One of the things that makes life very fascinating is the fact that we do not know what will happen next. We ordinarily live in hope that the future will always be good. Anxiety sets in when what we see does not encourage this hope of a better future. This happens mostly in our daily struggles to satisfy the basic human needs. But what keeps the believer strong at such moments is the realization that God Himself feeds us irrespective of our insufficiency. We find this reality in the readings of this Sunday. In each situation of want, the two things needed most essentially are courage to keep moving despite the apparent insufficiency and faith in divine providence.
Courage to Keep Moving
The first reading from 2 Kings 4:42-44 presents the story of how the Prophet Elisha miraculously feeds a hundred people with twenty barley loaves. We find a similar scenario in the Gospel from John 6:1-15 where Jesus miraculously feeds a multitude of five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish. In each of these parallel stories, there is a dialogue between the miracle worker and a disciple, all bordering on the fear that the available quantity will not be enough. The servant of Elisha instructs that the twenty barley loaves be presented to the people, but his servant does not see the sense in presenting the small quantity to a hundred people.
In a similar way, Jesus challenges his group to feed the great crowd. Philip objects, pointing out the lack of adequate means for such benevolence. In each of these contexts what is needed is the courage to face the challenge. Jesus saw a large crowd coming to him and felt compassion for them. He wanted his disciples to get positively involved in alleviating the problem of hunger in this crowd. They thought he was kidding. For Philip, it was a near impossibility for them to feed the immense crowd with only five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus, surely, is not oblivious of this fact. Rather, he wants them to have the courage to get involved and not be inhibited by their sense of inadequacy and anxiety of not succeeding. Difficult situations demand courage. That is how a society changes for better.
Faith in Divine Providence
Success does not depend only on courage. There is need for faith in God without whom all efforts are rendered useless. Faith is needed to surrender our little resources and endowments to the power of God. This is what Elisha does with the twenty barley loaves. Jesus does the same with the little provision. For Andrew, the quantity is insignificant for the large crowd, but for Jesus, this will do. We often imagine and reason like Andrew, when the task ahead far outweighs our capacity. But Psalm 145, which is the psalm of this Sunday, encourages us to focus on God, who is the real provider: “The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:15-16).
We are, therefore, encouraged to put our faith in the divine providence which sustains everything irrespective of the difficulties involved. Jesus usually tells his hearers never to worry as the heavenly Father cares for them. In our daily struggles to make ends meet, we are called upon never to give way to despondency as God’s providence accompanies us all the way.
