2Kgs 4:42-44; Ps 145; Eph 4:1-6; Kn 6:1-15
COMMENTARY
The Divine-Messianic Banquet for All
Today’s Gospel tells the famous episode of the multiplication of the loaves, that we all know almost by heart and have meditated on before. However, by reflecting together on some of the details of the story told by the Evangelist John, we may gain deeper insight into the Gospel message, which is always current and relevant to our life-mission as disciples-missionaries of Christ, especially in this year 2024, where Pope Francis has chosen “Go and invite everyone to the banquet” as the theme for World Missionary [Sun]Day of the universal Church.
1. The “Paschal” Banquet of Jesus the Messiah.
All four Evangelists report the miracle of Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves, but only John emphasizes the “paschal” perspective of the event. In fact, we heard in the Gospel the chronological reference to the time when the episode took place: “The […] Passover was near.” This context is further reinforced in the passage with a seemingly insignificant mention of the “place” of the miracle: “There was a great deal of grass in that place.” This is actually a subtle description to immerse the reader/listener in the time of spring, the period just before Passover, which marks a reawakening of nature around Lake Genesaret with the flowering of every kind of plant and grass.
In this way, the multiplication that Jesus works, as reported by John, is not just one of the many miracles that He performed in the course of His evangelizing activity, but rather a special event that should be seen and experienced in its Paschal perspective, which is the culmination and goal of Jesus’ entire mission. In other words, the bread multiplied and offered to the people on that occasion alludes to the bread that Jesus offers in His Passover of Passion, Death and Resurrection for the salvation of the world. So much so that after this event, as we will also see in the Gospels of the coming Sundays, Jesus will declare Himself to be the Bread of Life.
Moreover, the evangelist’s focus in the story should be on the amount of bread left over, without pointing out if and how much fish was left over. (Perhaps the fish was so good that the people ate it all!) In any case, what the people were experiencing in that grass-covered place and at that time, close to Passover, was essentially the anticipated participation of all the people in the Passover meal of Jesus, the Messiah. Thus, what He offered was not limited to material bread to nourish the human body, but was Himself, with all His teaching and all His life sacrificed for the soul in need of divine salvation on the way. And this is crucial to keep in mind for all his disciples-missionaries called to continue the same mission of Christ the Master in the world. They are called to offer not only material bread, but also to bring Christ to all those in need, inviting them to participate fully in the Easter banquet of Jesus the Messiah
2. The Eschatological Banquet
From a perspective shaped by the Paschal Mystery, we catch a glimpse of the eschatological banquet that God promised to his people through the prophets. Isaiah, for instance, declared, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines” (Is 25:6). At that time with Jesus, although there was no rich food or wine, we can still perceive the abundance of bread and fish that the people consumed “as much […] as they wanted.” It is also worth noting that St. John the Evangelist has already provided a glimpse of the abundant wine-giving Jesus during the wedding at Cana. Moreover, in the other Gospels, Jesus demonstrated a clear vision of Himself as the One with whom the time was fulfilled. It could be said that in Him and through Him, God invites all to the banquet, as seen particularly in the parable of the wedding guests. In this view, with Jesus the divine banquet in the end time is inaugurated by His mission, that is, the divine eschatological banquet has been prepared with and in Jesus. All are invited to that divine banquet, to eat their fill and to share with others what is left of God’s food, as Jesus Himself recommended to the disciples at the end of the miracle: “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” And the divine food for eternal life to be received for oneself is Christ, as will be made clear in a later moment; what is then to be kept and passed on to others is first and foremost the person of Christ Himself.
Thus the multiplication of the loaves, more than a good deed to feed the hungry, is a sign of the eschatological character of Jesus’ mission, to be carried on later by his disciples with the same vision. This is a fundamental aspect of the Christian mission, but one that is perhaps not emphasized much today. For this reason, Pope Francis wanted to recall this concept in his message for this year’s World Missionary [Sun]Day 2024, and it is worth quoting his teaching on this in full, with an important exhortation at the end:
In the parable [of the wedding guests], the king asks the servants to bring the invitation to his son’s wedding banquet. That banquet is a reflection of the eschatological banquet. It is an image of ultimate salvation in the Kingdom of God, fulfilled even now by the coming of Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, who has given us life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10), symbolized by the table set with succulent food and with fine wines, when God will destroy death forever (cf. Is 25:6-8).
Christ’s mission has to do with the fullness of time, as he declared at the beginning of his preaching: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15). Christ’s disciples are called to continue this mission of their Lord and Master. Here we think of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the eschatological character of the Church’s missionary outreach: “The time for missionary activity extends between the first coming of the Lord and the second…, for the Gospel must be preached to all nations before the Lord shall come (cf. Mk 13:10)” (Ad Gentes, 9). We know that among the first Christians missionary zeal had a powerful eschatological dimension. They sensed the urgency of the preaching of the Gospel. Today too it is important to maintain this perspective, since it helps us to evangelize with the joy of those who know that “the Lord is near” and with the hope of those who are pressing forward towards the goal, when all of us will be with Christ at his wedding feast in the kingdom of God. While the world sets before us the various “banquets” of consumerism, selfish comfort, the accumulation of wealth and individualism, the Gospel calls everyone to the divine banquet, marked by joy, sharing, justice and fraternity in communion with God and with others.
