Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle of Jesus found in all four gospels, it was that important for the earliest Jesus believers. With eucharistic overtones, it suggests the “end time banquet” when all have plenty and everyone is invited to the table, no one excluded.
The evangelists integrated Old Testament parallels in their narratives, especially Matthew whose audience had largely Jewish roots. Note the “green grass” (verdant pastures) in today’s Gospel reminding us of Psalm 23, “the LORD is my shepherd.” Today’s tale alludes back to miraculous provision of food for the Israelites in the desert: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you’” (Exodus 16:4).
1 Kings 17 tells of a bottomless supply of flour and oil to survive a famine — “There was food every day for Elijah, the woman and her family. The jar of flour ‘was not used up’ and the jug of oil ‘did not run dry.’” Elijah’s successor Elisha, too, feeds one hundred with an insufficient supply of bread, with some left over. “’How can I set this before a hundred men?’ Elisha answered, ‘Give it to the people to eat. For the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over” (2 Kings 4:43-44).
2 Kings and Mark/Matthew use the same pattern: 1) a concerned servant/disciple comes to Elisha/Jesus. 2) Elisha/Jesus then directed their disciples to “give the people something to eat.” 3) Elisha/Jesus themselves distribute the food. The stories both conclude with astounding abundance.
What’s the point of such analysis? The Gospels are not biographies of Jesus in the modern sense. They are much more than that. The Vatican Pontifical Biblical Commission has given us the document, “The Historicity of the Gospels.” Here we read that when approaching the Bible we “ought to use any and every means to acquire a deeper insight into the nature of the gospel testimony.” Such analysis allows us to get into the mind of the human author.
Saint Jerome, considered the Church’s first biblical scholar, issued this stern warning over 1500 year ago: “Faming, building, carpentry, etc., all require an apprenticeship, but when it comes to interpreting God’s Word…any doddering old fool or dilettante can blithely dissect it and have a go at explaining it — masters of their own ignorance.”
There’s a depth in the inspired scriptures that requires more than a surface reading. Some folks confuse Bible study with faith sharing. That doesn’t mean that Bible study can’t lead to faith sharing. It ought to. But we need to ask questions about what was happening at the time of composition and the intent of the inspired authors. And most importantly, “what is the meaning of the story?” The meaning of the stories is more important than the particular facts of the stories. This is the approach that the Catholic church subscribes to, along with most mainline Protestants.
Yes, this takes time and effort. Isn’t the inspired Word of God worth it?
—Timothy J. Cronin