17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
John 6:1-35
Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee – or of Tiberias – and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.
Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself.
A YOUNG MAN’S DEED
by José Antonio Pagola
Of all the things done by Jesus during his prophetic activity, the most remembered by the first Christian communities was surely a huge meal organized by him out in the countryside, near the lake of Galilee. It’s the only story recounted in all the Gospels.
The content of the story concerns a great wealth. As is his custom, John in his Gospel doesn’t call it a «miracle», but rather a «sign». That’s how he invites us to not get stuck in the deeds narrated, but to discover a more profound meaning from the perspective of faith.
Jesus is in center stage. No one asks him to intervene. He himself is the one who senses the hunger of that people and who suggests the need to feed them. It’s moving to know that Jesus doesn’t just feed the people with the Good News of God, but that he’s also concerned about the hunger God’s children feel.
How to feed a crowd in the middle of the countryside? The disciples can’t find a way. Philip says that no one can think about buying bread, since they don’t have money. Andrew thinks that they could share what’s there, but the young man only has five loaves and a few fish. What’s that among so many?
For Jesus it’s enough. That nameless and faceless young man is going to make possible what seems impossible. His readiness to share all that he has is the path to feed those people. Jesus will do the rest. He takes in his hands the young man’s loaves, he gives thanks to God, and begins to «distribute them» among all.
The scene is fascinating. A crowd sitting in the green grass of the countryside, sharing a free meal on a Spring day. It’s not a banquet of the rich. There’s no wine or meat. It’s the simple food of the people who live along the lake: barley bread and salted fish. A fraternal meal served by Jesus to everyone, thanks to a young man’s generous deed.
This shared food was for the early Christians an attractive symbol of the community, born of Jesus to build a new and fraternal humanity. At the same time it brought to mind the Eucharist that they celebrated on the Day of the Lord, so they could be nourished by the spirit and the power of Jesus: the Living Bread come from God.
But they never forgot the young man’s deed. If there’s hunger in the world, it’s not because of the scarcity of food, but the lack of solidarity. There’s bread for all; the generosity to share it is lacking. We’ve left the progress of the world in the hands of an inhuman economic power, we’re afraid to share what we have, and people die of hunger because of our senseless selfishness.
The Bread: Cause of Conflict and Sign of Communion
Fernando Armellini
Introduction
The Israelites were caught by panic in front of the Canaanites. To instill courage in them, Joshua and Caleb, men of imposing stature, exclaimed: “Do not be afraid, for they will be bread for us!” (Num 14:9). Curious coincidence: the Hebrew root of the word “bread” is composed of the same consonants of the verb “to fight,” as if to indicate that the struggle for food is the stirring cause of wars. Even the disagreements between Israel and the Lord are derived from the scarcity of bread, “In Egypt we sat down to eat all the bread” (Ex 16:3).
Only when bread is shared, it ceases to be a source of competition and strife and becomes a sign of love and brotherhood.
Eating bread with someone is to consider him one’s own intimate, a friend whom one grants trust, an ally from which one does not expect any betrayal (Ps 41:10). The strongest tension, the most poisonous resentments are manifested in silence at table and more embarrassing discussions that break out among the diners.
The banquet is, by its nature, an expression of peace and reconciliation (Gen 31:53-54), this is why God has chosen it as the image of his kingdom. He will lavish a banquet in which “the lowly will eat and be satisfied” (Ps 22:27).
Here’s his dream: one day to contemplate all his children, the olive shoots, around his table (Ps 128:3).
Gospel Refection
After five consecutive Sundays the reading of the Gospel of Mark will stop. Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John is proposed instead. The story of the multiplication of loaves starts today and continues in the coming weeks, with the famous discourse on the bread of life given by Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum.
In interpreting this chapter, one can make the mistake of assuming that it is about the Eucharist from beginning to end. It should be avoided in order not to lose the richness of the message of each passage. The theme of the Eucharist goes in the background of the discourse, but, explicitly, it is introduced only at the end.
Of all the signs wrought by Jesus, not one is told as many times as the multiplication of the loaves. All the evangelists report at least once, Matthew and Mark even two; it is reported six times in all.
How come this fact has been given so much importance in the early church?
It is because it was really clamorous and sensational; it very much impressed a people accustomed to eating only once a day. It is true, the chronic hunger of the Israelites can partly explain, but not all the interest in this episode. Jesus accomplished the most extraordinary miracles that are told once. Why so much insistence on the bread?
Today we are offered John’s version of the episode. It is different in many details from the others. We will not dwell on these differences, nor will we strive to establish what really happened. We plunge right away instead in the message and we will try to highlight it in every important detail of the story.
Let’s assume an important observation: the text does not use the word “multiplication;” we use it in the titling, which is not inspired, of the gospel passages. The gospel speaks only of the pooled loaves and fish, the distribution of the same, the result—all of them were given “as much as they wanted”—and the collection, in twelve baskets, of the left over bread, a sign of a food which will never run out. That’s all here. The central message of the story should not be sought in the multiplication, but in the sharing.
We are affected by the craving to multiply all that is material: money, health, years of life, friendships, successes, and when we feel unable to multiply, we call upon God in order to do it for us. But the desire to multiply is a syndrome of death. It comes from the fear of death and failure; it is a sign of lack of faith.
Jesus, by his action, intends to answer to the problem of hunger, material starvation, not spiritual. There is the problem of hunger in the world and we would like that he solves with multiplications; Jesus, however, follows a different logic, a logic that cannot be neglectful, but involves and with joint responsibility.
