St. Mary's Church Elizabeth, IL

7/20

Read John, Chapter 5 Verses 1 To 15

Our daily bread and more

Apart from the Passion narrative, the account of the multiplications of the bread by Jesus is the closest John gets to the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 14:13-21 and 15:32-39; Mark 6:30-44 and 8:1-10; Luke 9:10-17). To be sure though, John adds new features and insights that are typical of his perspective on Jesus: Passover is near (verse 4), Jesus - not the disciples - takes the initiative (verse 5) and puts his disciples to the test (verse 6; see Exodus 16:4 and Deuteronomy 8:2 about manna). In addition, bread supplied by young boy is made of barley, considered the bread of the poor (Judges 7:13; Ezekiel 4:12), and is the same kind of bread that was multiplied by the prophet Elisha to feed the crowd of a hundred people (2Kings 4:42-44).

Verses 12 and a13 remind us of the "beginning of signs" at Cana, the "filling" of the twelves baskets being parallel to the "filling" of the six jars of water, while we also find the same sequence-order given by Jesus, order fulfilled. Compare "He told his disciples: 'Gather up the fragments...so they gathered them up" with "Fill the jars with water.' And they filled them up" (John 2:7). On top of this, John is the only evangelist to lend to Jesus the long homily-like speech on the "bread of life." We find again the connection between deed and word, sign and meaning.

The twelve baskets of fragment collected upon the order given by Jesus are bread destined for the whole Church in every age. We could paraphrase here what Loisy said about Cana and claim about such overabundant bread given by Jesus that "the church still eats from it!"

→How does our Eucharist challenge us to commit ourselves to satisfying the needs of the poor?

Prayer Starter: We thank you, Lord, for the gift of your bread. Help us realize the responsibility we have to distribute and share the fragments you have left for the starving crowds of our times.

Copyright: God's Word Today, 2006, Bayard Inc.

P.S. Alfred Loisy (28 February 1857-1 June 1940), was a French Roman Catholic priest, professor and theologian

Fr. Joachim