Today we celebrate the Memorial of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American born saint. She was born at the time of the United States’ founding, into a wealthy, non-Catholic family. She was beset by tragedies and challenges but was able to find herself as a Catholic amidst the obstacles of her life. Her husband and most of her children died while she was young, and she died before the age of fifty. Her focus was on health care, education and teaching of the Catholic faith. She led the Sisters of Charity ministry. Let us think of her today, as we try to care for and teach others.
Problems with the Crowd
Mark’s Gospel today relates to Jesus’ interaction with a crowd of “5000 men”, which was much larger if one were to include women and children. There were many issues with the crowd. They were acting like sheep without a shepherd, so Jesus was trying to teach them how to be better. Late in the day, in their secluded spot, there was nowhere to buy food. Also, there was not enough money in the ministry money sack to pay for food for such an enormous crowd. Lastly, this was a training mission for the disciples, to try to learn how Jesus worked through problems, not how standard human beings would work through problems.
Breaking It Down
After hearing the excuses of having only five loaves, two fish, not much money, and being in a secluded spot, Jesus had a chance to hear what the disciples would do. Sending the crowd away seemed most logical, from a human perspective. I can see the disciples nodding their head at that suggestion.
Jesus, however, took an approach that started with logic and ended with a miracle. Sending these five thousand people away hungry and untrained was not what he wanted. Rather than deal with five thousand or more people all at once, he asked the crowd to break down into smaller groups, of 100 or 50. Feeding 50 or 100 seems a bit more plausible, doesn’t it? This could be considered breaking a problem into bite sized pieces.
He then moved to the miraculous portion of the training session, when he asked his Father to bless the food, and multiply it, so it could be brought to each group. He continued the blessing and distribution until each group had their fill, and there were even scraps left over for later.
We can all identify with certain problems today that are just too big to handle. And we want to throw up our hands and give up. If we can use Jesus’ example from Mark, we can come up with ideas to make the wide problems become narrower, and more easily to address. Focus on one bad habit we want to fix, not a “complete makeover.” Do not try to befriend the entire parish in one day. Start with one person at a time. Read one chapter a day of the Bible and work your way through it. Do not try to evangelize the entire world at once, start with those in your sphere of influence. Call in God’s help. It was the ultimate secret to Jesus’ success in this Gospel reading. But, also defining the problem on a scale that can be addressed, is also important.
Remain Blessed.
