Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes

28 July 1991
Garum, Indonesia

My dear Confreres,

When we decide to give gifts to our friends at Christmas or on other occasions during the year, we like to prepare the gifts carefully. We look for a nice box or some fancy paper in which to put our gift. Then we may place in the box or parcel a card on which we write some lines of greeting. All this preparation helps the recipients of our gifts to enjoy the sensation of wondering or guessing what the gift might be.

When Jesus Christ came to give us the greatest gift He could, He prepared that gift very carefully. First, He promised the gift. Then later He prepared the setting or the room in which He would present the gift to His disciples and to us.

Today's Gospel is an account of some of the preparations which Our Lord made for giving us the gift of the Eucharist. In this sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, you will notice how carefully Our Lord prepares His disciples for the gift He is going to give them. He begins by asking Philip a simple question: "Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?" (Jn 6:5). Before we hear Philip's answer, St. John himself interrupts. "He only said this," observes St. John, "to test Philip. He Himself knew exactly what He was going to do." (Ibid., v. 6). That is a little point which St. John likes to bring out in his Gospel, namely, that Jesus is Lord and Master of every situation.

After that Andrew makes his contribution to the community discussion. He does so, however, without much confidence, and he admits it. "There is a boy here with five barley loaves and two fish, but what is that among so many?" (Ibid., v. 9). Andrew must have been the most surprised of all when he saw that his suggestion was accepted by Jesus. The only person who could have been more surprised was the little boy, who must have wondered if he was going to lose completely the bread and the fish his mother had given him that morning.

Jesus is Lord of every situation, and so He uses the lunch of a little boy to feed a great multitude of people. He does the same today. No matter what evil people do, no matter how depressed we may sometimes feel about the future of this world, Jesus Christ, as we say so often in our prayers, "lives and reigns forever and ever."

Jesus today uses our gifts, our talents, the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brows, just as He used the lunch of the little boy in today's Gospel. The little boy had to give away his lunch first, so that it could be brought to Jesus. So, too, with us. If we are to be of use to Jesus Christ, we must surrender to Him what we have and what we are.

All of us are like that little boy. We have something in our hands. For some it may be sickness and suffering. Jesus Christ invites the sick, the old, the lonely, to put their suffering in the chalice at Mass. He can use it for the salvation of the world. Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross. Christ and His members, the baptized, sacrifice themselves in the Mass. If in the course of our day we meet with suffering, disappointment, anything that hurts, we must try not to grumble. It is our Mass. People will be saved only by sacrifice. The only sacrifice of lasting value in the world is Christ's Sacrifice, the Mass. Only insofar as my life is a life of sacrifice, in which I have given all to God, will it be of use for the saving of the world. So with St. Ignatius I pray: "Dear Jesus, teach me to be generous. Teach me to give and not to count the cost...to look for no reward except knowing that I am doing Your holy Will."