Word to the Wise
Saturday, February 15, 2014 - Saturday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 12:26-32; 13:33-34 and Mark 8:1-10]Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over - seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
How are things in Dalmanutha? If you had asked that question of any of the folks present at the event recounted in today's gospel, they would have looked at you in a puzzled way. There was no such place! Scripture scholars say that is a hint that Mark the Evangelist re-worked the earlier story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in chapter six or added a version he got from someone else! Otherwise it would be very difficult to understand why the disciples in the second story would be puzzled about how they were going to feed the crowds! Who could forget what happened in the first story?
Again, that bigger picture - the larger story - intervenes to help us. The focus in both stories is not really on the multiplication of the food but on the disciples and their inability to believe in Jesus' power. The second story is a kind of echo or reminder of that inability which is a part of the bigger story [or the agenda of the story-teller]. The whole point of evangelism is to tell the story of Jesus over and over again. Some will "get it" and some will not. The disciple cannot let that be an obstacle. If we find a better way or a different way to tell that story, we can take a page from the Gospel of Mark and tell the story the new way! AMEN