Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 25, 2021 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[2 Kgs 4:42-44; Eph 4:1-6; John 6:1-15]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. [John]
All four of the gospels report the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, which is an indication of the importance of this event in telling the story of Jesus life, death and resurrection. The Gospel According to John, the last one composed, shows considerable reflection on the meaning and purpose of the event both to the people involved as well as to the story as told by the evangelist. What do I mean?
It is clear that Jesus does not treat the situation as a logistical response to a pastoral problem, i.e. how to feed so many people with so little. In the Gospel According to John, Jesus is in charge and knew what he wanted to do. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes would serve as a platform for the "bread of life" discourse which follows in the gospel account. To the people who were fed, the event was a fulfillment of a prophecy about the return of a great prophet who would restore Israel to its former greatness. Others would recall Moses and the manna in the desert. This misunderstanding would be corrected in the discourse, but at the moment, Jesus had to flee!
Another indicator of Jesus' intentions is that he does not hand the bread and fish to the disciples to distribute, but does it himself! It is HE who feeds the people. The full meaning of this will come out in the discourse at John 6:47-51: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is mh flesh for the life of the world." This is the whole point of the multiplication of the loaves. It points to the true identity of Jesus. The whole meaning of the celebration of the Eucharist is founded on this. AMEN