Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A
large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the
sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that
a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough
food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what
he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’
wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a
little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are
these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a
great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand
in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to
those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they
wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather
the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” So they collected
them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley
loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done,
they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him
king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
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Reflection:
Do you believe that Jesus can do miracles
in your life?
The precursor to Jesus’ miracle of the
loaves and fish was a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish; we cannot
speak of this miracle without him. The boy was generous enough to give what was
for him alone, he did not mind if he would be hungry; he simply shared his food
for others to eat.
Out of the selfless heart of the boy,
Jesus miraculously multiplied the five barley loaves and two fish and they were
able to feed the more than five thousand followers. And they still had some
more to gather and it filled twelve wicker baskets.
We see here the enormous benefit of
selfless sharing; sometimes we don’t share because we think that what we have
is only enough for us. However, if we would learn to share we would also notice
that what we share comes back to us a hundredfold. It is already immaterial how
big or small the food or anything that we share what is important is we are
very much willing to share whatever blessing that we have.
There are similarities in the institution
of the Eucharist and this miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. Jesus
instituted the Eucharist in remembrance of the Passover meal and coincidentally
Jesus did this miracle of the loaves when the Passover feast was near. Jesus
also took the loaves and gave thanks and distributed it to them. These are
actions that He did during the Institution of the Eucharist.
Why did Jesus tested Philip? Because
Philip had a shaky faith, he was with Jesus all along witnessing His miracles
and all. Yet he was still doubtful that’s why Jesus tested him. Are we not like
Philip once in a while? We are impatient sometimes and we doubt if Jesus would
grant our prayers before Him.
If only we know that Jesus will never
abandon us, yes there would be testing of our faith. For as long as we hold on
He will always be there for us in His own time of choosing. Let us
be patient and wait, let us pursue and not give up on our life’s aspirations,
ambitions and visions. He will eventually help us achieve what we want.
After doing the miracles of the loaves and
after having so much fragments leftover. Naturally the crowds were amazed. Who
would not be? So it’s time now to hail and exalt Jesus with praises. But Jesus
would have none of it. True to his humility and self-effacing character He
simply walked away to the mountain to be alone perhaps to pray and thank God
for the blessing of the miracle of the loaves.
In this occurrence we see how different is
Jesus from us, we love it when we are being honored, praised for the things
that we do. We are tickled pink by it and our ears flap in agreement, often
times we don’t do things without people noticing us. We want people to see what
we do and we want them to praise us (like politicians and public officials).
Let us all wake up from this egotism and selfish attitude. – Marino J.
Dasmarinas
