A Miracle! Food for the body or soul food? Sunday Readings 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Y-not question the Sunday Readings)

Thank you Sue. I've been looking forward to your reflection all week, and I wasn't disappointed!

I'm also not a Scripture scholar, but I think that in the "Y-not question..." weekly thread this doesn't really matter. Of course, it's always good to get input from people who have an in-depth and scholarly knowledge of the Gospels, but it's also valuable to share our own response to the Scripture that comes mainly from our own insights and our own experience.

What I especially like about your reflection, Sue, is that your interpretion of the passage shows Jesus as one who can bring fulfilment both for our natural, physical needs and for our deepest spiritual needs. I particularly loved the bit where you say, "where there are mothers and children, there's always food, usually more than enough". And yes, this Biblical story does indeed have a similar "feel" to it as the sort of impromptu neighbourhood meal that you describe. Whether Jesus did literally multiply the bread and the fish, or whether he was the inspiration for the people to share whatever they had in such an open-hearted way (presumably this meant sharing with some people who had brought nothing), he is undoubtedly someone greater than the his people had ever known before.

Once again, whether we can bring ourselves to literally believe in miracles or not, there is clearly a message here that Jesus satisfies a hunger that is not just of the body. When you think about it, the people really don't try terribly hard to make Jesus their king: as Sue points out, they don't follow him to the mountain, because their spiritual hunger has already been satisfied. Once aware of the effect on them of this remarkable encounter with Jesus, maybe they then realise that Jesus' kingdom, is, indeed, not of this world? Maybe, as Sue says, Jesus has made them aware that the kingdom is within themselves. I would add that, perhaps their experience of this wonderful communal picnic has given them a sense of their connectedness with each other, and they come to see that that is where they will most forcefully find God in their midst. Whatever we might see as being the message of this Gospel story, it undoubtedly gives a promise to us too that Jesus is the Way through which our deepest human needs can be satisfied.

Cathy Taggart

I splash in my poetry puddle
and try to keep God amused. - James Broughton

Sue thank you for your reflection.
I was pleased to note that in your conclusion you highlighted the words: Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
Those same words are my focus.
They suggest that Jesus did not want to be seen as a king.
The feeding of the 5000 may well have been a lesson for all telling us that there is enough food for all if we really want it.
Our life experiences tell us that it is not going to be kings or dictators or governments, even democratic ones, which are going to provide for our needs.
We know that is true just by observing the world today.

We know that there is enough food produced in the world to feed everyone.
We know that right now in this world a child starves to death every 5 seconds.
We know that totally preventable hunger is killing more than 16,000 children every day. That is more than 5.8 million per year.
We know that while we are doing our best to help alleviate this horrible suffering it seems that many are completely impervious to that scandalous situation.
It is a most profound statement reflecting humanity’s lack of concern about the right to life.

It is the way that peoples have organised themselves in the world that is preventing other peoples from having access to sufficient food.
We know that most of us would have to do with less so that others may simply live.
It is this lack of compassion, care and unity that is doing this damage
The 12thC canon lawyer Gratian once wrote "Feed the man dying of hunger, because if you have not fed him you have killed him."
This is then an ethical obligation: if I have food, and someone else who is hungry does not, I am obligated to share my food.

More than 4 million Australians are obese
According to the World Health Organisation at least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese.
In addition, 44% of the diabetes burden, 23% of the ischaemic heart disease burden and between 7% and 41% of certain cancer burdens are attributable to overweight and obesity.

This is not God’s problem!
God has provided us with more than enough food for everyone.
We do not need kings to deal with this problem.
It is completely up to us as individuals and as communities and when we reflect honestly we know that.
We shrug our shoulders and make an excuse: ‘What can I do to solve such a huge problem’
And we can point to all sorts of corruption around us and blame that.
And we can blame the charitable organisations for their perceived inefficiencies and blame them.
And so on.....

This gospel story tells us that it is not up to the king, but that we are all personally called to do something real.
And that is why in our parish communities we are called to do something ourselves. So what do we do?
1. We speak out, protest, to our leaders when we see how the world is failing to address preventable poverty.
We must not be silent onlookers
2. We reach out personally to the people around us who are struggling to make ends meet.
We must not be silent onlookers

We are commanded to love each other.
Love does not control.
Love does not intrude.
God is love.
God has given human beings their most precious gift – the gift of freedom.
If we use our freedom to love, the most wonderful things happen in our world.
When we use our freedom to destroy, or just look away and pretend not to see, the most terrible things happen.

Our Creator holds in being the incredible environmental processes that produce our food.
God could make food and drink spring into being out of nothing, but does not interfere.
It is left to the people of good will to ensure that what has been given is shared fairly and equally by all.
Once again the bottom line is:-The solution is in our own hands.

A story told:
My 17 yr. old granddaughter gave a farewell recital from on leaving highschool.
She played to friends & family at a city arts centre, followed by a homemade buffet supper.
As she and her family prepared to leave they collected a car full of left over BBQ sandwiches, cream puffs, etc..
They made up plates of sandwiches & food, put each plate in zip lock bags.
As they drove home they stopped along the way to give the plates to homeless people.
At one corner there was a traffic jam, & even though the light was green, my granddaughter ran through the stopped cars to take a plate to a person on the footpath
As she ran back to the car the light turned red, & some cars started to honk their horns.
My daughter turned around, rather disgustedly, only to see the other drivers waving & smiling at them.
Some had jumped from their own cars and handed out cans of drink to the homeless person.
Talk about passing on kindness to others!
What a beautiful "chain reaction" in a traffic jam!

