From Five Loaves of Bread and Two Fish into the Kingdom – Ex Quinque Panibus et Duobus Piscibus ad Regnum Dei

Out of his compassion, Jesus fed the hungry crowd, who followed him in an as large in number as five thousand men, plus many women and children, with only five loaves of bread and two fish (Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-13).

To our ordinary common sense, this phenomena makes us wonder, how could it be possible? – as Mary thought upon the Annunciation (Luke 1:34). But, through the mouth of Angel Gabriel, God assured Mary that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37), though it may seem impossible to human wisdom.  The Gospel narrative on Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the crowd out of a scant amount of food reflects this truth of God’s enabling power, especially in light of love. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8).

Though John’s Gospel describes this miracle somewhat differently from the way it is written in the Synoptic Gospels, this miraculous feeding of Jesus is mentioned all four Gospels. It suggests that this particular miracle weighs more than other miracles of Jesus that are not necessarily mentioned in all the Gospels. 　

Of course, it is not to say that other miracles were less important. Rather, this miracle of Jesus feeding such a large crowd out of a meager amount of bread and fish has a distinct significance in understanding and appreciating the teaching of Jesus.

So, what is the significance of this particular miracle of Jesus feeding the great crowd?

The significance is multifold, of course.

 I am not sure if I can unpack it completely. But, allow me to try at least a few.

First, this is about the importance of compassion of Christ – Misericordia Christi.  It was the motivation to feed them all, in spite of his disciples’ initial worries about not being able to feed them.

Ordinary human common sense sure tells that there is no way to feed such a huge crowd with a tiny amount of food, five loaves of bread and two fish. That can barely feed the disciples themselves.

Dictated by the human common sense, the disciples’ response was to send the crowd away – though they might be sympathetic to the hunger of the crowd. They might have felt helpless as they did not have enough food to feed them all.  Maybe they were afraid of losing their own food for the crowd or feared panic-like chaos of the crowd fighting for such a tiny amount of food. But, the compassion of Jesus clearly overrode and transcended such typical human worries.  This confidence of Jesus in the power of God the Adonai is also reflected in Elisha’s trust in Adonai’s providential power in feeding people out of twenty barley loaves that a man from Baal-Shalisha had (2 Kings 4:42-44).  As Elisha did, Jesus resolutely ordered the disciples to direct the crowd to dine. Then, he took the five loaves of bread and two fish, looking up to heaven and gave thanks. Then, voile! The tiny amount of bread and fish became more than sufficient to feed everyone to their satisfaction.

As a result of Jesus’ compassion-driven miracle for the hungry, nobody was hungry any more, and there were still plenty of leftovers.

So, the second point of this miracle episode is that whatever God provide suffices, as nobody was left hungry as a result of Jesus miraculously feeding such a large crowd out of only a small amount of food.

What Jesus provided out of meager amount of bread and fish to people as many as at least 5,000, symbolizes God’s grace.  Philip’s skepticism to feed such a great number of people out of very limited resources (John 6:5-7), on the other hand, represent typical human tendency to feel skeptical about God’s grace and its power, resulting in worries. This also reflects our tendency of skepticism about faith, as well.  But, in this Gospel narrative, Jesus overrides such skepticism and demonstrate the power of God’s grace by feeding everyone in the crowd to their satisfaction.

What comes to me in regard to this story about the multitude being satisfactorily fed is these words of Jesus to Paul, “My grace is enough for you..”(2 Corinthians 12:9).

This echoes a humble and grateful prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, “Suscipe”, based on 2 Corinthians 12:9, sufficiency of grace from God through Christ.

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess, Thou hast given me: I surrender it all to Thee to be disposed of according to Thy will. Give me only Thy love and Thy grace; with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more. Amen.  Spiritual Exercises 234

“Suscipe” means “to receive or to accept”.  If you recall these Latin words in offertory prayer, “Suscipe, sancte Pater, omnipotens aeterne Deus, hanc immaculatam hostiam” (Accept, O Holy Father, Almighty and eternal God, this spotless host), you know the context of this Latin word is used. And, it is in the context of humility and willingness.

In this prayer, St. Ignatius is offering his whole self, including his free will, to God, out of his desire to unity his will to the will of God. He believes that it is the way to overcome struggles of his own desires, which Paul regards as a thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7). As he move from the struggle to peace, St. Ignatius recognize that the love and grace of God is what suffices his need, as Paul recognized so.

Sufficient grace of God may come as something as small in its quantity as only five loaves of bread and two fish, though our undisciplined desire and a thorn in our flesh may foolishly think that such an amount of bread and fish is not enough.  What the disciples had though in thinking to drive away the crowd is juxtaposed to a thorn in flesh – fear and anxiety, while what St. Ignatius expresses in his “Sucipe” prayer and what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 is juxtaposed to Jesus’ thinking. And, the Gospel narratives on Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the multitude  (Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-13) affirms that what we have and received from God as a gift (grace) is enough to meet our needs, not to confuse our needs and desires.

So, this also echoes these words of David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want”(Psalm 23:1).  With this kind of our trust in the sufficiency of God’s providence, we also know that what God provides us may come as banquet as imaged in Psalm 23:5, Revelation 19:17-18.  This is also relevant to Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet (Mathew 22:1-14) in explaining what the Kingdom of Heaven is like and the Last Supper, which Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist (Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-20).

