The multiplication of the loaves

It is the seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary time. And our Gospel today is a miracle that everyone already knows, but it is good to reiterate its message for the Christian faithful to always remember lest they no longer believe in this miracle. You can read this gospel story in John 6:1-15. It is called the multiplication of the loaves.

“6 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

“5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

“7 Philip answered him; “It would take more than half a year’s wages [a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

“8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

“12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”

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While the title of today’s gospel is the Multiplication of the Loaves, the other title of this gospel reading is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. As I mentioned in the previous article about this miracle, the Lord Jesus Christ could have easily given every single person in that deserted place a Jollibee burger and everyone would have been fed properly. But no, the Lord made sure that there were only five loaves of barley bread and two small fish to eat.

Rather than do the miracle by his lonesome, the Lord used his apostles to gather the suddenly swirling plenty of food to be given to each of the 5,000 there. Let me remind our readers that in ancient times, women and children were not counted in crowds. So that deserted place could very well have had more than 6,000 people rather than just 5,000.

After the end of this gospel, the ending reads “After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”

There is no doubt that the five or more thousand people who were fed that evening in that deserted place were not just filled by all the food that they consumed, all the food gathered in the end filled 12 baskets, which was even more than what they originally had before the miracle feeding frenzy. The message I want to impart to our readers is that our Lord just didn’t do this miracle on his own, he need the help or assistance of his 12 apostles. Just like today, the Catholic Church needs the services of priests, bishops, deacons, and nuns. This is why the Catholic Church needs the services of the clergy and men and women who volunteer to help support the church to serve our Jesus Christ.

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