Feed Them Yourselves

Gospel: Mark 6: 34-44

Mark's version of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes focuses on the conversation between Jesus and his disciples.  The disciples notice the people are hungry and without food, and they inform Jesus of this situation.  He tells them to feed the people, at which point the disciples object: the cost is just too high.  We care for the poor and hungry, but not that much.  We care enough to tell you about it, but that's as far as it goes...

How similar we are to these disciples!  We will talk a lot about care for the poor, but when asked to do something about it we will take part in a canned food drive or donate old clothes to a thrift store.  But we are not willing to radically change our lifestyle.  We like our big home, our closets full of clothes, pantries full of food, the suburban lifestyle.  And when we make decisions on public monies, we prefer to spend it on sports stadiums instead of the poor.  We care enough to complain about the problem, but not enough to do anything substantial about the problem.

Perhaps the real miracle of this story would have been the disciples actually doing something meaningful to help the poor and hungry.  Perhaps that is the miracle we might some day hope to see in our world - not asking for baby Jesus magic, but disciples who actually will live as Jesus does and care for others in concrete, meaningful ways that make a genuine difference in the world and in people's lives.