The story begins with a chronological indication: “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand” (v. 4). This is not an information, but a theological framework that serves to highlight the significance of the episode. John wants the passage to be read in the context of the great celebration of the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
The parallel between the multiplication of the loaves and the events of the exodus is so important that the evangelist emphasizes it repeatedly: Jesus, like Moses crossing the sea (v. 1) and, one notes, there is no boat, just like in the Exodus; like Moses, Jesus is accompanied by numerous people and wins the trust of the masses by making great signs (v. 2). Twice (vv. 3,15) he goes up the mountain and sits down with his disciples, just as Moses was on the mountain, and often taught his people. During the Exodus Moses gave manna and, like him, Jesus feeds those who follow him. Fourteen times we see that the crowd acclaims him as “the prophet, the one who is to come into the world” (v. 14). An explicit reference to this prophecy made by God to Moses, “I shall raise up a prophet from their midst, one of their brothers, who will be like you. I will put my words in his mouth and he will tell them all that I command” (Dt 18:18).
All these references are intended to present Jesus as the new Moses who begins, with humanity, a new exodus, a passage from slavery to freedom, from an unsustainable and inhumane condition to real life.
The goal of the journey of Moses was the land of Canaan, that of Jesus is the true promised land, the Kingdom of God, the kingdom in which—as the prophets announced—all will have abundant and free food (Is 25:6).
It is not about paradise, afterlife, but, above all, of the here. Of course, the kingdom of God will be fulfilled at the end of time. However, the sign performed by Jesus indicates that the new society, one in which everyone is given the opportunity to live according to the plan of the Creator, where everyone can have sufficient resources to meet basic needs, must begin here and now.
But is it possible to create it? Is it conceivable that the resources of this world would be enough to feed everyone and still with leftovers?
The apostles’ doubts expressed with frankness and lucidity reflect our concerns. It is written in the Mishna, to meet the daily needs of the poor, 1/12 of a denar is needed. Philip does a quick calculation: with 200 denars 4800 half portions could be prepared (v. 7). But where to find a lot of money and a lot of bread?
In Luke’s Gospel the twelve forward another very realistic and acceptable proposal, “Send the crowd away and let them go into the villages and farms around, to find lodging and food” (Lk 9:12). In other words, this is an issue that does not concern the faith. They come to us to pray, meditate, listen to sermons; as for bread, each has to make do as he or she can. It is the idea, widespread even today, that there are two distinct separate and unconnected spheres: the kingdom of God on the one hand and material life on the other.
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother intervenes: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish,” then, as if he realized he had made a remark devoid of any common sense, he adds immediately, “But what good are they for so many?” (v. 9). There is little food and an immense crowd. Faced with a situation two hundred times less complicated, Elisha’s servant had the same reaction: “How am I to divide these loaves among so many people?”
Through an ingenious dialogue, Jesus revealed the strategies dictated by the wisdom of men to solve the problem of hunger in the world, which are our strategies and the evangelist has cleverly placed it on the mouth of the apostles.
The conclusion is reached: there is no solution; the mouths to feed are too many and resources are insignificant and spontaneously even the doubt that the creation is not completely successful comes up. The maximum that can be obtained in this world is a good organization of social assistance, but it is inconceivable that misery can be defeated.
It is at this point that Jesus promises his solution: “Make the people sit down” (v. 10). The idea that the kingdom of God, is carried out in a sphere separate from reality is thus rejected. The word of Christ is meant to be a social ferment, to transform the whole world and the whole person.
The “table” on which the banquet is laden is original. The crowd is asked to lie down on the green grass of a meadow. “There was plenty of grass there” (v. 10)—the evangelist notes—and this detail, seemingly marginal and superfluous, is significant because it refers explicitly, the words of the psalm: “The Lord is my … shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures” (Ps 23:1-2). If Jesus makes his sheep sit “in green pastures” it means that he presents himself as the shepherd announced by the prophets, that means the banquet of the kingdom of God is inaugurated (Is 25:6), that the new world comes up, the world in which no one will fight for food because there will be an abundance for all.
How will this new world be built?
Jesus points out what is his proposal by making a gesture: he takes the bread that was offered, distributes it and the miracle takes place, realized by faith in his word which is an invitation to sharing, renouncing to own and keeping for oneself.
John is the only evangelist who notes that the one who has made available to all the little food he had “was a child” and that his bread was “of barley” (v. 9), the staple food of the poor. The details about the child is unrealistic because, as we know, children are the first to consume the supplies; it is therefore unlikely that, among so many people, exactly a child and only one child has kept the snack. The symbolic value of the detail is rather obvious: in the gospel the child is the model of the disciple; those who want to enter the kingdom of heaven must be like children (Mk 10:15).
Now the message is clear: the poor child is the disciple called to make available to the brothers and sisters all that he has.
This is a great proposal; this is the key of the miracle!
It is enough that people put aside their selfishness, overcoming the greed to possess, “which is the root of every evil” (1 Tim 6:10), they welcome the logic of the Kingdom and make available to the brothers, without reservation, all that they have and the miracle happens: all are fed and had leftovers.
I mentioned that the chapter 6 of John is not, from the beginning, about the Eucharist. The theme of today’s passage is the sharing of goods and spiritualistic interpretation should be avoided. However, one cannot but note that the story has Eucharistic overtones. In the description of Jesus’ actions—“Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were seated” (v. 11)—is an obvious reference to the words of the institution of the Eucharist (Mk 14:22). It is the way in which John recalls to his and our communities that the problem of material food is strictly linked to the celebration of the Eucharist. It would make no sense to break the Eucharistic bread together and not to share the material bread.
