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In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost.
We read the Gospel from year to year, and from
generation to generation in new contexts, in the face of now situations,
whether they are historical or personal. And every time, a passage or
another may strike us in a new way.
Today we have read the passage about the feeding of the multitude by
Christ. And more often than not I have read in the Fathers and in the
spiritual writers their sense of wonder at the mercy of God and of the
power of God Who could feed so many with so little, Who could indeed,
work miracles within a world so much estranged from Him, when just a
glimpse of faith, a crack in our armour of faithlessness allowed Him to
act.
And reading today this passage of the Gospel I was
struck anew with words of Christ. The disciples call upon Him to send
away the multitudes, because the day is spent, distance from the place
where they are to the neighbouring villages is great, tiredness will
overcome them, and darkness, if they stay longer. And yet, they have not
eaten a whole day, listening to the life-giving word of Christ.
And Christ says to the disciples: No, they need not depart; y o u
give them to eat... How can they feed a multitude of that kind? A
thousand men, women, children, and all they have is five loaves of bread
and two fishes? And here is a challenge of Christ to them, and of Christ
to us. Yes — in a way, God alone can perform this miracle; but not if we
do not contribute with openness of heart, and with an open hand. He did
not say to His disciples: Keep as much as you need for yourselves, and
give the rest, your left-over to others. He says to them: Take all you
have, and give it all...
Isn't it something which the Lord says to us n o w,
in a very special way, in days where we are so secure, so rich, so
opulent, and when we hear day after day of the hunger, the misery, the
death indeed from starvation of thousands and thousands of people. And
what the Lord says to us is simply: Give what you have and let Me act
afterwards; do not ask Me to work a miracle where you could do the thing
yourselves...
The Apostles could do little; they could share only
five loaves and two fishes; but we can share so much! If our hearts were
open, and from hearts of stone God had made hearts of flesh within us,
if we had learned anything of generosity and of mutual responsibility,
if we had learned a little, o, so little! — about loving our neighbour
actively, there would be no hunger in the world.
And what this Gospel says to us today, is, ‘look
round’; look round at every person who is hungry, every person who is
homeless, every person who is in need, and r e m e m b e r that each of
these persons is your own responsibility, that all their hunger, all
their homelessness, all their misery is ultimately the result of you
opulence, your comfort, your richness and your refusal to share, to
give. Not to give beyond your means — just to give.
If we only remembered, as one Saint, whose name I
can't recall now, says in one of his writings, that whenever he eats a
morsel which is not a necessity, whenever he acquires or possesses
anything beyond his strict needs, he has s t o l e n it from the hungry,
s t o l e n it from the homeless, stolen it from the one who has no
cloths — he is a thief.
Isn’t that addressed to us much more sharply than to
this ascetic?
We must reflect on this, because we are behaving like bad, unworthy
stewards; there i s such thing as stewardship of wealth — intellectual,
emotional, moral and material. You remember probably the story of the
unworthy, the unfaithful steward who had cheated his master, stolen from
him, and when he was to be dismissed by his master who had discovered
his dishonesty, he called the people who owed money to his master, and
reduced their debt. This is something which we could learn. He turned to
people, and gave whatever help he could; w e d o n o t. Let us reflect
on these words of Christ: They need not depart from My presence to order
to eat; give them you what they need... And if we looked round us, not
far beyond but just round us at the needs of people who are hungry, who
are homeless, who are deprived of rights, or simply our neighbours who
are at times s o lonely, need a word of comfort, need friendship,
solidarity, we would begin to fulfil this commandment of Christ.
But let us not deceive ourselves; it is not by words
of consolation, by kind gestures that we will have fulfilled it. Christ
said: Give all you have... and to us perhaps, taking into account the
little faith which we have, and the narrowness and hardness of our
heart, He will say: Give what is superfluous in your life — but give
true thought to what is superfluous, to what you spend on yourself
unnecessarily, without even deriving true joy and pleasure, an advantage
from it — g i v e it, and then, leave it to God to fulfil the gift, to
do the rest.
This is the judgement of God upon me; it is also the call of God
addressed to each of you. Amen! |
