Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 5, 2019
When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,
he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
He said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over–
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.
Several years ago I accepted some professional responsibilities that turned out to be much more challenging than I had anticipated. With a great deal of assistance and support from colleagues, friends, my spiritual director and especially my husband, I was able to do the job. Praying helped a lot, too. But I was stretched to my limit.
Reading today’s Gospel leads me to reflect on how both Jesus and his disciples might have been feeling stretched and even overwhelmed. Jesus has just learned of the brutal beheading of John the Baptist. We might imagine him withdrawing by boat to a distant place in grief, and maybe feeling apprehension and uncertainty. Yet the crowds follow and demand his ministry. Later, the disciples were probably tired and impatient at the end of a long day with these people. We can hear their sense of being stretched to the limit as they advise Jesus to send the crowds away, to let them fend for themselves.
But this is a story of giving, even when it seems we don’t have enough to give. Jesus is moved by compassion to respond to those in need with healing. As always, he is one with his Father and draws upon the gracious love of God to find the strength to serve. And when the disciples are ready to send everyone away, he charges them to offer the people something to eat themselves. As they do it with Jesus’ blessing, their meager supply of loaves and fishes becomes an abundant banquet.
I’m very thankful that I no longer have those stressful work responsibilities. Yet I remember that when I was at my lowest, I was most conscious that I had to rely on God to make it through. Jesus took my insufficient abilities, my dwindling motivation, and created enough abundance in them for me to do the job.
Let’s pray that Jesus will take our loaves and fishes, bless them and make them sufficient for us to serve those who hunger for what we have to share.
Prayer
Jesus, you open wide your hands and heart and fill us with living food. You give us the bread of the Eucharist, your Word, and the community of the Church. You give us the bread of nature’s beauty, of friendship, of people who care for us when we are in need of help. You give us the food on our table, the roof over our heads, the clothing we wear. All the necessities of life come from you, and the extras as well. Blessed be you, Lord, God of all creation. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Rome is home to the four most important church buildings in Catholicism. The first is St. Peter’s Basilica, located in the Vatican. The other three are the Basilica of St. John Lateran, where the Pope serves as bishop of Rome; the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, which houses the tomb of the apostle Paul; and the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
The Church honors these four churches in the liturgical year because they are pilgrimage sites and they connect all the faithful with the Pope and the universal Church. The Basilica of St. Mary Major is so called because it is the oldest church dedicated to God in honor of Mary. It serves the Church as the oldest Marian shrine for pilgrims.
The origins of this Basilica are wrapped in legend. Two Roman Christians, a Roman official named John and his wife, received a vision from Mary in 358. They were childless and wanted to dedicate their estate to Mary, so they prayed to her for a sign as to how this should be done. She appeared to them both in dreams and told them that a prominent hill in the city would be covered with snow, and this is where they should build a church.
John immediately told the Pope, who had the same dream, and they went to the hill to find it covered in snow on this date, during the hottest time of the year. The pope then walked through the snow to mark out the outline of the church that was to be built there.
This story probably cannot be trusted, but it is the origin of one of Mary’s titles, Our Lady of the Snow. The church building was originally the palace of a prominent family before being transformed into a church in the 300s. Later it was restored and consecrated to Mary after the Council of Ephesus in 432, where the Church came to understand and proclaim Mary as the Mother of God. It was decorated with artwork depicting Mary and Jesus, and a relic from the manger in Bethlehem was used in a reconstruction of the nativity there.
On this feast day in the Basilica in Rome, flower petals are dropped from the ceiling to recall the legend of Our Lady of the Snow. The Basilica of St. Mary Major is also the site of an important commemoration of Christmas in Rome because of its famous nativity scene.
Notre Dame’s own Basilica of the Sacred Heart contains relics from the nativity as well—pieces of the manger that held Jesus, and parts of the cloth in which he was swaddled.
On this feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, let us honor Mary as the Mother of God!
Image Credit: Our featured image of the Basilica of Mary Major is available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Last accessed March 28, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
