From: John 6:1-15
The Miracle of the Loaves and Fish
[15] Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make
Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the hills by Himself.
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Commentary:
1. This is the second lake formed by the river Jordan. It is sometimes described
in the Gospels as the “Lake of Gennesaret” (Luke 5:1), because that is the name
of the area on the north-eastern bank of the lake, and sometimes as the “Sea of
Galilee” (Matthew 4:18; 15:29; Mark 1:16; 7:31), after the region in which it is lo-
cated. St. John also calls it the “Sea of Tiberias” (cf. 21:1), after the city of that
name which Herod Antipas founded and named after the Emperor Tiberius. In
Jesus’ time there were a number of towns on the shore of this lake — Tiberias,
Magdala, Capernaum, Bethsaida, etc.—and the shore was often the setting for
His preaching.
2. Although St. John refers to only seven miracles and does not mention others
which are reported in the Synoptics, in this verse and more expressly at the end
of the Gospel (20:30; 21:25) he says that the Lord worked many miracles; the
reason why the evangelist, under God’s inspiration, chose these seven must
surely be because they best suited His purpose—to highlight certain facets of
the mystery of Christ. He now goes on to recount the miracle of the multiplica-
tion of the loaves and the fish, a miracle directly connected with the discourses
at Capernaum in which Jesus presents Himself as “the bread of life” (6:35, 48).
4. St. John’s Gospel often mentions Jewish feasts when referring to events in our
Lord’s public ministry — as in the case here (cf. “The Dates of the Life of our Lord
Jesus Christ”, in the “The Navarre Bible: St. Mark”, pp. 49ff, and “Introduction to
the Gospel according to St. John”, pp. 13ff above).
Shortly before this Passover Jesus works the miracle of the multiplication of the
loaves and the fish, which prefigures the Christian Easter and the mystery of the
Blessed Eucharist, as He Himself explains in the discourse, beginning at verse
26 in which He promises Himself as nourishment for our souls.
5-9. Jesus is sensitive to people’s material and spiritual needs. Here we see Him
take the initiative to satisfy the hunger of the crowd of people who have been fol-
lowing Him.
Through these conversations and the miracle He is going to work, Jesus also tea-
ches His disciples to trust in Him whenever they meet up with difficulties in their
apostolic endeavors in the future: they should engage in them using whatever re-
sources they have—even if they are plainly inadequate, as was the case with the
five loaves and two fish. He will supply what is lacking. In the Christian life we
must put what we have at the service of our Lord, even if we do not think it
amounts to very much. He can make meager resources productive.
“We must, then, have faith and not be dispirited. We must not be stopped by any
kind of human calculation. To overcome the obstacles we have to throw ourselves
into the task so that the very effort we make will open up new paths” (St. J. Escri-
va, “Christ Is Passing By”, 160).
10. The evangelist gives us an apparently unimportant piece of information: “there
was much grass in the place.” This indicates that the miracle took place in the
height of the Palestinian spring, very near the Passover, as mentioned in verse 4.
There are very few big meadows in Palestine; even today there is one on the eas-
tern bank of the Lake of Gennesaret, called El-Batihah, where five thousand peo-
ple could fit seated: it may have been the site of this miracle.
11. The account of the miracle begins with almost the very same words as those
which the Synoptics and St. Paul use to describe the institution of the Eucharist
(cf. Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:25). This indicates
that the miracle, in addition to being an expression of Jesus’ mercy towards the
needy, is a symbol of the Blessed Eucharist, about which our Lord will speak a
little later on (cf. John 6:26-59).
12-13. The profusion of detail shows how accurate this narrative is—the names
of the Apostles who address our Lord (verses 5,8), the fact that they were barley
loaves (verse 9), the boy who provided the wherewithal (verse 9) and, finally, Je-
sus telling them to gather up the leftovers.
This miracle shows Jesus’ divine power over matter, and His largesse recalls the
abundance of messianic benefits which the prophets had foretold (cf. Jeremiah
31:14).
Christ’s instruction to pick up the leftovers teaches us that material resources
are gifts of God and should not be wasted: they should be used in a spirit of po-
verty (cf. note on Mark 6:42). In this connection Paul VI pointed out that “after li-
berally feeding the crowds, the Lord told His disciples to gather up what was left
over, lest anything should be lost (cf. John 6:12). What an excellent lesson in
thrift — in the finest and fullest meaning of the term—for our age, given as it is to
wastefulness! It carries with it the condemnation of a whole concept of society
wherein consumption tends to become an end in itself, with contempt for the
needy, and to the detriment, ultimately, of those very people who believed them-
selves to be its beneficiaries, having become incapable of perceiving that man is
called to a higher destiny” (Paul VI, “Address to Participants at the World Food
Conference”, 9 November 1974).
14-15. The faith which the miracle causes in the hearts of these people is still
very imperfect: they recognize Him as the Messiah promised in the Old Testa-
ment (cf. Deuteronomy 18:15), but they are thinking in terms of an earthly, poli-
tical messianism; they want to make Him king because they think the Messiah’s
function is to free them from Roman domination.
Our Lord, who later on (verses 26-27) will explain the true meaning of the multi-
plication of the loaves and the fish, simply goes away, to avoid the people pro-
claiming Him for what He is not. In His dialogue with Pilate (cf. John 18:36) He
will explain that His kingship “is not of this world”: “The Gospels clearly show
that for Jesus anything that would alter His mission as the Servant of Yahweh
was a temptation (cf. Matthew 4:8: Luke 4:5). He does not accept the position
of those who mixed the things of God with merely political attitudes (cf. Matthew
22:21; Mark 12:17; John 18:36). [...] The perspective of His mission is much dee-
per. It consists in complete salvation through transforming, peacemaking, pardo-
ning, and reconciling love. There is no doubt, moreover, that all this makes ma-
ny demands on the Christian who wishes truly to serve his least brethren, the
poor, the needy, the outcast; in a word, all those who in their lives reflect the sor-
rowing face of the Lord (cf. “Lumen Gentium”, 8)” (Bl. John Paul II, “Opening Ad-
dress to the Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops”, 28 January
1979).
Christianity, therefore, must not be confused with any social or political ideology,
however excellent. “I do not approve of committed Christians in the world forming
a political-religious movement. That would be madness, even if it were motivated
by a desire to spread the spirit of Christ in all the activities of men. What we have
to do is put God in the heart of every single person, no matter who he is. Let us
try to speak then in such a way that every Christian is able to bear witness to the
faith he professes by example and word in his own circumstances, which are de-
termined alike by his place in the Church and in civil life, as well as by ongoing
events.
“By the very fact of being a man, a Christian has a full right to live in the world. If
he lets Christ live and reign in his heart, he will feel—quite noticeably—the saving
effectiveness of our Lord in everything he does” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing
By”, 183).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
Liturgical Colour: White.
| First reading | Acts 5:34-42 © |
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| Responsorial Psalm |
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| Psalm 26:1,4,13-14 © |
| Gospel Acclamation |
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| Or | Mt4:4 |
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| Gospel | John 6:1-15 © |
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