Matthew 15:29-37
Jesus went on from there and reached the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he went up into the hills. He sat there, and large crowds came to him bringing the lame, the crippled, the blind, the dumb and many others. The crowds were astonished to see the dumb speaking, the cripples whole again, the lame walking and the blind with their sight, and they praised the God of Israel.
But Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them off hungry, they might collapse on the way." The disciples said to him: "Where could we get enough bread in this deserted place to feed such a crowd?" Jesus said to them: "How many loaves have you? Seven, they said, and a few small fish." Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and he gave thanks and broke them and handed them to the disciples who gave them to the crowds. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected what was left of the scraps, seven baskets full.
Sacredspace.ie asks of the daily reading - what are you saying to me, Lord? And it jumps out at me today. All the needs of our world that seem so overwhelming, all the needs of my parish where I work, that I don't think I have the resources to address - I actually have plenty - if I turn to Jesus to feed the masses. I feel like I've been fiddle faddling (an ancient theological term) and spinning my wheels on trivia or on procrastinating from planning because I don't see how we'll ever do what needs to be done, how we'll become what we should be as a church. But that is not really my problem. That is God's problem and I need to turn to him to multiply the loaves and feed the people.
Jesus went on from there and reached the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he went up into the hills. He sat there, and large crowds came to him bringing the lame, the crippled, the blind, the dumb and many others. The crowds were astonished to see the dumb speaking, the cripples whole again, the lame walking and the blind with their sight, and they praised the God of Israel.
But Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them off hungry, they might collapse on the way." The disciples said to him: "Where could we get enough bread in this deserted place to feed such a crowd?" Jesus said to them: "How many loaves have you? Seven, they said, and a few small fish." Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and he gave thanks and broke them and handed them to the disciples who gave them to the crowds. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected what was left of the scraps, seven baskets full.
Sacredspace.ie asks of the daily reading - what are you saying to me, Lord? And it jumps out at me today. All the needs of our world that seem so overwhelming, all the needs of my parish where I work, that I don't think I have the resources to address - I actually have plenty - if I turn to Jesus to feed the masses. I feel like I've been fiddle faddling (an ancient theological term) and spinning my wheels on trivia or on procrastinating from planning because I don't see how we'll ever do what needs to be done, how we'll become what we should be as a church. But that is not really my problem. That is God's problem and I need to turn to him to multiply the loaves and feed the people.
