Someone wrote a few years back: A basketball in my hands is worth about $20; a basketball in Lebron James’ hands is worth about $ 35 million. It
depends whose hands it is in. A tennis racket is useless in my hands; a tennis racket in Rafael Nadal’s hands is a USA Open Championship. It depends whose hands it is in. We can multiply the examples in the secular world to come to the conclusion that almost everything depends on us, on our abilities. Two fish and five loaves of bread in my hands is a couple of fish sandwiches; two fish and five loaves in Jesus’ hands will feed thousands. It depends whose hands it is in. That’s how the world usually sees success…it depends whose hands it is. But, from a Christian point of view, nothing depends on our abilities, but on our availability. Let us look at the young boy in the gospel. The boy in our story was innocent, he was not yet contaminated by the greed of grown ups, so he was able to give the little he had. Probably everybody in that crowd had some bread, but they didn’t say anything. They thought only of themselves. To multiply the bread provided by this innocent boy was easy, but to transform the selfish hearts of the people was not.
We proclaim this gospel once more next Sunday because Jesus has to perform a bigger and more difficult miracle, the transformation of our hearts. Let me make this clear though: I’m not saying that Jesus didn’t do an actual multiplication of bread (because he did!), and we can’t just reduce this miracle to the theory of sharing. But, Jesus wants us also to reflect on the
consequences of the actual physical multiplication of the bread to our own unique situation. Aside from showcasing the power of Christ to physically multiply the bread, the essence of this miracle is also in our hands. Our hands used by Jesus are worth millions. We look at our meager resources and say to God: “But what are these among so many”? We never have enough money, enough bread to solve the big problems of the world. Hundreds of people die of hunger every day. It is an endless and monumental task. The story of the multiplication of the five loaves and the two fish reminds us of just what God can do when we give him what we have. The disciples offered Jesus a practical solution to the problem they were facing that day: “Send the people away, let them solve their own problems.” Today we are here, but are we like those twelve disciples who felt helpless and blamed the people for their unplanned journey? True, in order to remove the burden of personal responsibility, sometimes we talk much about collective guilt, one blames the state, the politicians and the times we live in. And many times understandably so, but the problem is one blames almost everybody but oneself. If God is so powerful, why doesn’t he multiply bread for so many millions who die every day from hunger? God made you and me and wants all of us to share the little we have. We provide the bread and let God take care of the miracle. Nothing happens unless we allow God to use us. Our meager resources are the raw material Jesus needs for the manifestation of his miracles. – Fr. Cary