Dec 1: The Miraculous Feeding of the Multitude

Giovanni Lanfranco: The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fish

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 15:29-37

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way (NRSV, Mt 15:32).’

Heavenly Father, when you are not the center and focus of our lives, we are constantly ill at ease, uncomfortable with who we are and where we are, always searching, searching, searching. The crowd of over 4000, attracted by Jesus’ charisma, followed him out into the desert, searching and listening. And they were hungry. The story tells us, Father, that with seven loaves and a few fish Jesus fed them so abundantly that, after the crowd had eaten its fill, there were seven baskets of fragments remaining. For a moment their stomachs were full and everything was alright. But only for a moment, really an illusory moment. Jesus’ disciples, not understanding what he was truly about, still forgot to bring bread again and of course they became hungry again.

Father, when our attention is on you and your coming kingdom, when our focus is beyond this world, on the world to come, then and only then, do we begin to find ourselves. Only then do we begin to be at ease, at one with everything that is. Only then do we give up searching, searching, searching, because we realize that it is rather you, Lord, who have been searching, searching for us, constantly offering us more than we can conceive if simply we would say “yes.”

To be human is always to be called to something more, called to grow, called to new life. But to be human does not necessarily mean to want. The life that you, Father, offer to us in such abundance is ever beyond our expectation, beyond any reality for which we might hope. Your gift of life to us, even as we grow in it, precludes wanting. There is only want when we turn away from you in sin, when we say “no” to your gift and choose self. And then we are like the multitude in the desert or even Jesus’ disciples before they understood. We find ourselves in great need, so very confused about what it is that we seek, what it is that we require.

Strengthen us always, Lord God, that we may feed constantly upon your life so that our being may rest ever more and more in you and never be wanting again.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.