This kind of scenario often happened at my house when my children were teens and their friends often came over unexpectedly, or stayed and stayed. Everyone was having so much fun that I chose to invite the extra kids to stay. For me, that often meant stretching my ingredients for chili by hunting in my cupboards and refrigerator for extra beans and tomatoes, and praying I had enough chili powder. And crackers for dunking!
Of course, an unexpectedly long, satisfying visit becomes even more wonderful as it continues over a table loaded with good food. Our hearts are lifted by the joy of having prepared a meal and by the joy on our guests' faces as they sample and savor it. Nothing is more soul-satisfying than the joy of giving!
Jesus understood the joy of giving. One time, he invited his disciples to sail with him to Bethsaida to relax, but the crowds, hungry for more of his presence, found out where Jesus was going and hurried ahead of them on foot, ready to greet them when they arrived. Jesus could have told his "unexpected guests" that everyone was tired and needed a rest, and asked them to please leave and come back another time. But he didn't.
Instead, Jesus looked, really looked, at the waiting faces of people so eager to be close to him: he must have seen grief, illness, hope and hopelessness, hunger to hear that God loved them. A need for joy. And he had "compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd." (Mark 6.) He had compassion on his unexpected guests and allowed them to stay. Fr. James Martin, S.J. tells us that the Greek word for "compassion" is vivid: "esplagchnisthe" - "Jesus felt this in his guts."
Jesus spoke to the crowd for a long time, teaching and healing, so long that the hour grew late. His disciples reminded him that they were in an out- of- the -way spot, that the crowd obviously had no food. They suggested, quite practically, that Jesus should send the crowd away so that they could buy food for themselves. After all, they might have thought to themselves, we didn't invite them here anyway!
Jesus' response - as always - was unexpected, out of left field: "You give them something to eat."
The disciples responded that this was impossible - they didn't have the money to feed such a large crowd!
Jesus calmly asked them to find out how many loaves of bread and dried fish they had. The report was not good; they'd only been able to find five loaves and two fish. (In John's account, a little boy provided the food.) Jesus asked everyone to recline, as for a meal, on the green grass, which would have been lush after the winter rains. Then, with thanks, he took the very small meal from the hands of a very small boy.
Jesus did something next which is very familiar to those whose Churches celebrate the Eucharistic meal: "Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all." Jesus' actions here - take, look to heaven, bless, break, and give - are actions which he will use again at the Last Supper.
Miraculously, the crowd of five thousand people ate and were filled, and the leftovers numbered twelve baskets of food. How they must have gasped in astonishment, then relaxed and enjoyed this unexpected banquet in the grass!
This miraculous story is repeated in all four of the Gospels, because it is so dramatic and memorable. We all want to remember Jesus being the gracious host, enjoying this marvelous meal of plenty he has provided, which is only surpassed by the Last Supper at which Jesus in a burst of exuberant joy, gives his own, total self as a sacred meal to fill us to overflowing. "I am the Bread of Life" he tells the crowds on another occasion: "Whoever comes to me will never be hungry."
But to return to the Feeding of the Five Thousand, this was not a case similar to our stretching food for unexpected guests. Jesus miraculously multiplied the meager amount of food that he was given. Some people have suggested that the "miracle" was that the crowd was encouraged to share the food that they were hiding away. Fr. Martin disagrees:
"Jesus is depicted as definitely a miracle-worker, and a great many miracles are attributed to him, something that is unique in antiquity. To my mind, many of the interpretations that seek to water down the miracle stories reflect an unease with God's power and Jesus' divinity, discomfort with the miraculous, and, more basically, an inability to believe in God's ability to do anything."
But God can and does do anything; nothing is impossible with God. God specializes in taking something small from our hands, some small deed or word, and miraculously multiplying it so that its good influence stretches beyond our understanding.
Jesus promises he will do this for us when he tells the disciples "YOU give them (the hungry crowd) something to eat."
"You," he says now to us, "can feed the people in your life with compassion, love, understanding, and acceptance." When we offer God our meager "five loaves and two fish" he miraculously expands the influence of everything we do so that we too can understand that the "joy of love is the joy of giving because love is giving and giving is love."
You provide rich food every time that, exhausted as you are, you tuck your child in bed at night, reading her a story, and helping her learn her prayers.
You provide rich food every time you visit a friend in the hospital, call a friend who lives out of town, hug a loved one at a funeral.
You provide rich food every time you understand someone who is grumpy because he or she is depressed.
You provide rich food every time you accept that everyone you love is less than perfect, a fragile searching human being like yourself.
Sometimes we can feel stretched beyond endurance, feel that our lives are in pieces, that we don't have enough time or energy for any one or any thing. Life is moving too fast, is too chaotic for us to feel as if we can care enough, love enough, do enough. If only we were two or three people, we could do what we should be doing!
But Jesus smiles and shakes his head. "I do the multiplying," he says. "All you have to do is be a trusting child and offer all you have to me. You are offering love with me, through me, in me. Love is infinite - and infinitely powerful. Keep on doing and being so you can experience the joy of giving. Help me change the world one smile, one deed, at a time."