Fred's Van is a mobile food service that provides a hot meal, fruit and drinks, blankets and beanies to the homeless and hungry.
Around 400 Fred's Van volunteers serve 23,000 meals each year, from 7 sites across Adelaide.
The service supports the most vulnerable people in our community who experience a range of issues such as homelessness, marginalisation, and problems of unemployment. Watch clip here

As Sue wrote: ‘And perhaps that is the teaching of that story – that if we all share whatever we have, then there will be more than enough for everybody.’

Thank you too, Cathy. Your signature quote is on the spot for me.
Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. - Bishop Desmond Tutu

Sue, thank you for showing us ways to work through this important sign at different levels. The metaphor of sharing what we have to provide for everyone seems to be a basic point: both in the Elisha story and at the lakeside, the starting point was food provided by somebody.

I'm afraid I've been drifting around looking for one of those keys I find unlock many doors. It's just an effort to find a vantage point from which I can look down different corridors, and back up from where we've come.

Looking forward to many other insights along with Cathy's today.

We are exercising to Olympic standards lately, trying to answer impertinent questions like "Why do I stay?" and "What do you think of The Rosary?" I've found it hard to get involved in these exercises. There's a part of me always standing to one side that easily sees it all as fabrication. I don't need any of this, it says. My life will go on, through common ups and downs, and then will end. There is no point in the entanglements of religion.

Another part of me, standing opposite, still wonders,

and in wondering arouses curiosity and a glimmer of hope.

What if The Origin is breaking through to life's new level we call consciousness and,

respectful of its priceless endowment of being free to choose its own path, is

inviting this intelligent life-form (us) to discover more than meets the eye or can be touched?

What if?

Is this scary?

The great traditions of 'religion' go back to ancient times: for us a man called Abraham experienced a call and left his homeland in response. He was strangely tested, and from it learned the foundational truth, that God provides. Abraham named that place Yahweh-yireh; hence people today say, “On the mountain The Lord will provide.” (Gen 22:14)

Later a man called Moses heard a voice coming from within a fire, and thought himself commissioned to lead his people out of captivity. Tell the Israelites: "I am" sent you! (Ex 3:14)

As it turned out, escaping was the easy part. Wandering in strange, harsh desert country for over half a life-time was another matter. He almost had rebellion on his hands when they completely ran out of food, but somehow they were provided for. The people found something they could eat: it covered the ground like hoar frost in the early mornings. They had no idea what it was, but in their desperate need it was like bread from heaven.

This memory became a symbol of their deepest trust that 'god' would provide.

Our grip on life is very tenuous. Any moment we can lose it. World-wide, whole populations are wiped out in nature's natural way or by human deviation.

It is no small matter to say: I believe that god provides!

Until we get a good sharp focus on the essential Jesus nothing else matters. The skeptical self that stands aside feels unfulfilled. The curious self that looks again and again, wondering, is reassured, yet hungry still.

This is the backdrop of the miracle/sign that Jesus gave in feeding a crowd in a desert place. They recognised the sign, and thought he was the promised prophet, one like Elisha of the first reading. But Jesus would have none of that, and escaped back into the mountain alone.

The story is only half-told yet, and it seems a pity not to read it all. The disciples set off to row back across the lake but the sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Far into the night they saw Jesus walking across the water, about to pass them by as if he had not seen their need. They called out, and all four gospels record his exact words: "I am. Do not be afraid."

"I am". That is how it is written in the original Greek, and there seems little doubt it is meant to echo back to that voice coming from within a fire. The gospel narrative tells that a few men in a boat on a stormy sea heard those words from Jesus. Trying to find the right expression now, I think it makes sense to say: In Jesus they heard and saw The Lord (god) manifest. Perhaps that comes close to the intention of the writers.

"They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading." The one who provides nourishment also provides safe passage: no mere prophet, the gospels tell us, but the Creator/Provider manifest in the mystery of this man Jesus. Do not be afraid - of anything.

In the rest of Chapter 6 over coming Sundays we will go through the discourse which John fabricated, perhaps, as a way of making us curiously pick over these events. We might wonder why he could not tell it plainly, instead of in the strange and confusing to and fro of a dialogue that looks like a tangle of spaghetti. Perhaps the answer lies in the way the spirit stands back, inviting those who are hungry to come and sample the menu, with no intention of force-feeding those already satisfied. "I'm right, thanks." Hmm?

'TonyL
"A post is a free gift, and it will go where it pleases."'

Thanks Sue for reflecting so well on the Gospel.
It's good to be able to do this apart from the Sunday Service, and to also have an input from the laity.
I often enjoy the Liturgy of the Word, carried out by the laity in our Parish.
Jesus prays to "Give us this day our daily bread" and I take this as both for material and spiritual needs.
And our needs to satisfy can be so much smaller than the world is telling us--to get more and more--whether we need it all or not. Our whole economy is based on more and more consumption/waste/greed etc, close to wordly "gluttony"?!
It's well to be reminded to share above our needs?!.
Peace
georgeh