TEACHING WHILE FEEDING

TEACHING WHILE FEEDING
Homily for Tues after Epiphany, 07 Jan 2025, Mk 6:34-44

Because we are familiar with a two-part Liturgy at Mass that distinguishes between the first part, which we call the Liturgy of the Word and the second part, which we call the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we tend to project it on this narrative about the multiplication of the loaves. We are conditioned to read it also as a two-part narrative: a first part about Jesus teaching the multitude, and a second part about Jesus feeding them. Actually, although the story does indeed begin with Jesus deciding to forego his earlier decision to come away with his disciples and rest a while. It is already compassion that had motivated him to teach them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then when it gets late, out of compassion, he decides to feed them too. But please take note, even the feeding part is still part of the teaching.
Mark is not even telling us in the story what Jesus was teaching the crowds before he decided to feed them too. He simply says, “He taught them many things.” I have a feeling that his teaching had to do with how the kingdom of God is made manifest by our capacity to multiply resources however little they might seem. Now he had to illustrate his teaching in the most practical way possible. But first, he teaches them how not to do it—namely, not by counting the cost immediately and doing the mathematics like the disciples are when they react to Jesus’ suggestion to give the crowd something to eat. I imagine Judas Iscariot saying, “Do we also feed them for free after teaching them for free? By golly, we’ll go bankrupt! ”
Here’s how Jesus teaches them the art of multiplication of resources: firstly,by focusing on what they had, then on what they did not have. (Surely they were not the only ones who were bringing with them some provisions, however little it might be. ) Secondly, instead of making the crowds line up to get something, he makes them sit down in smaller groups, perhaps also to find out what they had with them. In John’s version of this story, the five loaves and two fish are not their own provision. They are rather shared by a little lad. Thirdly, by teaching them to be thankful for what they have, and to partake it with those who had none.
This is exactly what we experienced during the pandemic, remember? How in those times of need, our resources miraculously multiplied through the phenomenon of the community pantries. How, instead of just demanding ayuda, we followed two basic principles: “Magbigay ayon sa kakayanan; kumuha ayon sa pangangailangan.” (Give according to your ability; take according to your need.)
Obviously, when people care only about what to get, not only will they learn not to give, they will even try to get more than they actually need. Perhaps that is why we call the Eucharist a sacrament of love. It is the part where the Lord is still teaching, no longer with words but with his very life—which he allows to be broken like bread. By giving without counting the cost, by finding a different kind of satisfaction by giving of oneself.
The first reading from John calls this the God experience. “Everyone who loves is begotten of God,” he says. Whoever is without love is without God, for God is love.” It is in this way, he says, that God’s love is revealed to us: by the generous self-giving of God in passion and the death of Jesus his Son on the cross. By loving us, he teaches us to love. We learn generosity from our generous God, from Christ who lived a generous life.