Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 16, 2021
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.”
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
One of the things that has been on my mind lately is the issue of food waste in our society. Every year, billions of pounds of food are wasted in the U.S. while millions of people experience food insecurity. The problem has dramatically increased over the past year as many have experienced the economic fallout of the pandemic. We have seen lines for food banks stretch out great distances.
“Gather the fragments, so that nothing will be wasted,” Jesus says to his disciples today. Out of the hunger and lack that began this passage, Jesus creates surplus and abundance. I have a friend who embodies this gospel for me. People call her after events of all kinds to let her know what food they have left over. She always seems to know what can be used safely, what cannot, and where the food needs to go to meet the needs of the community. When I think about what happened to the twelve baskets of fragments leftover from the miraculous feeding in today’s gospel, I imagine that the disciples called someone like her. She always ensures that “nothing is wasted.”
There is nothing technically miraculous about the work that she does, just hard work, openness, and know-how. But, then again, that seems like a miracle in our throw-away culture. This gospel tells me that I need to be more conscious of food in my life as others in my community experience hunger. I need to monitor how food flows through my household, contribute to local food banks, and text my friend to ask: “How can I help?”
Prayer
Lord, you fill the starving with good things, but send the rich away empty. May we hunger for you more than for life itself, and may we always share the blessings we have received with those who hunger still. Amen.
Saint of the Day
The story of Bernadette and the visions of Mary that she received in Lourdes is well-known. Notre Dame’s own Grotto replicates the Lourdes grotto on a one-seventh scale and is a center of prayer on campus.
Bernadette’s own story, however, is more obscure. She was the oldest of six children born to a poor miller and his wife. The family business did not thrive, and the family lived in poverty. Bernadette had to work instead of going to school, and was hired out as a servant for two years when she was 12. At the time of the visions, the family was living in the basement of a worn-down building in town. On top of her poverty, Bernadette suffered from asthma and was never consistently healthy. People did not think her to be bright.
The apparitions gathered an extreme amount of attention to Bernadette. Anti-clerical French authorities tried to scare her into retracting her account because of the crowds of pilgrims who gathered at the cave where Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, appeared to her. She was questioned and cross-examined and interviewed unceasingly.
In addition, the pilgrims who came to Lourdes sought her out looking for the miraculous. They tried to cut pieces from her dress and they asked her to bless things. Many tried to give her money, but she and her family refused so as to not appear to be profiting from the apparition.
After a few years, Bernadette went to a convent of nuns who cared for the sick and the poor. She was both, so they took her in as a member of their community. They taught her to read and write, though she was often mistreated by her superiors.
When the church was built that Mary had asked for, Bernadette excused herself from the celebration of its consecration. She was always humble and very simple—she compared herself to a broom, saying, “Our Lady used me. They have put me back in my corner. I am happy there.”
She continued to suffer from asthma and other illnesses, and died in the convent at the age of 35 in 1879. She is depicted in a statue at the Grotto on campus, as well as in a stained glass window in the Howard Hall chapel. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus.
St. Bernadette, you received visions of Mary at Lourdes and lived a simple life of humility—pray for us!