“A lad with 5 loaves and 2 fishes” (Jn 6:9)
Loaves and Fishes on State Street
July 31. 2011, 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Isaiah 55:1-3 Romans 8:35, 37-39 Matthew 14:13-21
First reading from Isaiah
Thus says the LORD: Come, all of you who are thirsty; there’s plenty of water for you! Come, you who have no money; there’s free grain for you to eat! Come, buy wine and milk; that too won’t cost you anything! Why spend your money on what does not satisfy? Why spend your wages and still be hungry? Listen to me and do what I say, and you will enjoy the best food of all. Listen now, my people, and come to me; come to me and you will have life! I will make a lasting covenant with you and give you the blessings I promised David.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you, Lord.
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 compassion 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 hungry 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. You yourselves give them something to eat.” “What!” they exclaimed. “We have only 5 loaves and 2 fishes.” [Here St. John’s gospel, chapter 6, verse 9 adds an interesting aside: “There’s a lad here who has 5 loaves of barley bread and 2 fishes.”]Then Jesus said to them “Bring them here to me.” Then He took the 5 loaves and the 2 fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, broke them and gave them to His disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over— 12 wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about 5000 men, not counting women and children.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Ramadan Aug. 1, 2011
Tomorrow, August 1, 2011, is the first day of Ramadan - a penitential season for Muslims, lasting for 30 days. During daylight hours Muslims do not eat or drink anything. During Ramadan they are encouraged to pray more frequently and to reflect on how to live better lives. What the 30 days of Ramadan are to Muslims the 40 days of Lent are to Catholics.
A liturgical cadence
On this 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time of Cycle A, we pass from the seaside parables of Jesus to His multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Because that event was aptly and frequently recounted in the Eucharistic liturgy of the early Church, it came to be recorded in all four gospels. (Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6: 30-44; Lk: 9:10-17; Jn 6: 1-14) The recounting also acquired a kind of liturgical cadence, which sounds so much like the words of consecration at Mass: “He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples and said….” In the Eucharist, as in the story of the multiplication of 5 loaves and 2 fishes, many are fed from so little; at Communion time a whole congregation arises to feast upon so little bread and so little wine.
Not about mathematics but about message
By the time the story of the loaves and fishes was written down in the second half of the first century, it had become a kind of babble of numbers. The gospel speaks of 5 loaves, 2 fishes, 5000 people fed and 12 baskets of leftovers. The New American Bible translation of the event, based on a differing Greek manuscript, speaks of 7 loaves, 2 fishes, 4000 people fed, and 7 baskets of leftovers. As the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was told and retold, especially in the Eucharistic life of the early Church, it lost mathematical accuracy. And that’s OK, because sacred Scripture is not about mathematics but about message.
The traditional understanding of Loaves & Fishes
There are two types of miracles of Jesus in the New Testament. There are miracles of healing, and there’s no question that Jesus did a lot of healing. Then there are the more challenging ` nature miracles,’ like changing water into wine at Cana of Galilee (Jn 2: 1-12), or like calming down a fierce storm on the Sea of Galilee (Mt 8:23-27), or like walking on water (Mt 14:22-32). If a particular nature miracle is mentioned only once in the gospel, that miracle might be open to further questioning. But if a particular nature miracle (like the multiplication of the loaves and fishes) is mentioned five times in the gospels and in all four gospels, some see that as a good reason to believe it was, indeed, a true miracle which actually took place. The traditional understanding sees Loaves and Fishes as nothing less than a true miracle which actually took place.
A “watered-down’ version of Loaves & Fishes
Some modern biblical scholars see things differently. William Barclay (1907- 1978), Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow, presents an increasingly popular view of this `miracle.’ He says that the compassion of Jesus and the little lad (who was willing to share his loaves and fishes) inspired the crowd to share as well. Suddenly people were digging into their own hidden food supply, and were breaking bread with those in need. Suddenly there was enough food to satisfy the hunger of 5000 plus people, and still have 12 wicker baskets of leftovers.Some reject this “watered-down” version which equivalently says that the multiplication of loaves and fishes was not a true miracle but “a local outbreak of socialism.” That, they say, is not what the gospel writers are describing, and that’s not what the hungry crowds were experiencing. They were experiencing nothing less than the 5 loaves and 2 fishes actually satisfying the hunger of 5000 plus people. Nothing less than that!
