Trusting Our Own Authority

The people have been devoted followers.

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. - Matthew 14:13-21

One way of looking at this Gospel reading is to see it through the lens of what we have been going through today.

We all make choices in life, and those choices lead us into situations where we may run into problems.

The people chose to follow Jesus.  That choice resulted in them needing food.  Had they not followed him and listened to his words, they might have been in a different situation, but they put their trust in him, and now it was up to him to do something to meet their needs.

We did the same thing, didn't we, when we stayed home and listened to the wisdom put before us to avoid the virus?  

But now we are hungry and alone, and have needs that we might not have had if we had not obeyed.  

In today's Gospel, we don't hear about anyone saying that they were not going to stay.  Everyone trusted there would be enough food to eat, even though it was obvious there was a shortage.

If we have faith, God provides a way.  So it is with the people we feed.  They call and write that they have a need, and we find a way to meet that need.

So many people who have, share.  And the loaves and fishes multiply.

We not only trust in God, but we trust in our own authority.  We, each of us, has power to feed and heal.

I think about this reading often as we scramble to make enough meals for all who are hungry, and I am so grateful to all who help us feed more than we ever thought possible.

We are all the healing hands of Christ today.  And we can do anything, with God's help.

More to come...