Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Throughout my faith journey I've heard many claims about scripture that have caused me to scratch my head and wonder. I've heard people say, “Come on, you're not supposed to take the Bible literally.” I've also heard, “People need to stop looking for allegory in Scripture, why don't they take the Word of God seriously and for what it says?” And I've heard everything else in between those two. Now, I have neither the desire, nor the qualifications to write a discourse on “How to Read the Bible.” In light of today's gospel though, I do want to bring up three considerations.
First, as I read today's gospel I am reminded of my love for the deeply allegorical ways that some of the Church Fathers would read scripture. Keeping in mind my love for deep allegory, I want to share a few possible allegories that jumped off the page at me. First, the need of the people and Christ's pity reminded me of Christ's entire mission to come and bring salvation to His people. Second, Christ distributes seven loaves and 'a few' fish. It seemed all too appropriate that we have seven sacraments through which we have constant access to the nourishing grace of God. As we reflect on these seven sacraments we can remember that God, just like Christ, uses the gifts that we bring forward to do the extraordinary. And as my good friend Ryan Mahle has taught me, one way of understanding grace is that it is a sharing in the divine life of the Trinity, our one God who is a 'few' persons. Finally, Christ is the source of these blessings and gifts but He chooses to distribute them through His disciples. So to, God uses us -- His disciples -- and His Church to be conduits of His grace to others. Not that these things are of us, but that He works through us.
Second, while I love the deeply symbolic we should not lose sight of the reality of Scripture. The symbolism is significant to us because when we read this passage we are reading about Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Word made flesh performing a great miracle. We aren't reading merely an ancient lesson, but a recording of the magnificence of the person of Christ. A magnificence that His contemporaries experienced and were drawn to in the thousands. Not only were they drawn to him in such numbers but it always seems that in their eagerness they never bothered to pack any food!
Finally, while theologians and everyday people alike debate the 'perfect' way to read the Bible, let's not allow our fear of misreading a couple passages dissuade us from partaking in this great gift. Out of all I've written the point is not so much to tell you how to read the Bible, but rather to implore you to read the Bible. In the words of Scripture we encounter the mystery of God and realize just how much we won't know about Him until we are standing face to face. We encounter the magnetism of Jesus Christ and encounter the person, for our faith is nothing without the 'who' that gave us all of the richness and depth of our faith. And finally, we get a glimpse of how much God wants us to know Him so that we can better love Him, others, and ourselves.
- Spencer Hargadon