3. The Eucharistic Banquet
Finally, Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves also alludes to the Eucharistic table that He will set up during the Last Supper. In fact, St. John, following St. Mark, describes Jesus’ actions during the multiplication of the loaves with the same verbs that we find in the account of the institution of the Eucharist: “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them…». We can then see in a single event the figure of the banquet offered by Christ in its three interrelated aspects: paschal, eschatological and eucharistic. All these dimensions of the divine banquet in Christ are mystically realized in the mystery of the Eucharist, which he left to his disciples and which then became the source and summit of the Church’s mission.
In this regard, for a final reflection, it will be useful to once again cite the teaching of Pope Francis in the aforementioned Message for World Mission [Sun]Day:.
This fullness of life, which is Christ’s gift, is anticipated even now in the banquet of the Eucharist, which the Church celebrates at the Lord’s command in memory of him. The invitation to the eschatological banquet that we bring to everyone in our mission of evangelization is intrinsically linked to the invitation to the Eucharistic table, where the Lord feeds us with his word and with his Body and Blood. As Benedict XVI taught: “Every Eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering of the People of God. For us, the Eucharistic banquet is a real foretaste of the final banquet foretold by the prophets (cf. Is 25:6-9) and described by the New Testament as ‘the marriage-feast of the Lamb’ (Rev 19:9), to be celebrated in the joy of the communion of the saints” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 31).
Consequently, all of us are called to experience more intensely every Eucharist, in all its dimensions, and particularly its eschatological and missionary dimensions. In this regard, I would reiterate that “we cannot approach the Eucharistic table without being drawn into the mission which, beginning in the very heart of God, is meant to reach all people” (ibid., 84). The Eucharistic renewal that many local Churches are laudably promoting in the post-Covid era will also be essential for reviving the missionary spirit in each member of the faithful. With how much greater faith and heartfelt enthusiasm should we recite at every Mass: “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection, until you come again”!
(Message for World Mission [Sun]Day 2023)
Useful points to consider:
Catechism of the Catholic Church
1335 The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributes the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist. The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour of Jesus’ glorification. It makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father’s kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ.
Pope Francis, Message for WorldMission [Sun]Day 2023, 22 October 2023
Hearts on fire, feet on the move (cf. Lk 24:13-35)
2. Our eyes were “opened and recognized him” in the breaking of the bread. Jesus in the Eucharist is the source and summit of the mission.
[…] The risen Christ, then, is both the one who breaks the bread and, at the same time, the bread itself, broken for us. It follows that every missionary disciple is called to become, like Jesus and in him, through the working of the Holy Spirit, one who breaks the bread and one who is broken bread for the world.
Here it should be remembered that breaking our material bread with the hungry in the name of Christ is already a work of Christian mission. How much more so is the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, which is Christ himself, a work of mission par excellence, since the Eucharist is the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church.
As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out: “We cannot keep to ourselves the love we celebrate in the Sacrament [of the Eucharist]. By its very nature, it asks to be communicated to everyone. What the world needs is the love of God, to encounter Christ and believe in him. For this reason the Eucharist is not only the source and summit of the life of the Church; it is also the source and summit of her mission: ‘An authentically Eucharistic Church is a missionary Church’” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 84).
Pope Francis, Angelus, Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 25 July 2021
The Gospel of this Sunday’s liturgy recounts the famous episode of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, with which Jesus feeds about five thousand people who came to hear him (cf. Jn 6:1-15). It is interesting to see how this miracle takes place: Jesus does not create the loaves and fishes from nothing, no, but rather He works with what the disciples bring him. One of them says: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” (v. 9). It is little, it is nothing, but it is enough for Jesus.
Let us now try to put ourselves in the place of that boy. The disciples ask him to share everything he has to eat. It seems to be an unreasonable proposal, or rather, unjust. Why deprive a person, indeed a child, of what he has brought from home and has the right to keep for himself? Why take away from one person what is not enough to feed everyone anyway? In human terms, it is illogical. But not for God. On the contrary, thanks to that small freely-given and therefore heroic gift, Jesus is able to feed everyone. This is a great lesson for us. It tells us that the Lord can do a lot with the little that we put at His disposal. It would be good to ask ourselves every day: “What do I bring to Jesus today?” He can do a lot with one of our prayers, with a gesture of charity for others, even with one of our sufferings handed over to His mercy. Our small things to Jesus, and He works miracles. This is how God loves to act: He does great things, starting from those small things, those freely-given ones.