Participate in the Miracle

 

~~~ Numbers 11:4b-15 ~~~ Psalm 81 ~~ Matthew 14:13-21~~~

 

 Moses is frustrated with the people, with God, and even with himself.
Why are the people constantly complaining about what they used to have...
'the good old days'. We can relate too that mind set
because we too think back to how things once were.
Moses is frustrated with God
thinking that somehow the people are grumbling
 because he has failed somewhere along the way.

Why are you so displeased with me?

And finally Moses is frustrated with himself.
I cannot carry all this people by myself,
for they are too heavy for me.

He is on the brink of despair...feeling hopeless...to the point
of asking God to kill him.
...please do me the favor of killing me at once...

God provided for his people...he saved them from peril time after time,
but none of that seemed to matter when it came to what they had to eat.

Consider how today's readings focus around the topic of food.

 

 

We have the well-known gospel of the loaves and fishes.
God alone can satisfy the hungry heart, but
when it comes to our stomachs it is different.

The huge crowd of five thousand men were hungry,
their stomachs were beginning to growl...they were feeling
weak from lack of food.  

“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
The disciples were only able to gather up this small amount of food from the vast crowd.
Jesus never said go back to the people a ask again.
He simply took what they had to offer, blessed it, and served it to the crowd.

This miracle is reported by all four of the gospel writers
 with only slight variations.

That day Jesus satisfied their hearts and all five of their senses.
He fed their minds with his words.
He fed their hearts with his love and compassion.
He fed their bodies with five loaves and two fish.

He alone can fill all our human needs.
He reached the crowd through all five of their senses...
they could see him in the boat...the huge crowd surrounding them...
and only five loaves of bread and two fish.
No one but God would have attempted to feed the crowd that day
with only enough food for one family. 

 

 They could hear him teaching...his voice captivated them even though
they must have been hot tired and hungry.
They heard the blessing over the food.

They could smell each other in the crowd...the sea water...
but when the baskets of bread and fish came to them
they smelled food.

I have been inside my car passing a restaurant and smelled the food cooking.
The smell of food is part of the whole experience of eating.
When you have a cold your appetite diminishes when you cannot smell.

They touched the bread and fish knowing that Jesus had just blessed it.
As each person in the crowd took the bread and fish
 they participated in the miracle.
 

 Had they not been there to eat there would have been no need for the miracle.

They tasted this miracle with every morsel they put onto their tongue.
Their taste buds responded with satisfaction.
Their hunger was being satisfied with each bite.

 

 Every time we come to altar and receive the Eucharist
we participate in the miracle.

 

 The crowd was blessed in every way by Jesus that day,
just as we are in every Mass.

Blessings come in believing God satisfies all of our needs.
Receive the Eucharist often;
come participate in the great miracle of the consecration.