Word to the Wise
Monday, August 1, 2022 - Monday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jer 28:1-17 and Matt 14:13-21 or, in Year A, Matt 14:22-36,479]"When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,"This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them here to me." [Matthew]
AUGUST 1 ST. ALPHONSUS LIGOURI cssr, (bishop and doctor of the church)
The multiplication of the loaves and fishes is reported in all four of the gospels, an indication of its importance in telling the story of Jesus. The Gospels According to Matthew and Mark [from whom Matthew borrowed extensively] even report it twice! This event is followed by the accounts of Jesus walking on the water! In short, Jesus' power is on full display but, as the Gospel According to Mark notes, the disciples did not draw the obvious conclusion! [Mark 8:52].
I have always found the dialogue between Jesus and the disciples in today's passage to be particularly important for anyone who seeks to serve in ministry. The crowd is vast; the hour is late; everybody is hungry; the disciples have barely enough to feed themselves, let alone a crowd of 5,000 [4,000?] people. Jesus responds to their request to dismiss the crowd by telling the disciples to feed the crowd themselves!!! When the disciples show their meager resources, Jesus says, "Bring them here to me."
There is many a pastoral minister faced with big needs and meager resources. I recall the story of the establishment of the diocese of Nashville, TN, in the 19th century. The territory was vast. The first bishop was a Dominican friar named Richard Pius Miles, OP. He and only two other priests had that territory to cover on horseback! That is the story of many dioceses, even today, in the USA and especially in vast dioceses around the world.
One interpretation of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes holds that the crowds managed to share their own meager resources. While that interpretation may miss the point of the miracle, it does suggest that pastoral ministers do not have to take the entire burden on themselves but rather should galvanize the resources of the people. "Top down" notions of ministry result in burnt out ministers and unnecessarily hungry crowds. When the disciples brought their meager resources to Jesus, Jesus gave them what was needed. AMEN