Friday of
the 2nd Week of Easter
Memorial
of Saint Athanasius
May 2, 2014 8:30am
The miracle that we hear in
today’s gospel is contained in all four gospels.
It may be the only one contained
in all four gospels.
But there are some details that
are unique to Saint John’s telling of the story.
Only John notes that this happens
close to the feast of the Passover.
This seems to be saying that an
intervention of God is about to happen, something like God’s intervention at
the time of the Exodus which, of course, the Passover remembers.
Only John states that the loaves
of bread are barley loaves.
Barley was the food for the poor,
so this shows that these people are probably poor and here is Jesus taking care
of them.
And on that point, only John says
that Jesus takes the initiative to feed all these people.
In the other gospels, it is one
of the apostles either taking the initiative to get rid of everybody or to feed
them.
This initiative hints at John’s
point that the work of salvation is God’s initiative on our behalf.
Finally, Jesus directs that the
leftovers be carefully gathered together so they would not be wasted.
There is something very touching
about this action.
Jesus starts not by doing
something extraordinary like turning stone into bread as he was tempted to do
in the desert.
Instead, he starts by taking what
is there, the food these people have.
And with that, he feeds everyone
and satisfies their hunger.
And then he is concerned about
waste.
Instead of wasting anything, he
wants it saved apparently so that he and maybe they can go and feed others who are
also hungry.
John’s details are beautiful,
touching, and instructive for us.
I have to imagine Pope Francis
really liking this passage!
