Loaves and fishes

Loaves and fishes

The theme of multiplication is carried forward this week, from Matthew 13 regarding the mustard seed, to Sunday 7/31/2011's reading in Mtt 14 of Jesus' miracle of the loaves and fishes. According to the gospel, only 5 loaves and 2 fishes were multiplied sufficiently to feed 5000 people. After they ate, 12 wicker baskets were filled with the fragments of loaves left over. This was a miracle that hits home where we all have a soft spot: in our stomachs. Even the menu sounds acceptable, if not delicious. They didn't say how the fish were cooked. Typical of many gospel stories, it is conspicuously unembellished by such details. All who witnessed this event must have been moved, must have believed that Jesus could work magic. At that time in the long ago past, people had to communicate from word of mouth, one to another. That is where the embellishment most likely was rampant!


I think this gospel underscores the responsiveness of God to our needs, especially our most basic, that of food. Jesus did not charge for the food. He did not dispel the crowd to return home to buy their own food. Instead, he encouraged them to linger with him (even in the number that had amassed), to break bread, and to have a little fellowship. I am convinced, as I'm sure my Christian brothers and sisters could testify, that God wants us to have fellowship and fulfill this human need that is just as important as bread and fish themselves. That nourishes our body mind and spirit and multiplies in its benefits.

Let us Lord, break bread together and encourage each other regularly. Let us conduct ourselves with dignity and humility, and show abundant thanks for the blessings you bestow on us each day. In Christ's name, Amen.

Thank you for following my blog. Starting Thursday, August 11, 2011 I will have a live internet broadcast available at 7:00 pm, EST, with the following link (that will only be live for 1 hour before and also during the broadcast):

Thursday Catholic Evangelism Hour

When the link is live (next Thursday the 11th), it will reference the live audio feed from my home studio in Louisville, KY. I hope to include a lot of interesting material taken from Catholic authorities in scripture, The New Evangelism, the Gospel, and local leaders in this exciting movement. I was able to get the software to broadcast this free of charge, by agreeing to post the following link to the source for the software:

NCS software

When you get a chance, look at what NCS is up to (in Australia, their home country) in low cost, high utility software. God bless you all.

Matthew