Our Gospel presents us with the multiplication of the loaves and fish. In the Gospels of Saints Matthew and Mark there are two accounts of the feeding of a multitude. First, the feeding of the 5,000 and secondly, the feeding of the 4,000 of which we just heard. The feeding of the 5,000 is also accounted for in the Gospels of Saints Luke and John.
The Gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark, and Luke each contain an account of the Eucharistic narrative. It is here that our Blessed Lord takes into His holy and venerable hands bread and wine saying “This is My Body” “This is My Blood.” The Gospel of Saint John is lacking this narrative, but is deeply rooted in Eucharistic theology through what is known as the Bread of Life discourse. It is this discourse which takes up the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel and is given following the feeding of the 5,000.
Through the feeding of this multitude we are told that they were filled. In Saint John’s Gospel we are told that “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Through these words we can see how the Lord fills us in the Eucharist. Instead of placing our trust in Him we attempt to be filled through other pursuits. These pursuits will always leave us wanting more.
Our heart longs for union with Christ. We enter into such communion with Him through the Eucharist. We should never allow ourself to become so busy that we forget about Christ and His abundant love for us. The Lord is inviting us to enter into such communion with Him. As Saint Ignatius of Antioch stated, “I hunger for the bread of God, the flesh of Jesus Christ; I long to drink his blood, the gift of unending love.”
Each of us has such hunger. Our bodies must be nourished by food for without food we cannot live. At the same time we must allow our soul to be nourished by the Lord. He does this for us when we present ourself to Him and come to be nourished the Eucharist. Therefore, the Lord in the working of this great miracle provided not only physical, but spiritually for them. The Lord continues to work in such wondrous ways for us.
As Saint Jerome stated, “If Christ did not want to dismiss the Jews without food in the desert for fear that they would collapse on the way, it was to teach us that it is dangerous to try to get to heaven without the Bread of Heaven.” Here Saint Jerome is supplying us with an important imagery of this Heavenly food which becomes food for our journey towards the Kingdom of Heaven.
Wherever our devotion to Him is found waning let us be reinvigorated in our love for Christ and His presence among us. The Eucharist is truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ and so our heart must long for this unity with Christ. Let us make time to pray before Him, to receive Him reverently, to make sure that our soul is found in the state of grace, and to be filled.
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