43 — THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Presence of God. — O Jesus, true bread of eternal life, satisfy my hunger.

Meditation

1 — Today’s Sunday is a pause of holy gladness, of spiritual refreshment that the Church, as a good mother, offers us halfway through the austere Lenten practices, almost to restore our strength. “Rejoice, O Jerusalem - sings the Introit of the Mass - and all you that love her, exult with joy and be filled with the abundance of her delights.” What are these delights? The Gospel of the day (Jn. 6, 1-15) answers us with the account of the multiplication of the loaves, the great miracle by which Jesus willed to dispose the crowds for the announcement of a miracle far more astounding, the institution of the Eucharist, whereby He, the Master, would become our bread, “the living bread come down from heaven” (Jn. 6, 41) for nourishment of our souls. Here is the reason for our joy; here is the source of our delights: Jesus is the bread of life, always at our disposal to satisfy our hunger.

But Jesus, though valuing spiritual values far better than we do, does not forget and does not despise man’s material needs. Today’s Gospel presents Him surrounded by a multitude that had followed Him to listen to His teachings; Jesus thinks of that people’s hunger, and to provide for it He works one of the most astounding miracles: five loaves and two fish, blessed by Him, suffice to feed five thousand men, with twelve baskets left over.

Jesus knows that when man is tormented by hunger, by material necessities, he is incapable of attending to things of the spirit. Charity also requires in us this understanding of others’ material needs, an effective understanding translated into practical action. “If a brother or sister be naked and in need of daily food, and one of you says: ‘Go in peace...’ without giving them the things necessary for the body, what does it profit?” (Jas. 2, 15 and 16).

The Apostles had proposed to the Master to dismiss the crowd so that all could go “to buy themselves something to eat” (Mt. 14, 15). Jesus did not accept, and willed to provide personally. You too should try, as far as you can, never to send away a needy neighbor without giving him your help.

2 — Before working the miracle Jesus asks Philip: “Where shall we buy enough bread to feed these people?” and the Evangelist observes: “He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.” There is no difficult circumstance in our life whose solution God does not know; for every case, even the most intricate, He has foreseen and keeps ready the remedy from all eternity. Yet before difficult circumstances, at times He seems to leave us alone, as though the solution had to come from us; but He does this only to test us. He wants us, measuring ourselves alone against difficulties, to realize more deeply our impotence and insufficiency; and on the other hand, He wishes to exercise us in faith, in trust in Him. In reality, the Lord never abandons us unless we are first to leave Him; He only hides Himself and hides His work in darkness: then is the time to believe, to believe firmly, and to wait with humble patience, with full trust.

The Apostles inform Jesus that a boy has five loaves and two fish: very little indeed, rather nothing, to feed five thousand men; yet the Lord asks for a nothing, and uses it to work the great miracle. It is always thus: almighty God, who can do all things and create from nothing, when He stands before a free creature, does not will to act without its cooperation. Very little is what man can do, but God wills that little, asks it, requires it as the condition of His intervention. Only the Lord can sanctify you, just as only He could multiply the little provisions of the boy; yet He asks for your cooperation. You too, like the boy of the Gospel, give Him all that is in your power, that is, present to Him every day your resolutions, always renewed with constancy and love, and He will work for you too a great miracle, the miracle of your sanctification.

Colloquy

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who on the cross, with arms outstretched, drank, for the redemption of all men, the chalice of unspeakable sorrows, deign today to give me help. Behold: I, poor, come to You, rich; miserable, I present myself to You, merciful: oh, grant that I may not depart from You empty and disappointed. Hungry, I come to You; do not permit that I leave You fasting; famished, I approach: oh, grant that I may not depart without having been satisfied by You; and if before eating I sigh, grant that after sighing I may be nourished” (St. Augustine).

Yes, I hunger for You, true bread, living bread, bread of life. You know my hunger, hunger of soul and hunger of body, and for both You have willed to provide. With Your doctrine, with Your Body and with Your Blood You satisfy my spirit, You satisfy it abundantly, setting no measure, except that which I myself set by the coldness of my love, by the narrowness of my heart. You have prepared for me a rich and bountiful table beyond all telling, to which, to be nourished, I need only draw near; and You not only receive me, but make Yourself my food and my drink, You give Yourself wholly to me: wholly in Your Divinity, wholly in Your Humanity.

And then, in Your infinite goodness, You have prepared a table also for my body, and with Your providence You nourish it, clothe it, keep it alive like the lilies of the field, like the birds of the air. You know my necessities, my anguishes, my worries for the past, for the present, for the future, and for all You provide with fatherly love. O Lord, how should I not trust in You, how should I not cast every care of mine into You, certain that You will have a remedy for everything? To You then I entrust my life: life of the body, earthly life with all its necessities, with all its labors; life of the spirit with all its demands, its anxieties, with all its hunger for the infinite. You alone can fill the capacity of my heart; You alone can make me happy; You alone can realize my ideal of holiness, of union with You.