One gentleman, who stoutly rejects the “watered-down” version, writes, “One Sunday I visited a parish in another city and learned something new: the multiplication of loaves and fishes didn’t really happen! The people in the wilderness were greedy, and had loaves and fishes hidden under their robes, which they weren’t ready to share. But the example of Jesus and the lad with the loaves and fishes encouraged them to pull out their food and share. The disciples didn’t know about the hidden surplus food, but this parish priest did! That’s pure non-sense, and it turns me off!”
The `watered-down’ version on State Street
For personal reasons the “watered-down” version turns me on. On State Street in Milwaukee, Wi., between Ninth and Tenth, stands the historic church of St. Benedict the Moor. It’s the first Catholic church in Milwaukee dedicated to ministry in the African-American community. As you drove west on State Street and looked to the right, you saw the strangest greeting written in bold letters on the doors of the church hall: Loaves and Fishes. Welcome!There’s a story behind that welcome. A lad with 5 loaves and 2 fishes wanted to share his food with the hungry people of the city. So he opened the doors of his little house (which he named Casa Maria) to anyone hungry. Soon there were 5, then 10, then 20 people off the street, dropping in for supper. Soon also there were other people from the city who wanted to share their loaves and fishes. With time the little operation grew so big it had to go in search of a more spacious banquet hall. It finally came to rest at St. Benedict the Moor Church in central-city on Friday 13th November 1970.
That Friday 13 was, indeed, a lucky day. It made a dying parish come to life! `Operation Loaves and Fishes,’ as it came to be called, is alive and well to this very day. Not just on Thanksgiving Day but daily, countless hungry people off the street drop in for supper prepared by countless compassionate people from the suburbs. They take turns preparing the meal and bringing it down to central-city, and there they personally serve it. It is suburbanites obeying the command of Jesus, “You yourselves give them something to eat.”
For many years I lived in the midst of that wonderful `Operation of Loaves and Fishes’ on State Street, and that’s why the so-called “watered-down” version (which is more about compassion which divides bread than about a miracle which multiplies it) greatly turns me on. It has also made me see that we can insist with all our might on Loaves and Fishes as a true miracle, but if we haven’t found its message, we haven’t found very much.
Loaves and Fishes in Somalia
Somalia, mired down with internal conflicts, is not only a failing state in eastern Africa but it is also suffering at this moment the worst drought in half a century. In Somalia it’s not a mere matter of 5000 plus people who are hungry because it’s suppertime; in Somalia it’s a matter of 10 thousand Somalis who have already starved to death, and about 4 million Somalis who are, at this very moment, on the brink of starvation.Many Americans who are suffering under the present recession have had to make difficult life choices. But those choices in no way compare to the choices that Somalis have to make in their present horrific crisis. A mother has to choose between keeping her baby alive or splitting her money to feed all her children. A family has to choose between keeping their thatched roof (the only shelter they have), or tearing it down to feed a precious cow.
In a very disturbing matter-of-fact way a Somali woman relates her experience:
There was a large group of us travelling together. We had no food and had to rely on begging whenever we got to a village. But those people had nothing as well. My daughter was the first in the group to die. She was badly malnourished, and she just slumped down on the ground. Some men took her into the shade but she never recovered. I sat and listened to her trying to murmur a few words. Her mouth was too dry to speak. She died and the men helped me dig a hole in the ground to bury her in. Then, a few hours later, we carried on walking. My husband is in Somalia, so we have nothing, but I am glad we got here. Back home all the animals died. There was nothing for them to eat.
A miserly pledge
In 2009, the G8 (the group of the world’s 8 major economies) met in Italy, and pledged a rather miserly sum to alleviate the enormous crisis of hunger in Africa. Reacting to that miserly pledge, someone has rewritten the story of Loaves and Fishes as follows:And lo, 5000 people sat down to eat, and Jesus asked, “How can we feed all these hungry people?” And Philip replied, “Here are 8 men and women who have with them plenty loaves and fishes.” And Jesus asked the 8, “Will you share your food and break bread with the poor?” And they answered, “No, we need to keep the bread for ourselves.” And Lo, Jesus weeping said to them, “I can do no miracle here, unless you give me your loaves and fishes.”
Conclusion
Not by multiplying but by dividing
The Secretary General of the United Nations said that nearly half of Somalia's population (3.7 million people) is now in crisis, and that a total of $1.6 billion is needed from the international community. Somalis aren’t just hungry because it’s suppertime, like the 5000 plus people in the gospel; they’re starving! And they won’t be saved by some wonderworker miraculously multiplying loaves and fishes, but by the international community (that’s us) inviting them and assuring them to “Come, all of you who are thirsty; there’s plenty of water for you! Come, you who have no money; there’s free grain for you to eat!” (Is 55:1)
