He 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?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they had found out they said,
“Five loaves and two fish.”
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.
Then, 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.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments
and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.
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Commentary on Mk 6:34-44
The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of Jesus that is presented in all four gospels. The reason for that may be that it was seen as anticipating the Eucharist and the final banquet in the kingdom (Matthew 8:11; 26:29). However, it looks not only forward but backward in history. It is also an image of the feeding of Israel with manna in the desert at the time of the exodus (Exodus 16), a miracle that in some Jewish expectation would be repeated in the messianic age. It may also be meant to recall Elisha's feeding a hundred men with small provisions (2 Kings 4:42-44).
We note the numeric symbolism used in St. Mark’s account, the five loaves and two fish combined to give seven, the most complete number. The fragments collected at the conclusion of the meal fill twelve baskets, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Gospel author’s audience, which was predominately Jewish, would have seen the story as a fulfillment of the historical tradition from which they came.
CCC: Mk 6:38 472
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Reflection:
Consider for a moment the love of Christ. As St. John says, it is not that we love him, but that he loves us. By Jesus’ will he left behind the complete peace that is his, in union with the Heavenly Father, and became man. He became man with all its difficulties and pain. He assumed the human shell that is subject to all the elements of weather, environment, and disease. He accepted the human condition that feels the mental hurt of rejection and the physical hurt of wounds inflicted by sadistic torturers (even those he loved). All of this he assumed along with flesh so that we could come to understand that God loves us and cares for us.
We see, as an example of his love for us, the story of the feeding of the multitudes from the Gospel of St. Mark. The reason Jesus fed all those who had followed him was not simply as some demonstration of his power. He did not violate the laws of physics so everyone would know that he had power over the elements (and them). St. Mark tells us at the very onset of the story: “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them.” Was this pity because they came out without food and were hungry? No, it was because “they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
They were searching for leadership, for someone to guide them, for someone who loved them. What they were searching for cannot be clearer. It was not another person to tell them what to do or how to behave. They were a subjugated people, under the harsh rule of the Roman Empire. In addition, they were under the rule of their religious leaders who had yet another set of rules for them to follow. If they violated the Roman rule they would be imprisoned or even killed. If they violated the rules set down for them by the scribes and Pharisees, they would be shunned and punished by God whom they understood as a God of vengeance and justice. No, the people were not looking for someone to lead them in that way. They already had enough leaders in the civil sense.
So if the people were not looking for that type of leadership, what were they seeking? The same thing many people seek today but cannot quite put it into words. They were seeking hope, encouragement, and love. That is what they find in Jesus; that is why he fed them in that deserted place. That is why he feeds us in the secular world, where we are deserted, with hope and caring. In this miraculous act he answers the unspoken question: where can we find hope, where can we find love?
Today, as we still marvel at the Lord’s incarnation, we also marvel at the incomprehensible love that his act of will demonstrated as he came to us to feed us and give us hope.
Pax
[1] The picture is “The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes” by Tintoretto 1579-81.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] Stephen S. Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 51, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1984), 236.
