Scripture Scribbles: July 28, 2024

the Gospel

John 6:1-15

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.

the scribble

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to this faith of ours, I am still a rookie!  When I dig into our readings and the Gospel, The Word, there is always something to uncover, something new that I never noticed. I love this Gospel about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. I never connected this Gospel to a reading from the Old Testament until today while reading 2 Kings, with the twenty Barley loaves for 100 people…. “They shall eat and there shall be some left over. And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the Lord said.”

This reads very similar to John 6,  when describing filling twelve wicker baskets ‘with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.’ All this is left over after feeding the five thousand! 

I love seeing these connections in the Old and the New Testaments. It reminds me of a cool quote I read once from Saint Augustine, “In the Old Testament the New is concealed, in the New the Old is revealed.”  

If Philip had been familiar with 2 Kings, would it have dawned on him what Jesus was about to do?  Would Philip have suggested to Jesus, Why don't you multiply the bread to feed all the people like the Barley loaves in second Kings?  What does being familiar with the Word of God look like?

If I was more familiar with the Word, would I more understand how God is working in my life?  Will my eyes be more open? Will my heart be more open?  Will I one day look back over my life and see the hand of God working…or is this only a privilege we will have in eternity? 

For now I believe it is important in life to strive to be better than we were yesterday, to grow in our faith, a little everyday. To grow in ‘humility, gentleness with patience, bearing with one another through love.’ (Eph. 4:2) Our readings are so rich, and the Truth is so beautiful. Imagine if we were there that day to witness this miracle?  To see the multiplication, to see the leftovers in the wicker baskets? The ONLY miracle to be written about, in all four Gospels….why? I think because it is pointing us to the fact that God provides, He provides for his people.  The Eucharist will feed us, and it will be enough, more than enough.  Our cups will overflow, our gratitude will overflow and hopefully our love will overflow to our children and their children and their children. So if you were handed down this Faith of ours from your grandparents who may be more alive in Heaven right now than they ever were here on earth because they are with our Lord.   Thank them, and remember when you receive the Eucharist it is as though you are holding the hand of Jesus and your loved ones are holding the other.  Our church recognizes Grandparents today July 28th, the Sunday closest to the feasts of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, our Blessed Mother’s parents, and clearly she was raised with the knowledge of the Word.  Let us try to imitate those who went before us living lives centered around this beautiful Faith of ours. It is a treasure and I hope to treat it that way. 

Today’s devotion was written by Beth Brennan