The gospel reminds us that God can work wonders with the little we have if we give it all.

Today we remember the most famous picnic in religious history. Today’s Gospel recounts the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand with the multiplication of the loaves and the fish.

I invite you to envision this well known miracle story of Jesus feeding the five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish in a new way.

Imagine that the hungry crowd of 5,000 people represents all the people we will encounter through this coming week, beginning at the dismissal rite of this Mass.  These are the people God puts in our path as we journey this week … obviously your family members, the people who have gathered for this Eucharistic celebration in our parish community, the people you work with and vacation with, the incidental people you meet during the course of the week, the likeable as well as the unlikeable people of your life.

These are all God’s people.  In some real ways, they are hungry for that which gives them life.  They may or may not be physically hungry, but they are spiritually and emotionally hungry for the fullness of life.   Lord calls us to move out of our comfort zone and do something about it.

Imagine further that we are the five barley loaves and fish that Christ distributes in the world.  Yes, if we envision the Gospel account in this way, we are all challenged to give of ourselves in the service of others.  This is our spirituality.  This is the meaning of stewardship.  Pope Francis in his homily on this miracle account says its spiritual message is more about sharing than multiplying.

Barley loaves are the food of the poor.  Let our loaves represent that which is most broken, most vulnerable within us.  Let the barley loaves stand for the risk and vulnerability involved in reaching out to others, in moving out of our comfort zone in the service of others.  Let the loaves we distribute be like the risks of faith that our parents and grandparents, many within this very parish, took as they lived the life to which Christ called them and to which Christ calls us.  Thank you for the sharing that you do in financially contributing with your offertory envelopes.  This generosity is essential to support the ministries of the parish.

But to be clear, we are called to share beyond our finances.  We are to share of ourselves in feeding the spiritually and emotionally hungry that the Lord places in our lives.  In the Gospel account, God met the hunger of the people, beginning with the generosity of one of the least among them.

Imagine also that we are the fish that are distributed.  Fish supplies vital protein, a necessary ingredient in human life.  Human persons get sick if they lack protein. The evangelist John tells us that the crowd ate as much fish as they wanted – enough to fill them up.  What parts of us can we distribute this week that will fill others up?  Especially let us think of those whose plate and cup need filling.  This could be reaching out to a disliked person at work or a separated family member.  Such distribution of ourselves represented by the fish, like the barley loaves,   requires a great risk of faith.  Yet God calls to be such instruments of God’s mercy in the lives of others.

In the words of the Holy Father, the Church of the Holy Spirit is to be a Church of Mercy.  As we are fed and nourished in the mystery of the Eucharist and in our prayer in Eucharistic Adoration, we are to share the giftedness we have been given.  We are to share our five barley loaves and two fish so that the Lord’s reveals His love to the hungry through our generosity.  The Lord is merciful to us so that we can be merciful to others.

This Gospel miracle account is good news because it tells that God is concerned about people who hunger.  It is good news because it reminds us that God can work wonders  with the little we have if we are willing to give it all.  It is good news because it reminds us that with God in our midst, we can always make a banquet out of what seems to be pretty poor fare.

We need to pay attention to the physical needs of people but this means much more than an active tithing committee that doles out tons of money.  In the Gospel account, there is more here than just a great number of hungry people being wondrously fed and satisfied.  Jesus is gathering with the hungry in the context of a shared meal, not only to feed and to be fed but to enter into covenant with all those present.  Here Jesus sets an example for those who follow him in ministry.  Our task is not simply to dole out food but to take, bless, give thanks and share our food together with the hungry and the poor, thereby sealing our relationship with them.  We are to offer nourishment as well as commitment, food as well as fellowship.

The true miracle is not the multiplication of loaves and fish, but the multiplication of God’s grace.  The God who is the source of all life offers us the possibility of participating in the divine life by our sharing with others our five barley loaves and two fish.

When Jesus and the disciples ate together with the crowds who had gathered that day by the Sea of Galilee, they were announcing by their sharing that a new relationship was being established between Jesus, the disciples and all the hungry whom they fed.

Moreover, the meal of barley loaves and fish by the Sea of Galilee anticipated another even more significant meal that Jesus would host with his own.  This meal would remember the gift of himself on the cross and the covenant made with sinful humankind through his blood.  That meal would celebrate the union in love that believers would forever thereafter enjoy with God, with Jesus, with one another, in the Spirit.

The bread we receive from the hand of God is more than mere barley loaves.  It is the Eucharistic bread of full life, life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.