Mark 6:34-44

The Christmas Season ends with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which will be next Sunday.

Today the evangelist Mark tells us about the multiplication of the five loaves and two fish, in which five thousand men were fed and twelve baskets full of fragments were collected, after Jesus asked His disciples to organize the crowd in rows by hundreds and by fifties and for Jesus to say the blessing, breaking the loaves and dividing the fish.

Initially the disciples wanted Jesus to dismiss the people so that they could go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But Jesus' answer was that His disciples themselves should give them some food. And they obeyed Him.

The evangelist begins by telling us that Jesus saw a vast crowd and His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And then He began to teach them many things.

Jesus is just like that: His heart is moved with pity for people in need and abandoned by authorities who do not fulfill their role of helping the poorest. But Jesus does not stop at feeling pity. He takes action, involving His disciples and the hungry crowd itself in solving the problem. 

We - the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ - must feel, think and act like Jesus. And we must obey Jesus, organizing people in need, encouraging the sharing of food and distributing it among the hungry. We must spread the teachings of Jesus, that is, evangelize, but also bear witness to charity and sharing. Otherwise, they will be just empty and insensitive words. And, of course, we must demand that our authorities fulfill their social role, guaranteeing the poor a decent job so that they can earn their daily bread. 

The multiplication of the loaves and fishes also points to the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is the Bread of Life shared among brothers and sisters of faith, in which Jesus feeds and sanctifies the Christian community that is on its pilgrimage in this world towards Heaven. 

Human beings need material food, but they also need to nourish their lives with the Bread that comes from Heaven, which is Christ in the Eucharist.

Local: Springfield, MA, EUA

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