Perhaps, the Gospel narrative of Jesus feeding the hungry crowd out of five loaves of bread and two fish (Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-13) may give an impression of picnic lunch rather than a banquet. But, in regard to the truth of sufficiency in God’s providence, this “picnic lunch” on the shore of the Sea of Galilee is like the kind of banquet in Psalm 23:5. Because the banquet in Psalm 23:5 echoes the heavenly banquet in Revelation 19:17-18, it is meant to be a banquet not only sufficiently meets our needs but also to supplies enough strengths to withstand our enemies – whether it is external, such as Satan and his servants or internal, such as a thorn in our flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7). In fact,  the Last Supper took place while Satan’s influence was present (Luke 22:21-38; Mark 14:17-21; Matthew 26:21-25, 31-35).

Because the hungry crowd was like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34), it was likely that they were put astray due to Satan’s servants, such as false prophets or false shepherds. The crowd was not ready to appreciate the spirit of “suscipe” at that time, as they were more likely suffering from insecurity-driven material attachment to bread and fish. To them, food, as represented by five loaves of bread and two fish, was nothing but another object of attachment – or in the context of 2 Kings 4:42-44, it was another “shalisha” (thing, object of idolatry) – or “skandha”, which Buddhism teaches to detach ourselves from.

That is why that the miraculous feeding of the crowd (Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-13) is followed by Jesus’ bread of life discourse (John 6:25-59) to guide the crowd to understand their need to overcome what Paul calls a thorn in flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) in order to truly recognize that God’s grace is enough, as said in St. Ignatius’ “Suscipe”. However, in reality, this transition from a life in flesh to a life in spirit to appreciate the Bread of Life, which is the Body of Christ, as reflected on Corpus Christi Sunday, many deserted Jesus as written in John 6:60-71.  This is like those who refuse to come to the wedding feast a wedding feast that a king prepared for his son (Matthew 22:1-22), indicating those who are absent from the heavenly banquet in Revelation 19:17-18, further alluding to those who may not enter into the new paradise, which is imaged in Revelation 22.

So, there is a linkage of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the hungry crowd out of five loaves of bread and two fish  (Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-13) to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Now, this gives the third point of this story. It is that the five loaves of bread and two fish that can feed more than give thousand people are like a tiny mustard seed that grows into great tree to provide a refuge for birds.  In Mark 4:30-34; Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19).

Jesus began to plant seeds of the Kingdom. But, he needed collaborators in making the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.  That is why he recruited the disciples, starting with some fishermen in Galilee, such as Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  He taught and trained them before his death on the Cross and after his Resurrection until his Ascension.  Upon receiving the Holy Spirit, which is the  dynamin (power)  ( Acts 1:8) ) and parakletos (advocate and comforter) (John 14:16), they became very powerful Apostolic Missionaries. Then, Paul joined them to further strengthen the  Apostolic power. Today, we are the apostles of Christ, sent to build the Kingdom by planting seeds.

One way of building the Kingdom is to practice the Works of Mercy. Feeding the hungry is one Corporal Work of Mercy, while teaching is one Spiritual Work of Mercy. The former can be compared to the way Jesus fed the great crowd out of only five loaves of bread and two fish, trusting in the sufficiency of God’s providence – God’s grace.  The latter can be compared to sowing a mustard seed as teaching the Word of God to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the world.  Given how Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the large crowd out of five loaves of bread and two fish by the Sea of Galilee leads to Jesus’ spiritual teaching on the Bread of Life discourse in John 6, we must demonstrate that we cannot live with bread (and fish) alone as we also need to be fed with the Word of God.  This also reminds us why the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist are the two pillars of Catholic Mass.

The five loaves of bread and two fish shall be the powerful fuel to make us seek the Word of God and the Corporis et Sanguinis Christi as the Eucharist to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

The five loaves of bread and two fish were seeds of Jesus’ compassion also planted in our hearts so that we can continue to sow the Seminas de Misericordia Christi pro Mundo (seeds of Christ’s mercy for the world).  Because of this, we can actively engage in the Corporal Works of Mercy, as Jesus has taught in Matthew 25:31-46.

We are called to sow the Seminas de Misericordia Christi pro Mundo, symbolized with five loaves of bread and two fish that Jesus used to food – not just to feed the hungry but to lead this Corporal Work of Mercy leads the recipients to be enlightened to the spirit of “sucipe”, willingness to offer whatever they have – as the boy in the crowd offered the five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus so that the rest of the people in the crowd can be fed to their satisfaction.  

In this sense, the Seminas de Misericordia Christi pro Mundo  with its prototype in Quinque Panibus et Duobus Piscibus are tiny yet potent seeds to cultivate our faith to overcome our tendency for attachment to material things, including food. To put in Buddhist teaching, it is a seed for  viraaga, detachment from raga (material desire), in order to cultivate the heart of karuna, which may be compared to misericordia or compassion in Jesus’ teaching, as addressed in Matthew 25:31-46.  Therefore, the five loaves of bread and two fish are the symbolic seed to enable us to transcend hunger and hunger-related suffering. This liberation is, after all, a form of salvation in the Kingdom.