We just heard from the Gospel of John, chapter 6, my favorite chapter of scripture in the Bible.  We will be hearing from this chapter for three more weeks, so you will begin to figure out why I like it so much.

The feeding of the five thousand is a story that is recorded in each Gospel, which is an important note, even though there are only four Gospel accounts, they have a tendency to focus on different things since they were written for different audiences, and when there is a story like this that is recorded in all four, that makes it all the more important to pay attention to, this is an important miracle that shows how much God loves us and provides for all our needs.

At the same time, I have heard scholars and priests downplay this miracle, they say, this was a miracle of sharing.  It was a miracle that everyone shared their food with one another, isn’t that special? Maybe you have heard that before too, but it makes no sense.

From a biblical, theological standpoint it makes no sense because there is not a single mention or indication of sharing in any of the four Gospel accounts. Nothing to indicate sharing, except for the boy that had the five loaves and two fish, but even there it is reasonable to think that the apostles bought those from the boy since they were talking about the cost.  

From a human perspective it doesn’t make much sense either… ever go to a potluck with all of the same food? Not very likely that everyone shows up with just bread and fish.  And then rather than take your dish and your leftover food home, just let it go into common baskets?  No, we take our own food home, of course.

But biblically, the point is we shouldn’t take that much leeway with scripture.  Sure we can be imaginative and fill in some details, but when our imagination takes out the miracle of God providing for His people in abundance, it becomes problematic.

Scholars, sometimes priests, come up with novel problematic teachings all of the time.  When people question me as to “why?” I tell them it is simple, they have to come up with something new and defend it as truth, they defend their thesis or their doctoral paper so they can get an advanced degree, their masters or their doctorate, it’s not about God, it’s about them.

But this is about God, what God has done, what God is doing, what God will continue to do if we allow Him to work.  If we believe in Him and trust in His love for us He can and will do amazing things, if we have the eyes of faith to recognize.

This Gospel miracle by Jesus was preceded by our first reading in which we heard the prophet Elisha work a similar miracle in his day.  Twenty barley loaves feeding one hundred people was also unlikely, but it happened then, prefiguring a time when Jesus would come in and do something similar.  

Elisha was a prophet, everyone knew that. When he wanted to feed the people he was questioned, but then he worked this miracle with barley loaves and there was some left over.  

Jesus did the same thing, with the same pattern, questioned, barley loaves, leftovers, but He does it to a greater extent, and people recognize Him to be a prophet then as well, but more than that, the Messiah, “the one who is to come into the world.” And they want to carry Him off to make Him king.

But this is part of a series of signs, a series of miracles which helped the people to grow in trust, to help them to grow in faith, many signs and miracles were happening as the people arrived here, they were putting their faith in Jesus and were open to even greater things.

This needs to happen in our own lives, where we see the signs and grow in our faith, we grow in our love and trust, to the point that we can truly say as our responsorial psalm said, “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”

Do we really believe it?  Do we trust as we should?  Do we recognize the signs in our midst today and the blessings that we are given here and now?

Sometimes we are tempted to think that the good things that we get are just a matter of luck or a matter of our own efforts, our own intelligence, our own doing.  But in reality everything that we have has been given to us by God, and as we pray in the funeral Mass, “We give you thanks for the blessings which you bestowed upon us in this life: they are signs to us of your goodness...”

God is providing for us all of the time, if we have the eyes to see it.

So do we have the eyes to see Jesus present in the Eucharist?  This is what this particular sign was prefiguring.  Look, if Jesus can take five loaves of bread and feed five thousand, it is reasonable to think He can turn ordinary bread into His Body if He wants.  He is God after all!

Jesus was doing a lot of signs, some with food, but lots with healing.  In the Eucharist He combines the two for us.  It is a food miracle, but also it has the potential to be a healing miracle.  Here is how a good current theologian named Mary Healy describes it:

The sacraments are particularly efficacious ways in which Christ the divine physician continues his work of healing through the Church. The Catechism teaches that just as Jesus touched and healed the sick during his earthly ministry, “so in the sacraments Christ continues to ‘touch’ us in order to heal us.” 

The Church “believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that Saint Paul suggests is connected with bodily health.” 

The sacraments are grounded in the recognition that the body and matter are part of the goodness of creation and can be used by God as vehicles of his grace. Scripture teaches this sacramental understanding of the world.

In a sense all the sacraments can be understood as sacraments of healing, since all are efficacious for the healing of fallen human nature. It is preeminently in the Eucharist, the heart of Christian life, in which Christ’s total gift of himself on the cross is made present and available to us, that we experience his healing power. Saint Ignatius of Antioch called the Eucharist the “medicine of immortality.”

This is a beautiful reflection for us from Dr. Mary Healy, but a reminder, that if ever we need to pray for healing, it should be when receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, this is where we encounter God and it is as good of a time as ever to receive His healing touch.

But it comes from a series of signs, signs where God shows that He loves us.  Pay attention to the signs, don’t forget the signs that have led you to this point, and expect Him to do even greater things, to bless you abundantly, to answer all our needs.