The Exchange

 Gospel: Mark 6: 34-44

The exchange between Jesus and his disciples prior to the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is a fascinating one.  The disciples come to Jesus with a problem: we are in a deserted place and have no food for the people.  Their solution: send the people away to different towns to look for food.  But Jesus does not want to break the unity of the group, so he offers a suggestion: feed them yourselves.  The disciples protest: that would cost too much money!  Jesus then asks for whatever food they have and provides for the crowd in abundance.  

This same dynamic plays out in our world today.  We ask God to feed people, both spiritually and materially, but we ourselves are not willing to put forth the effort and expense to do so.  We would rather have people go their separate ways to find food rather than maintain the unity of the human family and feed them ourselves.  We protest at what it might cost to feed people, though we have funds in abundance to do so!  We expect Jesus once again to do it all for us.  

We will spare no expense to build a new sports arena.  We will endure any capital campaign to build a lavish church building.  Yet we struggle to find funds and space for the poor. We cut back on Mass times and close parishes because of lack of sacramental ministers rather than look at new and old models of ministry. Today's Gospel challenges us once again to examine whether we are engaged in authentic ministry in keeping with the example of Jesus.