I have a simple question for you today. Yes, on the surface, it’s a simple question. But I warn you, the response can be very complex. The question is this: What do we require in order to live, to have life, itself? Yes, what are our basic needs for life?
The first obvious requirement is “air” – air to breathe. Oxygen is an absolute necessity. Some may even want to specify we need “clean” air, or breathable air in order to live. The second answer would probably be: “water” – water to quench our thirst. During these past rain-free months, and in particular during the more recent high temperatures we’ve been experiencing, we are very aware of the need for water, for what we speak of in modern terms as “hydration.” And quickly we would add “food” to ward off hunger. Yes, air, water and food are surely the major resources we need in order to exist. And immediately after them come things like “clothing and shelter” to protect us from the weather we experience.
Of course these are not new ideas. Our recognition of the physical needs of the body in order to have life, itself, are found in the Book of Isaiah, the prophet who wrote some five centuries before Christ walked among us. A few minutes ago we heard Isaiah’s call to the Israelites: “Thus says the LORD: All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money come, receive grain and eat; come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fair. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.”
In hearing these words, do we also hear that, in addition to what we identified as the resources needed for life, there is still one more important requirement. We have a need for the LORD GOD as well. On behalf of the LORD, Isaiah said: “Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.”
Our gospel reading from Matthew continues to address this requirement. Once again, we heard how Christ, the new Covenant, made visible the words of Isaiah. The people believed Jesus could heal them. He could provide them with cures for their suffering bodies. Even when he tried to be alone, to attend to his own sorrow after the death of his kinsman, John the Baptist, even then, the crowds pursued him. And he responded.
As Matthew reports: “When he … saw the vast crowd [following him], his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.” And later that day, as evening fell upon the crowds, an event occurred which changed the course of the life of those who listened to him. His disciples, his closest followers, urged him to dismiss the crowds so they could go, independently, into the villages to buy food to sustain themselves. But instead of listening to their advice, Jesus chose a different path.
Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish offered to him by his disciples and blessed them. We are well aware how these meager resources were distributed to the crowd. How they ate of them. How their hunger was satisfied. And how the leftover fragments, when gathered together, filled twelve wicker baskets. But are we also aware of what this account of a miraculous event might add to our understanding of what is also required for life to exist? What is essential for life, itself? To the resources of water and food, to the need for air to breathe and for clothing and shelter from the elements, Jesus demonstrated there is also a requirement for “community,” for the coming together of the people, for the sharing of life, itself, with one another.
The disciples had urged him to disperse the crowds, to send them off so they could attend to their needs individually, privately. But Jesus did not do this. Instead, he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Jesus chose to keep them together as a community of followers rather than as individuals who would provide only for themselves among the “five thousand men … not counting women and children” who had been listening to him.
From this community, he obtained a meager resource: five loaves of bread and two fish. He blessed this offering, this sharing, and then he had another request. He did not have the crowd line up and receive individual handouts. Rather, he gave the blessed food to his disciples, his closest friends, and had them distribute the food to the rest of the community. And with their hunger satisfied, this community provided more than twelve times the amount of their original donation.
Sometimes, we tend to forget the importance of the community in the life we live. We are so focused on our own individual need for specific resources we fail to offer up what we have so that it can be blessed by the LORD GOD and returned twelve-fold.
For the past several weeks, we have heard the parables of Christ about the growth of seeds and the soil needed for this growth. We heard how the reign of God cannot be choked out by the evil of the world around us. We have been told the reign of God is like a mustard seed, like leaven in rising dough. We heard how it is like a buried treasure or a pearl of great price and must be eagerly pursued. And, finally, how the reign of God is like a fishnet which brings in a diverse collection to satisfy everyone.
And yet, the crowds who heard these parables did not really understand. Perhaps, this is why Jesus attempted to teach them through the specific actions he accomplished in today’s gospel reading. As important as the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we consume, the clothing and shelter needed for our protection, there is also a need for community, for the gathering together of his followers, for the sharing of meager resources which he blesses and multiplies.
Jesus asked his disciples, his closest friends, to be a significant part of this sharing as they, themselves, distributed these resources. And once the people had been satisfied, he also had his disciples gather together what the crowd had to offer in return.
After all, unless the gathered leftovers of the twelve baskets were to be given out, again, what is the purpose of their being gathered in the first place? Is it not to show the abundance of our God and how we are to continue to share his abundance with one another. His abundance is not to be hoarded for personal use later on. Rather, it is to be returned to him for further distribution among those in need.
St Paul knew the importance of all of this to life, itself, when he asked his questions to the Romans: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril of the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”
We may believe we, as individuals, require the resources of nature and of our own actions, to possess life. And while vast numbers in the secular world might agree, the followers of Christ, on the other hand, also recognize we are called to share the abundant gifts he has given us. We also realize that, together, we are the body of Christ, and as members of his body, this community of believers, we must act as one, on behalf of the head of this body, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen!
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time; July 31, 2011
Is 55:1-3; Rom 8:35, 37-39; Mt 14:13-21