Lord’s Day Reflection: Sacrifice and trust in God

By Fr Luke Gregory, OFM *

I imagine that the miracle (or more precisely “sign”, as the evangelist John defines it) recounted in today’s evangelical passage is one of the best-known episodes of the life and preaching of Jesus. In its essential features it is more familiar to Christians than to non-Christians: certainly an event of prodigious multiplication, but much more than that.

The setting presented to us could be that of any festival or event of today, and the boy with his packed lunch like the trips appreciated by many families. However, this spectacular event becomes the best of all time.

Amongst those present there is a little boy. More farsighted and prudent than the other people who were following Jesus. He had prepared himself for a day away from home. He had certainly heard about Jesus and, intrigued, wonders what will happen. He is ready to wait all day if necessary, since he has enough food to satisfy his needs. The course of his day transforms before his eyes. In a moment of need, which found the crowd unprepared, he was asked to make his meagre food ration available to share with others. A surprising request: “to whom could his nothingness ever be useful?” He will learn a lot, as will the disciples and the crowd, because in all of this God is in control. When Jesus asked Philip to buy some bread it was not because He needed the disciple to find a solution to the problem of feeding so many people. He simply wanted to test Philip’s faith. As such, God does not need us to do His will, but He invites us to participate.

But let’s get back to our little boy. It is not difficult to understand his feelings at that time: he probably was joyful and proud of the attention from the disciples, of being able to do something for Jesus, but, at the same time, he must have wondered what difference his small offering of five loaves and two fishes could have made to satisfy the enormous crowd present.

It’s not hard to imagine that the boy may have been reluctant to hand over his meagre meal, after all he was there all day and wanted to see some signs and wonders like the rest of the crowd, so he may have wanted to hang on to his food.

This is where trust comes into play. He trusted enough, despite the need to give up what he had for the benefit of others. He had to trust that God would use the resources he had for a better purpose. “After all, isn’t it true that God takes care of all our needs in the way He knows best?”, he must have thought. Therefore, with the enthusiastic and uncalculating enthusiasm typical of young people, he risked everything and performed an admirable gesture of deprivation and generosity. He did not think first of all about his basic needs and did not close himself in a selfish withdrawal into himself: he experienced a real act of faith.

So, great was his amazement in seeing before his eyes the food that continued to multiply and never ran out. His nothingness in the hands of Jesus becomes abundant and appreciated food: Jesus can do everything!

It was neither the boy nor the disciples who fed the crowd: they too were amongst the participants, simple guests, who were asked to trust in Jesus and learn that God is in control. The boy, the disciples and the crowd were given the gift of participating, each starting from his own condition and with his own vision, in this spectacular event. There was so much food that everyone was satisfied. There was enough and more. God is abundant in giving when He sees that we trust in Him, when He sees that we are willing to sacrifice what we have for Him, when we recognize that it is He who guides history.

We too can identify with this boy; we can learn that God is capable of valuing what we offer Him with a generous and loving heart. What we offer in true love and genuine self-giving, God can use, multiply to help, and support others in ways we couldn’t even begin to imagine. Let us ask ourselves: are we willing to give up to God what little we have? Are we willing to make such a sacrifice for the good of others, trusting that God has a broader and deeper vision than ours? We should never be discouraged because God abundantly multiplies grace: sacrifice and trust on our part allow us to participate in His saving mission for humanity.

Perhaps we are more like this boy from more than two thousand years ago than we might think.

*  Custody of the Holy Land