The gospel passage for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time offers us a way out of a lot of the apprehension and restlessness we experience whenever faced with a daunting situation and we tip toward dejection or even mental paralysis. And I am talking about challenges much, much smaller than having to feed a crowd of about five thousand men, without counting women and children. (cf. John 6:1-15)
The huge mistake we keep making is as old as the world itself. It is the mistake of confronting serious situations on our own and of assessing them solely considering the resources that we have available. It is the mistake of claiming to be believers, even whenever we fail to factor God into the equation of the test before us.
But his servant objected, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha insisted. “For thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'” (2 Kings 4:43)
They tested God in their hearts, demanding the food they craved.They spoke against God, and said, “Can God spread a table in the desert? (Psalm 78:18-19)
Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little (bit).”One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,”There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” (John 6:7-9)
In cases comparable to these three situations, we would feel overwhelmed, depleted of energy and, perhaps, unable to handle even the next simple tasks. Confronted by dire situations, on the mere human level, we can react in either of two ways: the first is suggested by Satan: The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” (Matthew 4:3)
This is what, so often, we expect of God in our prayers. “Wield your magic wand, o Lord, and provide ‘bread’ for all of us.” And we legitimize this flawed image of God by thinking: if God doesn’t deliver the way I want him to, what kind of God would he be? I could expect similar results from good luck, from a break, from a combination of favorable factors working for me or from a group of experts pooling their skills.
The second way is a reductionist way: we conceive God as being slightly more knowledgeable than we and “moody” in the exercise of his infinite power. While we deem our requests to be aligned with the best solution, we overlook our permanent tunnel vision and how the pressure of limited time available reduces our options—vastly. We ignore that God alone always has the complete, broad view of any event and of any matter, and he alone knows how they relate to and affect a much larger reality and into the future. He alone also knows how the roots of our predicament stretch deep into the past.
Thankfully, there are three unmovable tenets which can strengthen our faith so much that we would never lose heart, and which enable us to tackle any situation no matter how daunting it might look to those of little faith.
(1) We should face all challenges, from routine to gigantic, welcoming Jesus’ blunt and all-encompassing statement about our human condition: I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
(2) The second one needs to be slowly etched into the back of our mind by deeply appreciating how the Resurrection of Christ has changed everything. Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
(3) Our Heavenly Father has already given us his only Son sacrificed on the cross and victorious over all evils, including death itself: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him.” (Romans 8:3-32)
But at this point we are dying to ask the following question: “Why is it, then, that we do not get all “the bread and fish” that we need and when we need it?” The answer is bound to catch us by surprise: we prefer solutions that require only little personal cost or—none. This is the reason why Jesus withdrew to the mountain alone because, once fed, the crowds thought that they had solved most of their problems by making him their king. (cf. John 6:15)
Imagine the number of converts the Church would have if she could guarantee that Jesus would feed everyone, provide for every need and solve any problem without personal cost to those involved! The lesson is a sobering one indeed as it refuses to exonerate anyone from his/her assigned tasks and responsibilities.
The Lord answers our prayers only after our trust in him is so firm that we surrender ourselves totally to his will and accept any outcome he deems fitting, just as Jesus provided enough food for over five thousand people only after a little boy gave him all he had, his five barley loaves and two fish. The Lord steps in with marvelous miracles only after we have risked it all, believing in the power of his love.
