Fr. Michael Williams

Whenever we lose someone close to us, it is only natural that we should want to spend some time mourning our loss. It’s good to know that it was the same for Jesus, the Son of God, who wants to mourn the loss of His cousin, John the Baptist.

We hear how Jesus and His disciples “withdrew by boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves”. They wanted to have the necessary time and space to grieve and mourn over John the Baptisit’s death.

However, we quickly learn from today’s gospel that Jesus doesn’t have too much time to mourn the loss of His cousin. No sooner had He “stepped ashore [when] He saw a large crowd” waiting for Him. But notice Jesus doesn’t chase them off, rather “He took pity on them”. This is typical of Jesus. He soon forgets His own troubles, His grief over the John the Baptist, and immediately looks to the needs of others.

Jesus tries to teach His disciples the same generosity of spirit. The scriptures tell us, “when evening came, the disciples went to Him and said, ‘This is a lonely place, and the time has slipped by; so send the people away’”. But Jesus will have none of this; He won’t send the people away. The disciples had wanted the pressing crowd to be sent away, yet Jesus not thinking of His own needs, but the needs of the crowd, tells His disciples to feed the hungry crowd. Jesus is trying to teach His disciples the same generosity that He has of putting other people’s needs first. Being a disciple of the Lord means to think of other people’s needs, rather than our own.

The story of the feeding of the five thousand also reveals to us something about the Holy Eucharist. The language Jesus uses in the gospel today, sounds very similar to the words used at the Last Supper. In the feeding of the five thousand we heard how, “[Jesus] took the five loaves and two fish, raised His eyes to heaven and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves He handed them to His disciples”. Later in St. Matthew’s gospel, at the Last Supper, we hear how, “Jesus took the bread, and when He had said the blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples”. This is no coincidence. The feeding of the five thousand is a foretaste and a preparation for the institution of the Holy Eucharist. The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is a preparation for the miracle of the Holy Eucharist, when we are fed with the Bread of Heaven. At every Mass Jesus shows His generosity once again by giving His hungry people the Bread of Heaven. Think of the number of people who have been fed by the Holy Eucharist, the Bread of Heaven, that Jesus so generously gives.

From the gospels we can see that Jesus always looked to the needs of others, often disregarding His own needs in the process. So as we receive the great gift of the Holy Eucharist at Mass, let us pray that it will transform us, into being as generous and self giving as Jesus Himself, who is always, “kind and full of compassion”, and who gives us Himself in Holy Communion.