Give Them Something To Eat Yourselves

God feeds us.  We become more.  Through us God feeds our neighbor.  

We see pain and feel it.  God feels it.  

We cry out, praying to God.  God hears us.  

We can get stuck crying out.  We are empowered to do more.  God wishes more done in us.

We call out.  Yet God seeks more from us.  We seek food.  God wants us feeding each other.  

In today's Gospel, we hear that, when Jesus received the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded, 

he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to Heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.*  

The disciples realized the need of the crowds.  The disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds away so they could go get something to eat.  The disciples saw, but with their physical senses and functions, rather than with the eyes of faith.  The disciples did not realize how Jesus wished to feed the crowds.  The disciples did not realize Jesus wanted to feed them as well as the crowds.  

Jesus proceeded to multiply the five loaves of bread and the two fish, so that the thousands were fed with what at first seemed to be so little food.  In the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes, we see a prefiguring of the Eucharist, of Jesus' giving of Himself, His sacrifice of Himself.**  

When the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds away, He told the disciples to give the crowds something to eat themselves.  Jesus wanted to feed the crowds through the faith of the disciples.  

In our faith, we feed each other.  When we embrace our faith, God works through us.  Jesus could have said to the disciples, "Give them something to eat: yourselves."  

When we give of ourselves, we feed our neighbor.  When we offer ourselves as sacrifices, we join our sacrifice with the sacrifice of Jesus.  In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of the Body of Christ.***  

When we partake of the Body and the Blood of Christ, we become what we receive.****  When we receive the Eucharist, we become Eucharist.  Having become Eucharist, we can be Eucharist to each other.  Jesus, in us, feeds our neighbor through us.  

As we embrace this mystery, we consent to the growth of the faith in us.  As we see with the eyes of faith, we invite God to work through us.  

Jesus was not telling the disciples not to bother him, to give the crowds something to eat themselves since He was not going to give the crowds something to eat.  Nor was He going to simply give the crowds something to eat.  

Rather Jesus wanted not only to feed the crowds with food, but feed the faith of those present.  He was beginning to tell us that we feed each other when we give of ourselves.  

Right now many people are starving, some for food.  Others are starving because they feel discouraged or hopeless in the face of the challenges that the coronavirus has brought, social distancing, lockdown, loss of income, inability to pay bills, including rent, lack of money to buy food, not being able to visit sick family members and friends.  

In your faith, in the faith that God has given you, you can help provide the hope that some need.  Through your faith, you can strengthen the weak, those who are collapsing on the way.  You can be given; you can be Eucharist to your neighbor.  God can give life through you.  

* Matthew 14:13-21

** The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1335.  

*** The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1368.  
**** Saint Pope Leo the Great, Sermo 12 de Passione, 3, 6-7, PL 54, 355-357.