As everyone here is intensely aware, this year our Sunday Gospels are generally taken from St. Mark. But because this Gospel is so short, when we come to the feeding of the 5,000, the lectionary switches instead to Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel. This Chapter begins with St. John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000, and then continues on with the long Bread of Life discourse that follows. We shall read extracts from that discourse over the next 4 Sundays.
The narrative of St. John we have just heard is very like that of the other Gospels: but it bears all the marks of his own unique style. Typically John writes allusively, intending us to discern layer upon layer of meaning; seeing beyond merely external things to the profound truths they symbolise. All the time John is showing us who Jesus is, and what he does for us. Really Chapter 6 is a high point in St. John’s Gospel, and in the whole New Testament. We who are Catholics see the whole of our faith somehow captured here: and particularly the focus of our faith, which is the holy Eucharist. No matter how many times we read this Chapter, even knowing it all by heart, ever and anew we find ourselves astonished by what Jesus says. And ever and anew we draw life, inspiration and spiritual nourishment from the inexhaustible riches we find here.
St. John opens his account by referring to its context: the impending Passover feast. In this way our attention is drawn at once to the parallel with the story of the Exodus. Jesus here will do what God did then. Jesus, God, feeds hungry Israel in the desert with miraculous food.
Already in New Testament times the Rabbis were interpreting the heavenly manna of the Exodus as having a meaning beyond itself. This “food from heaven” (v.31), this gift of God must point towards God’s greater gift to Israel, which was the law. So the Rabbis thought of the manna as a symbol also of divine revelation, and divine wisdom. But Jesus himself is God’s revelation, his self-expression, his communicated Word. Jesus is also God’s Wisdom, as St. Paul says (1 Cor 1:24). Also: in bringing the Holy Spirit, Jesus bears the gift also of the New Law: the perfect law of love. And now in Jesus God is offering his people a far greater gift than ever before: far greater than any earthly gift whatever: for it is the gift of Himself.
The Apostle Philip, we read, estimates that to buy a little bread for each of 5,000 men, a minimum of 200 denarii would be required. For him, this is too much: simply outside their means. Then Andrew mentions the 5 loaves and 2 fish. But that’s far too little: a ridiculously inadequate amount. Yet it is this token offering that Jesus uses to perform his miracle. Why? Because he will always use means, human or material, utterly disproportionate to the task, for the building up of his Church. This is the logic of the Incarnation: that from what is natural we draw what is supernatural; from the flesh we are led to the Spirit; from a man who is seen we have access to God who is unseen.
Then: as with the wine at the wedding feast in Cana (2:1-10), the supply of food here is lavishly generous; super-abundant; more than enough to fill and satisfy everyone. How did Jesus do it? Apparently silently, as if secretly, without any show, and without any effort. And of course that is how God normally works. Yet, since this gift of bread points to the gift of Jesus himself, we understand how the cost to him must eventually be very much more than 200 denarii. For the man Jesus, God incarnate, in order to show his love for us, his care for us, his provision for us, will give up his very life: everything he has, and everything he is. And this will perfectly satisfy us, in a way that no earthly satisfaction ever could. For in Jesus we have the superabundance of life and of joy. In him, we have the answer to the problem of sin, of evil, and of death. And in Jesus, our instinctive desire for the infinite, that God himself has inscribed into every human heart, and that nothing apart from God can ever satisfy, at last finds its perfect fulfilment.
The Christians for whom St. John was writing would immediately have recognised the Eucharistic echoes already present in today’s Gospel passage. Jesus here does 3 things: he takes bread; gives thanks - εὐχαριστησας in Greek - and he distributes. And it remains true that in every holy Eucharist it is Jesus himself who presides, and who provides.
After the people have eaten, 12 baskets of scraps are collected, in order that nothing may be lost. Later in the Capernaum synagogue Jesus will say: This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day (6:39; cf. 17:12, 18:9). So already this collection evokes the gathering together of God’s scattered children (11:52). The 12 baskets also suggest, or point towards our vocation, our predestination, to heaven. There at last we will be gathered in, in such a way that nothing positive in our lives will be lost, nothing wasted.
Today still, Jesus gives many gifts, which we would be wise to receive gladly, gratefully; always ready and willing for more. The baptised in principle draw ever renewed life, power, grace, holiness from Jesus at all times. Even more fundamentally than that: as God, Jesus is the author of our life itself. So he provides our material needs; he answers our prayers. Then also: Jesus gives us the gift, and the gifts, of the Holy Spirit. With such divine assistance we are enabled to live virtuously, generously, selflessly, humbly, lovingly, after the pattern set by Jesus himself. And that is very good for us, and tends towards our happiness. Then: faith in Jesus gives our lives purpose, and hope. But supremely of course Jesus gives himself. The supreme expression of this is the holy Eucharist. In giving himself, Jesus gives us God. So: that Israelite crowd was certainly right in considering Jesus to be both Prophet and King. But we know that he is much greater than either Moses or David: each of whom had the task of preparing the way for him.
Eat my flesh, says Jesus, drink my blood (cf.v.54). My flesh will be crucified for you, and my blood poured out for you: in order that you may have life. This is my body, he says, this is my blood. I give them to you, in order that you may be one with me; in order that you may be in communion with me, and with my Father in heaven. Eat and drink, in order to be what you are, my mystical Body; and in order that my life may be in you: for your eternal good, and for God’s eternal glory.