There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves
Commentary on Today Gospel
Mt 14:13-21
“There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.”
In the background of today's miracle, the multiplication of bread in the desert, we must see the forty years of God's people in the desert on their way to the promised land.
As we remember, God fed His people with manna from heaven.
The words of the Lord Jesus recorded in John's Gospel, clearly referring to those events. According to these words, the bread multiplied in the desert is a reminder of the gift of manna, and at the same time announces an infinitely greater gift, namely the Eucharist: " Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died.
Whoever eats this Bread will live forever" (cf. Jn 6:49 f.58).
Well, it is worth realizing that the desert is a symbol of what we have done with our land. God, who placed us on this earth, wanted it to be a paradise for us, where it is good for people to be close to God and live in mutual love. As a result of our sins, we have separated ourselves from God and have become mutually strangers and enemies. Our land has turned into a desert that produces thistles and thorns.
It is no coincidence that as many as three important evangelical events take place in the desert. In the desert, John the Baptist prepares people for the coming of the Messiah. The Lord Jesus himself goes out to the desert in order to fast for forty days before he begins his public activity. Going out into the wilderness in the time of Moses was a condition for God's people to begin their journey to the promised land. Likewise, we will not come to the promised land of eternal life if we do not first go out into the wilderness, that is, if we do not first realize how our world is deformed by sin and that we ourselves are sinful. The Son of God came to save not the righteous, but sinners.
The crowds, fed by the miraculous multiplication of the bread and fish, will hunger again. Healed of diseases, they will die anyway. However, the physical hunger is not the worst of hunger. Also, physical disease and suffering are not the greatest misfortune. It is more difficult to satisfy hunger and heal the suffering of a soul wounded by sin, who does not remember God and is separated from the source of life, thrown into the abyss of loneliness. It is precisely this hunger and suffering of our souls that God touches in the Eucharist. " Why spend your money for what is not bread? (...), listen, that you may have life." (cf. Is 55:2-3) " I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger." (cf. Jn 6:35)
Until Tomorrow
fr. george