Lectionary reading
First reading: 2 Kings 4:42-44.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 144(145):10-11, 15-18.
Second reading: Ephesians 4:1-6.
Gospel: John 6:1-15.
Link to readings
Commentary
We begin today the first of five Sundays where a series of Gospels taken from the sixth chapter of the Fourth Gospel interrupts the Year of Mark. John 6 consists of an account of the multiplication of the loaves (John 6:1-15), which forms the Gospel for today, followed by a long discourse from Jesus on the Bread of Life.
The sequence of Gospels around this theme over the coming weeks offers an opportunity for a sustained catechesis on the Eucharist. It should be noted, however, that while eucharistic overtones are there from the start, it is only towards the end of the discourse (vv. 51-58) that they become explicit. The principal focus of the discourse is on Jesus as the One sent down from heaven to be the life-giving revelation of God – a focus in which 'Wisdom' motifs are prominent. Our overall interpretation will be richer if we do not allow the eucharistic allusion to “swamp” the whole meaning from the very start.
There is also a good deal of overlap in the discourse material for the second, third and fourth Sunday Gospels taken from St. John. Preachers intending to offer a catechesis over the range of Sundays would be well advised to plan beforehand what they intend to draw from each particular Gospel.
PROFOUND GIFT
The “Bread of Life” sequence as a whole displays a pattern that can be discerned in several of the long discourses in the Fourth Gospel. The remedying of a human need – usually through a miracle – functions as a symbol of a far more profound gift involving the person of Jesus himself. Here the miraculous provision of bread for the hungry crowd signals that he is the “Bread of Life”. As the manna was sent down from heaven to feed the Israelites during their years of wandering in the wilderness of Sinai, Jesus is the life-giving Bread sent down from heaven by the Father. The following discourse “unpacks” this symbolic sense of Jesus as the Bread of Life.
The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is well set off by the brief First Reading, 2 Kings 2:42-44, recalling the similar miracle of the prophet Elisha. The prophet tells his servant to feed the crowd with the twenty barley loaves, just as Jesus will insist that his disciples feed an even greater multitude with even less. In both cases, too, after everyone is satisfied, there will be plenty left over. When the Lord supplies, the generosity is unstinting.
The context for the miracle described in the Gospel (John 6:1-15) is the Jewish feast of Passover, a feast celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and their formation into the covenant people of God. Seated on a mountain in front of the crowds, Jesus challenges his disciples with the question, “Where can we buy bread ....?” The disciples are utterly perplexed as to why they should take upon themselves this responsibility, impossible to fulfil granted the amount of food available (five barley loaves and two fish).
THE LORD WILL FEED HIS PEOPLE
In the face of their perplexity, Jesus instructs them to have the people sit down upon the green grass. The Greek word translated “sit down” has the sense of “recline as if for a banquet.” Telling the people to sit down would create the expectation of being fed. So the disciples risk being involved in an embarrassing failure. But, in the view and intention of Jesus, it is not a question of “buying” anything but rather of becoming instruments of the divine generosity. As with the manna in the wilderness of Sinai, the Lord will feed his people. In fact, when all have been fed, there are twelve baskets of leftover scraps to be collected – a symbol of the Eucharist that the successors of the twelve apostles will distribute to the Church. The Eucharistic celebration will continue Jesus’ ministry of the hospitality of God.
The message of the feeding is not lost on the people. Working out of their own categories of conventional messianic expectation, they see in Jesus the Prophet-King Messiah, promised by Moses (Deut 18:15-18). But Jesus will not be captured within messianic categories that are in his case completely inadequate. For the present, he eludes the crowd, to return later on his own terms. Then in the course of sustained interaction recorded in the rest of the chapter, he will attempt to communicate a sense of his true status and of the gift to the world that he represents.
In a world faced with hunger on a global scale, the challenge of Jesus, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” remains. It is an economic question and a political question. The Gospel suggests it is also a religious question – one Jesus throws to us as he did to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee.
Brendan Byrne, SJ, FAHA, taught New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, Parkville, Vic., for almost forty years. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Divinity (Melbourne). His commentaries on the Gospels can be found at Pauline Books and Media