Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Food for the Journey

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 02.12.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 8:1-10

Friends, today’s Gospel tells of Jesus feeding the four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish.

An awful lot of contemporary theologians and Bible commentators have tried to explain away the miracles of Jesus as spiritual symbols.
Perhaps most notoriously, many preachers tried to explain the multiplication of the loaves and fishes as a "miracle" of charity, with everyone sharing the little that he had.

But I think it’s hard to deny that the first Christians were intensely interested in the miracles of Jesus, and that they didn’t see them as mere literary symbols!
They saw them for what they really were: actions of God, breaking into our world.

[MurphsLaw]

+++In those days when there again
was a great crowd without anything
to eat,
Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great
distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where
can anyone get enough bread
to satisfy them here in this
deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many
loaves do you have?”
They replied, “Seven.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on
the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he
gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the
crowd.
They also had a few fish.
He said the blessing over them
and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left
over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand
people.

He dismissed the crowd and got into
the boat with his disciples
and came to the region of
Dalmanutha.+++

[MurphsLaw]

Today's Gospel is significant because Christ is feeding the 4,000 non-Jewish Gentiles... in the similar way he feeds the 5,000 Jews. Both very important miracles to complete.
The numbers are ALSO very significant in both miracles.:

Where Jesus feeds the 5,000 Jews- representing Moses' 5 Books of the Pentateuch, with leftovers filling the 12 baskets - representing the 12 Tribes of Israel...

The feeding of the 4,000 non-Jews in today's Gospel Reading represents the 4 Gospels of the Bible.... and the 7 baskets of leftovers - represent the 7 Sacraments of spiritual perfection found in the Bible.

The New completing the Old.
What's in a number?
Alot.

[ebb tide]

Heretic Jorge on the loaves and fishes:

This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer. Everyone eats and some is left over: it is the sign of Jesus, the Bread of God for humanity.
His Sunday Angelus June 2, 2013.