Message of Abbot Paul - 8th January 2022
Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 8th January 2022
Epiphanytide is short and tomorrow we keep the Baptism of Jesus, which is one of the three manifestations of the Word made flesh, the Light of the world, celebrated on the Epiphany, as all the glorious hymns written for that Solemnity mention and explain so clearly, the third being the first miracle of Jesus at Cana in Galilee, when he changed water into wine. One of the great advantages of belonging to an historic Church is the celebrating of all these feast days that keep us firmly focussed on the life of Jesus and the events recorded in the Bible. Personally, I find this a great help for my faith and daily Christian life.
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The Gospel passage for today in the Lectionary comes from Mark, (Mk 6: 34-44), and is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Let’s read Mark’s text:
“As Jesus stepped ashore, he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length. By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place and it is getting very late. So send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.’ He replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves.’ They answered, ‘Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?’ ‘How many loaves have you?’ he asked. ‘Go and see.’ And when they had found out they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people together in groups on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all. They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.”
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We could ask why such a reading so close to Christmas and the Epiphany, but feeding the hungry would be one of the signs that the Messiah had come and, with him, the kingdom of heaven. Jesus looks with pity and compassion on the crowds for they are like sheep who lack a shepherd. He comes, too, as the Shepherd of Israel, as God is called in the Old Testament. This miraculous feeding reminds us of Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, feeding the Hebrew multitudes with manna from heaven, striking water from the rock and imploring God’s mercy on his people when they are afflicted by hunger and thirst. Jesus is, indeed, the new Moses, but more than another patriarch, he is the incarnate Son of God. In our Gospel account there is also the link with the Last Supper and the Eucharist, as the words and actions used by Jesus look towards the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup, when Jesus pronounced these to be his Body and Blood. What of the scraps left over? What do you think? And how many people do you reckon there really were, if the men alone numbered five thousand? I find reading the Gospel more fun than a crossword puzzle!
