Give them something to eat yourselves

In today’s second reading we are in the real world of Corinth in southern Greece in the year AD 57. Of course, there were no churches then and the only place where the Christian community could meet was in a large room of someone’s house. The only people with large rooms were the rich. The Eucharist was celebrated after the common meal, but the problem was that while the rich were eating and drinking well, the poor were overlooked and left hungry. Rather than bringing people together the Eucharist underlined the divisions already in the community. So, Paul wrote to them: When you hold these meetings, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you are eating, since when the time comes to eat, everyone is in such a hurry to start his own supper that one person goes hungry while another is getting drunk…… Surely you have enough respect for the community of God not to make poor people embarrassed? (1Corinthians 11:20-22) 

By contrast, in today’s Gospel the poor and the hungry are neither overlooked nor embarrassed. At first, however, they are almost dismissed by the apostles. When they are confronted with such a large number in such a lonely place the apostles’ reaction is to send the whole crowd away to look for food and shelter elsewhere. How can they minister to the needs of so many with so little themselves? And yet that is precisely what Jesus challenges them to do: ‘’Give them something to eat yourselves.’’ The apostles remind Jesus of the poverty of their resources: they have five loaves and fish. That is all.

Jesus takes the little they have and shows how the little they have is more than enough to answer the hunger of the crowd. In telling the story Luke uses the language associated with the Eucharist as he speaks of Jesus taking the bread……. Saying the blessing…… breaking…. And handing to his disciples. Luke does not say that Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish. The miracle is that when the apostles share the little, they have in the name of Jesus they discover that the crowd is satisfied. There is no need to send anyone away. In fact, there is enough left over to feed another crowd!

Sometimes when we are faced with people’s needs and look at our own resources we can sit down in a state of depression, believing that we have nothing to give. The hunger of people is so vast, and our abilities are so small: what can we do? But all care and all ministry is a sharing from poverty. Not one of us has all the answers; not one of us is a millionaire in mercy and compassion. Like the youngest son Simpleton in the fairy tale, we might have only a cinder cake and a sour beer; but the good news is that, that is enough for the hunger of the old man. It is also enough to inherit a kingdom.

We are challenged to be the body of Christ. Jesus shared himself; he gave himself away; he became bread for all who hunger and thirst for the presence of God. And the promise of the Gospel is that if we share our poverty then we too will inherit a kingdom prepared for us from the beginning of the world.