Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 2, 2025
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.
The focus of the gospels is primarily on Jesus’ public ministry—his miracles, his sermons, his death, and his resurrection. Today’s gospel recounts one of these major moments: the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, a striking foreshadowing of the Eucharist. Without a doubt, these big moments warrant attentive reflection. But in reading today’s gospel passage, something much more conspicuous caught my attention: “He withdrew again to the mountain alone.” Again. Alone. After the crowd attempts to make him king, Jesus withdraws to be alone. Why?
There are nine different instances described in the gospels where Jesus withdraws into solitude. In fact, his public ministry is bookended by prayerful time alone. He begins with a 40-day fast in the desert and ends in agony in Gethsemane. Perhaps most strikingly, in Luke’s gospel, when multitudes gather to be healed, Jesus withdraws into the wilderness to pray. Even in the face of urgent human needs, Jesus consistently prioritizes time with the Father.
How often do we truly withdraw to pray? It can be easy to explain away our prayer lives. I certainly do. I’m busy with countless responsibilities to family, friends, and work. And yet, in the face of my pressing responsibilities, I can’t help but think about Jesus faced with multitudes of the infirm. He, who in that moment was needed infinitely more than I am, prioritized solitude and communion with his Father. He shows us that his big moments, like healing the sick and feeding the 5,000, are rooted in the wellspring of prayer.
Today’s gospel reminds us that extraordinary sanctity necessarily flows from the ordinary discipline of prayer. Let us follow Jesus’ example and intentionally step away from the busyness of life to spend time alone with our loving Father. Only in this sacred solitude will we gain the clarity to discern the Father’s will and the strength to embrace it when our big moments come.
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
St. Athanasius applied his heart and mind to articulating Jesus' divinity and humanity and faced exile for his work, which helped shape the way the Church understands this mystery.
He was born in 297 in Alexandria, Egypt, at the end of the Roman persecution of Christians and at the start of the ascension of the Emperor Constantine. His parents were Christians, and he received an excellent education. He learned the Scriptures inside and out, and for a time he followed St. Anthony the Great, who established a life of prayer in the desert.
Athanasius was ordained a deacon at the age of 21 and was assigned as a secretary to the bishop of Alexandria. It was in this role as an aid to the bishop that Athanasius attended the great council of Nicea, which gave us the Nicean creed that we still recite at Mass today.
The council was called because of the rapid spread of a strain of thought—named Arianism, after its first teacher, Arius—which claimed that because Jesus was born as a man, he could not have existed before his birth, and therefore was not fully divine. The council definitively stated that Jesus was, in fact, divine, and had existed as part of the Trinity before the Incarnation. The bishops condemned Arius and articulated the creed as a standard of orthodoxy.
Shortly after the council, the bishop died, and Athanasius was appointed his successor, even though he was not even 30 years old. Arianism, despite its condemnation, was still a popular belief, and Athanasius spent most of the rest of his life dealing with that heresy.
He steadfastly proclaimed the conclusions of the council, even in the face of threats. His Arian opponents accused him of treason and even murder. Because they had connections to powerful people in the empire, they succeeded in having Athanasius removed and exiled. Political maneuvers resulted in his restoration and exile several more times—by the end of his life, he had been banished five times and spent 17 years in exile. He was a constant thorn in the side of the powerful who wanted a more convenient version of Christianity, and for this reason was called the “Champion of Orthodoxy.”
Athanasius was known as the greatest man of his day, and is one of the greatest religious leaders the world has ever known. He defended the faith when everything seemed stacked against him, and without his steadfastness, we would not have received the fullness of the faith that we have today. The Church recognizes him as one of her doctors, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Sacred Heart Basilica on campus. He is depicted there in stained glass windows, including one with an image showing him faithfully handing on doctrine, in the form of a scroll, to the Church.
St. Athanasius, against all odds, you preserved and passed on the fullness of our faith in Jesus—pray for us!