In the Gospel today, we see a large crowd of people that kept following Jesus, hungry to know God and to learn about God because they saw the signs in Jesus. The bread and fish which Jesus provides for them is only a symbol of the life that he gives them with his words.
A simple meal like that and there is an abundance left over once they had been filled, much more than they began with. Sometimes we think that we have nothing to offer others, only “crusts of bread” to offer to the hungry. But if we give generously in God’s name, God will see that it nourishes them – and that we ourselves are nourished and blessed in our giving.
Deep down, I think our deepest hunger is a cry to be known, acknowledged for who we really are. The problem is that many people do not love themselves, and so anyone who claims to love me just doesn’t know the real me or, that anyone who actually does really know me cannot possibly love me.
So, when I look at God, it is incredibly difficult for me to believe that he can really know me and my hopes and fears. And at the same time, he can really love me as I need to be loved.
Let us follow our real hunger that leads to Jesus: he does know us. He loves and feeds me and you, and all of us. He is the Shepherd and Savior that our God has sent to us and, most particularly now at this moment of prayer, to me.
But remember: He feeds the crowd with the five barley loaves and two fish of the boy. My prayer and reflection, my hungering for Jesus, the Bread of Life, and to be in his presence, must lead me to be in the company of his brothers and sisters and to feed them with the “loaves and fish ” that I have.