In today's gospel we learn about how Jesus fed a crowd of 5000 with just a few barley loaves and fishes. Jesus can take what little we offer him and transform it into something bigger and more beautiful than what we could possible imagine.
Holy Spirit, fill my heart and illuminate my mind. Help me to hear and understand God's message today. Help me to recognise when God is trying to speak to me in my daily life. Amen
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.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNLmVP176XA (Credit to Catholic Kids Media)
In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites his disciples to help him do a wonderful thing. But the disciples don’t think they can help Jesus do this.
Ask: When Jesus saw that the crowd was hungry, what did he want to do? (He wanted to give them food.) What did Jesus ask his disciples? (where could they get food to feed the crowd) What did Philip answer? (He said that they didn’t have enough money to buy food to feed all the people.) What did Andrew tell Jesus? (He told Jesus that there was a boy with five barley loaves and two fish, but he said that this wasn’t enough to feed so many people.) Did Jesus think that this was enough? (Yes.) How do we know? (He blessed the food the boy had, and he fed more than five thousand people.)
Say: There are many wonderful contributions that we want to make to our world. Sometimes we might wonder whether we will be able to do these things and the many wonderful things that God wants us to do. In today’s Gospel, Jesus taught his disciples that he can take their small offerings and make amazing things happen. When we offer God our works and our actions, God will bless them and will help us do amazing things.
Father in heaven, for the conversion of sinners, we give you today, all that we think and do and say, and we join it with all that was done by Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen
