Thoughts for the Day

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.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

We have seen before how the first Gospel writer, Mark, is keen to get moving. He does not mention the birth of Jesus, but starts with the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus. Two weeks after celebrating the birth of Jesus our Lectionary also wants to be moving onwards, and we come to the story of the feeding of the 5,000 as part of the spread of Jesus' work. Based in Capernaum he begins by teaching the people, and he soon has a large following.

I have an old fashioned cine-camera and a reel-to-reel projector with a number of old films, which includes my wedding day in 1965. The projector bulb shines extremely brightly at the white screen until the film is attached to the two reels when suddenly the pictures appear. Many of the figures are a little static since we were getting used to creating a moving picture rather than a photograph.

Today's reading shows us symbolically Jesus spreading the 'light' of God's Kingdom to the people who sit in the 'darkness' of ignorance and sin. His bright light is to shine first through the disciples, who have the faith to pass on the bread and fish, and then through those who were spiritually hungry and who were fed.

It's no different for us today. When we turn to Christ He will feed our spiritual hunger. What we do with it is up to us!

Lord Jesus Christ,
You are always ready to teach us
when we turn to You,
but all too often we are too busy
or too preoccupied with worldly cares
to hear or respond to Your words.
May this be the year we put You
at the centre of our life
and take nourishment from You.
Amen.