1st Week of Advent
They picked up the fragments left over—seven baskets full. (Matthew 15:37)
Here’s a question to ponder. If Jesus is the all-knowing perfect Son of God, why didn’t he give the apostles exactly the right amount of food for this crowd? Why did they end up with extra bread? Maybe he thought that the disciples might get hungry again. Or maybe he anticipated more people showing up later. More likely, Jesus used the leftovers to teach his disciples something.
The number of baskets remaining—seven—can give us a clue. In Jewish tradition, seven was an expression of perfection, the kind of perfection found only in God. It took God six days to create the world, and then he rested on the seventh. It was a day of satisfaction and plenty. It was a time to enjoy his creation. In the same way, the bread that Jesus provided satisfied the crowd in a way that no earthly food could (Matthew 15:37).
The number seven also shows us God’s limitless generosity. Isaiah lists seven gifts of the Spirit (11:2-3). The Book of Proverbs describes divine wisdom as having seven pillars (9:1). Jesus told Peter to forgive “seventy-seven times,” that is, always (Matthew 18:22). He knew that Peter could be so forgiving because God’s mercy is boundless.
Notice also that the apostles started with seven baskets, and they finished with seven baskets. It was Jesus’ way of saying that whenever we rely on God’s resources in our giving to someone, we will never run out. These fragments weren’t really leftovers. They were part of his endless supply of blessings!
All of these elements apply in a special way to the Eucharist, the Bread of Life that Jesus gives us every day at Mass. This bread, which is his Body, is unlike any other food we could ever eat. It is perfect, lacking in nothing. It is full of God’s eternal, unlimited blessings. When we receive this bread in faith and surrender our hearts to Jesus, he fills us with everything we need. He satisfies our hearts’ deepest desires. And he gives us plenty of “leftover” grace to share with everyone we will encounter. What a generous, loving God he is!
“Lord, I trust that your Body and your Blood can satisfy the deepest desires of my heart.”
Isaiah 25:6-10
Psalm 23:1-6
Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Cardinal, founder of the Oratory in England, theologian
Twelve meditations and intercessions for Good Friday, 9-10
"My heart is moved with pity for the crowd"
Inspired Scripture has told us: “You have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent, For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made… But you spare all things because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls,” (Wis 11:23ff.). Now see what it is that causes him to come down from heaven and gives him the name of Jesus…: “You are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins,” (Mt 1:21). It is his great love for men, his compassion for sinners: this is what causes him to come down from heaven.
So why should he consent to veil his glory within a mortal body had he not ardently desired to save those who had gone astray and lost all hope of salvation? He himself says: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost,” (Lk 19:10). Rather than leave us to perish, he has done all that an all-powerful God could do according to his divine attributes: he has given his own self. And he loves us all to such an extent that he wanted to give his life for each one of us, as absolutely, as fully as if there had been but one, single person to save. He is our best of friends…, the only true friend, and he has exercised all possible means to ensure that we should love him in return. He refuses us nothing so long as we consent to love him…
O my Lord and Saviour, in your arms I rest secure. If you keep me, I have nothing to fear; but if you abandon me I have nothing left to hope for. I have no idea what will happen to me as I await my death; I know nothing of what is to come; but I entrust myself to you… I lean entirely on you since you know what is good for me. As for me, I do not know.