1 Minute Gospel. Looking for a Word of Truth

Reading

Mark 6:34-44

34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Meditation

The image of the flock without a shepherd is recurrent in the Old Testament to indicate the people who wander aimlessly, without a spiritual guide and exposed to the dangers of the world. (Num 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; Ez 34:5).

Confused by the multiplicity of confessions and ecclesiastical institutions, divided and often in conflict with each other, believers need, like the multitudes who followed Jesus, solid and substantial food, which they can find by returning to the essential, to the word of God.

The crowd of this Gospel episode, forgetting to nourish themselves to follow and listen to Jesus, masterfully attest that «Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God» (Mt 4:4). The amount of two hundred denarii of bread to feed the five thousand men (women and children are not counted here) corresponded to two hundred days of work.

The crowd in a solitary place (v. 35) recalls the people of Israel gathered in the desert; but in this story the green grass, a detail found only in the Gospel of Mark, indicates the spring season, characterized in Palestine, unlike summer and winter, by the presence of rains. The image thus takes on a messianic color. The presence of Christ transforms a desolate place into a luxuriant meadow, sprinkled with the Spirit of God.

All those present was completely satisfied (v. 42) and twelve baskets of loaves and fish was left over (v. 43): "those who seek the Lord lack no good thing" (Ps 34:10), but his grace is overabundant, beyond all expectations. By asking his disciples to feed the crowd themselves, Jesus empowers them with responsibility, calling them to share in his ministry. The first reaction of the disciples is to think that Jesus is asking him to feed the crowd by buying food with the little money they have; therefore, they affirm the impossibility of fulfilling such a task. But Jesus is not asking them to act without him. He invites them to generously donate the little food they brought with them, and with his blessing those resources, however poor, become a wealth for a multitude of people.

When a man thinks he has to satisfy his own needs or those of his neighbor only with his own strength, he can only experience a sense of helplessness. But Christ calls us to trust in him, and invites us to raise our eyes to heaven, to the Father of all mercy.

The gestures with which Jesus blesses the loaves and fishes are reminiscent of those made during the Last Supper, but being habitual at every meal of the devout Jew, they do not necessarily have a Eucharistic meaning. However, it is important to note that by making his disciples participate in this miracle, it is Jesus himself who pronounces the blessing. He is the author from whom all grace proceeds. We are called to act as if everything depended on us, but in the firm conviction that everything comes from God.

Prayer

Bless, Lord, our poverty, so that through your grace it may become a superabundant gift and give praise to you, who are the author of all good thing. Amen.

- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona