Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 21, 2023
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.
With the sun blazing above us in Galilee, we could feel the heat drying our mouths. I could only imagine how thousands of men, women, and children felt in today’s gospel when they stood in the same place so many years ago.
Walking through the courtyard past the old olive tree and fountain at the center, I stopped at the tall doors of the Church of the Multiplication and then entered. The design of the stone church, tall and long, oriented my attention to the back, where a rough stone sat under the table of the altar surrounded by ancient floor tiles.
My heart leaped. Here Christ fed the thousands. Here on this altar, he feeds us today.
The tabernacle has always been a place of warmth to me, a fountain of living water, nurturing food, and a loving embrace. There is our Lord, Yeshua, the same man who multiplied the loaves and fishes over two thousand years ago. Here. Waiting for me; waiting for you.
A miracle he performed for them out of compassion and love is the same miracle he performs at all times in the Eucharist—his body, blood, soul, and divinity. They hungered, so he fed them until they had their fill. We hunger, and so he gives us himself.
Looking longingly at him, I realized that he truly looked longingly at me first. Calling all of us to rest in him. Calling us, then, to help him feed the thousands with his love and his presence.
We have so little, yet our Lord calls us to give what we have. He wants us to participate in his redemption, spreading his love and saving grace with those in our lives who do not yet know our Lord in the Eucharist but deeply need to be fed in his life-giving embrace.
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
In the line of thinkers in the medieval Church, St. Anselm stands as a giant, but he is a saint because his love for others was even greater than his intellect.
He was born in 1033 in what is now northern Italy. As an adolescent, he wanted to enter the monastery, but was too young, so he wandered in his faith for a time. Later, as a well-educated young man, he heard about a famous abbot who was teaching at a monastery in Normandy, and he joined the community there at the age of 27.
Anselm quickly rose into leadership positions in the community at the monastery, and his brother monks grumbled about his promotions because of his youth. But Anselm was patient and gentle, which won over all of them—even an obstinate young monk who was set on living outside of the monastic discipline. Anselm shepherded the young monk with tenderness, and brought him around to greater faithfulness, even nursing him when he fell ill and died.
Anselm was a monumental thinker—he was known as the greatest theologian of his age. Not since Augustine had the Church such a mind at her disposal. He is known as the father of Scholasticism, a critical mode of thought from the medieval age that gave rise to the university system. Anselm wrote about the existence and nature of God, truth, free will, the origins of evil, reason, and Jesus’ Incarnation.
In 1078, Anselm was elected abbot of the monastery, and soon after was named archbishop of Canterbury. In that position he ran into continuous conflicts with several successive kings of England over rights and revenues. They wanted to claim the stream of resources that came from monasteries, and Anselm took his opposition to the pope on several occasions. Anselm unflinchingly fought to better the clergy and hold to Church disciplines.
Anselm was known for his charity towards all, and especially towards the poor. People who met him remarked on his sincerity and compassion. He was the first to take a stand against the slave trade, passing a resolution against the selling of people like cattle.
Anslem died of old age in 1109, and was declared a doctor of the Church, a title given to 37 saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their words or example. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel on campus.
St. Anselm, you who deepened our understanding of God and enacted that knowledge in love, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Anselm is in the public domain. Last accessed February 21, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
