Reflection from Communion Service on Feb. 14th on Mark 8:14-21
And I tend to agree. Don’t get me wrong. I love miracles and I genuinely believe that Jesus had the power to feed the hungry crowds he encountered single-handedly if he wanted to.
But I suspect that focusing on the physical miracle is kind of like reading the story of Jonah and debating and researching whether a man can live in the belly of a whale for three days or not…it kind of misses the deeper truth that the story is trying to impart.
We can imagine the scene...a blistering hot afternoon in a far off deserted and dusty plain…Jesus has just finished preaching to a great crowd of people about the dream he has for our world…a dream of a kingdom where no one is in need…where everyone’s hunger is met…a joyful time when God’s goodness will reign, where there is no hostility, no war, a kingdom of compassion, sharing and deep communion with God and with each other…a time and place where love is the law of the land.
Minutes after he finishes, the disciples, say to Jesus, “We have to send these people away so they can find some food for themselves before nightfall or we are going to have a hungry mob on our hands.”
The disciples immediately snap back into survival mode, concentrating on what they lack…panicking over a need they do not have the resources to meet. They prescribe having the people “go and buy” what they need from some outside resource before its too late.
Jesus redirects the attention of the disciples to what they DO have. He tells them the crowds to not have to go away. They should feed the people. But in their minds they do not have enough. They are locked into the magnitude of the need before them and the scarcity of resources. They characterize what they have as not nearly enough when they say “But we have nothing here - nothing but five loaves and two fish…”
Theologian John Shea says that it is at THIS point that Jesus has brought about a “crucial shift” in their thinking. They have moved from the preoccupation with lack to the awareness of assets. They now know what they have. They are no longer looking outside themselves for an answer, They have turned their gaze within. "Going and buying may work in the physical world, but what works in the spiritual world is standing still and becoming aware." (Shea)
Knowing what we have is the first step of spiritual transformation.
Jesus asks that they bring him what they have. Then he stands before the crowd and gives thanks, speaking the very familiar words of Jewish blessing and gratitude over the few loaves and fishes he that they have brought to him (which also happens to be our Eucharistic prayer we pray at every Mass) and then he shares the little he has with those around him…He took....gave thanks...broke...and gave....these are familiar to us, right?
So, a possible spin on this miracle is that just maybe Jesus knew that these people were not so dim as to hike out to a deserted place for most of the day in the scorching heat without some provisions…
Maybe when Jesus gave thanks and shared so generously the little he had, he inspired everyone there to slowly begin to dig into their pockets and purses to share the food they were hiding and saving for the long walk home…
Maybe he managed to shift the focus of over 5000 people from seeing what they have as too little and cursing and hoarding it - to seeing it as a gift, becoming grateful and giving it away as a gift to the people around them, who in turn give it away to others….and according to the Gospels, he did this not once, but twice.
No one 'takes and holds"; everyone 'receives and gives'…and all went home that night with a full belly and maybe even a doggy bag for their relatives who weren’t healthy enough for the long days journey…and they would forever hold in their memory the astonishing story about a preacher who inspired with his words and actions a huge crowd of strangers to share all they had with one another…
Jesus is instructing us that we need to be leery of the mind’s tendency to focus on lack and to continuously think “going and buying” from others is the solution. We should take stock of what we DO have, give thanks for it as God’s gift, and give it freely to others who in turn will give it to others. This process of self-knowledge, gratitude and communal love produces not only satisfaction but abundance.
The people that day didn’t just hear the good news, but they participated in an amazing experience of divine abundance, an experience that was completely satisfying because it was a taste of the kingdom, a glimpse of the potential of people, of the collective fulfillment for which we were designed. And really, even today, what could be a greater miracle than that?
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