God Feeds and Cares for Us

07-25-2021Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

Today’s message could be summed up in psalm 145, “The hand of the Lord feeds us, he answers all our needs.” Each reading shows how carefully God feeds and cares for us, in an up-close and personal fashion. Elisha fed the crowd from twenty barley loaves. Jesus blessed a few loaves, and thousands were fed. Perhaps this seems far-fetched, but we read stories in the news about chefs taking the leftovers from fancy restaurants and feeding many people in a soup kitchen. As a schoolgirl, one of my favorite stories was “Stone Soup”, the tale of a couple of war-weary soldiers convincing the people of a frightened and starving little country village to bring out their meager supplies and share them to make a marvelous soup to feed the town. The second reading asks us to “Consider well our call.” How do we respond to those in need around us?

Miracle or Magic?

It can be easy to say, “Oh yes, this is the story of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, when everybody decided to share the bits of food they had.” But how much of it is really about feeding the crowds? “Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test him, because he knew what he was going to do.” It must have been very hard to trust Jesus, especially when the disciples often didn’t understand him. This year has been challenging for us, too, to trust that God will provide, and also challenging for us to ask for help.

In the Rule of Saint Benedict, there is a chapter called “The assignment of impossible tasks.” It says, in essence, that when your superior tells you to do something impossible, it is fine to go talk to them about it, but in the end, you may still be asked to do this task. In what situations are we called to trust? When are we asked to act in faith or to do the impossible task?

How Will we Know we are Doing the Right Thing?

Miracles are seldom as obvious as the multiplication of loaves and fishes. Many years ago, I overheard a family conversation in a restaurant at the end of a long holiday weekend. At the register was one of those collection jars saying, “For just fifty cents a day you can feed a child.” The little girl asked her folks about it, and they explained it. She said, “I have money left from my weekend, could I put it in the jar?” The parents said yes and let her go on the adventure for herself. She came back and sat down, and they chatted some more. She said, “If fifty cents feeds a child for a day, then I was able to feed one for three days, because I had $1.50 left from the weekend.” When we follow this child’s example and go beyond the minimum, when we give all we can, we know we are doing the right thing, and we have understood the test that Jesus posed to Philip so long ago.