You feed them

       It isn't that I do not believe in miracles, I surely do. I have a problem though, a doubt about the miracle noted in today's passage.  It seems to rake against every logical and practical thing I believe. It's not that I think God can't do it, or wouldn't do it, it is simply that it is contrary to anything I have ever experienced or seen. Is there some other meaning or intent to this passage?

     I have heard several explanations about this passage over the years. Some speak to an outright miracle and others speak to the miraculousness or a willingness to share. There is one that fits into my understanding of things.  The statement 'You give them something to eat" speaks as loudly today as it did in that remote deserted place.  We have a communal responsibility to feed.  It is a need of all living things if not a right. Even if you do not physically feed the masses we must at lest give our brothers and sisters the means to which they can obtain food.

        In today's passage we have a situation that is not life threatening. This is no caravan seeking salvation or freedom from a war torn foreign land, tyranny or requiring asylum. The people in this passage came to Jesus out of another hunger, a spiritual hunger to feed their own innate ( divine ) nature.  They hungered to be fed and to drink the 'living water'.  A Republican might say, feed yourselves you lazy dopey bastard, you came out here into nowhere without preparations for food? I don't believe that is how we are called to act or react.  Just as the Apostles were tasked with feeding the masses , so are we tasked with feeding our brothers and sisters.

          Many years ago in a class on religious formation we were asked to set out many brown shopping bags all opened, sitting and lined up. They represented the world. The bag that was labelled United States was overflowing and yet, it represented a relatively minuscule population compared to the entire world. The other bags 'of the world' were all partially filled or empty.  It is a sad testimonial that such a small percentage of God's beloved creation consumes and controls such an overwhelmingly large mount of food.  We can easily see that God is saying to us, the U.S us, 'you feed them'. We certainly have the means and if we truly believe in the brotherhood of mankind, we are indeed responsible.

        The food is there, the logistics are there, perhaps it is our own hearts that are not there. Perhaps there needs to be a paradigm shift of tectonic proportions.  Jesus did not say that the masses were dopes for coming out into the deserted place to hear him.  Those people were certainly not desperate in ways we would know of famines and political escape caravans. Still Jesus said 'you feed them'. Are we less responsible, especially if you claim to be His follower? We are responsible no matter what we believe as dogma or faith because we are all brothers and sisters. Period.

       

Mark 6:30-44

 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late;send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.