This year the Church uses the Gospel of Mark as the source for our readings. But since Mark is the shortest Gospel we supplement it with passages taken from Saint John’s Gospel. For the next five weeks we will go through the sixth chapter of Saint John verse by verse. The chapter begins with the story of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. Did you notice that ancient times seemed to be as obsessed with numbers as modern times? For example today we ask, how much did that cost? What kind of salary do you earn? How much weight did you lose? And the bigger the number the more impressed we are. That movie just made millions. That ball player got a huge bonus. That house sold for double what they paid for it. The food pantry overflows with numbers. How many groceries did we provide, how many lunches were given to the homeless, how many volunteers participated? Even in the Church we can be obsessed with numbers. How many families is your parish? What is your weekly collection? How many kids in Religious Education? I am reminded of the tag life from a movie about Godzilla – “size matters.” For better or worse, numbers make a difference in how we look at things. So we should not be surprised that the Bible has an obsession with numbers as well. How many men reclined? A large number, about 5000. How much money would it take to feed them? More than two hundred days’ wages according to the apostle Philip. And what do we actually have to meet these needs? Just a little bit – five loaves and two fish. “What good would that be for so many?”
Everyone seems to be obsessed with numbers – except for Jesus. For him, size doesn’t matter. Rather, love matters, charity matters, compassion matters. Jesus sees a need and trusted that if they gave what they had it would be enough. Five loaves and two fish. Perfect. When he give away what little he had it met the need. That is the pattern that Jesus holds for us. We have to buck our tendency to focus on numbers and instead focus on compassion. When we just look at the numbers we can get overwhelmed. 682 homicides in Chicago last year. Huge number. 13 million children go to bed hungry every night in the United States. A tragedy. 56 million adults in this country do not belong to any church or religious denomination. A crisis. When we see numbers like that we can get frozen into inaction. What can little old me do in the face of such a tidal wave of problems? The example of Jesus says, do what you can. Your little bit will be enough for God to use. Create peace and non-violence in your family, your neighborhood and it will ripple out into the city. Help to feed one child and see if it doesn’t echo into the larger world. Speak of your (to you) inadequate faith to the friend or family member who has lost it and see what God can do. We are tempted to say, “I only have a little bit of time, I am so busy. What good is that when there is so much to do?” Give even that hour you have to Jesus and watch him multiply it. “I only have so much patience.” Give that little bit to Jesus in love and service and watch him multiply it. “I only have a little knowledge about God.” Give what you have to someone who needs to know the love of God and watch Jesus multiply it so that there are wicker baskets-full of grace left over. If we give our little bit with love, with charity with compassion God can multiply it in ways beyond our ken.
However, when we look at the epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians we find that there is a number that is important, that we can rely on: the number one. It is not the huge number but the smallest number that shapes our faith. The Apostle finds seven different ways to emphasize the importance of one-ness. At the basis of it all, there is “one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” In other words, all the trillions of stars and billions of human beings and hundreds of millions of mosquitos owe their existence to the one God who is the creator and source of all that is. We come from a common source. The one God sent us Jesus as our one Lord who would show us the right path and be our companion and guide for the journey. Jesus proclaimed one faith. Despite the many divergences and disagreements, it all boils down to loving God and loving our neighbor. For that reason there is one baptism, one basic commitment that we are called to make where we accept our identity as a child of God, made in God’s image and likeness. And that gives us the one hope that we have – hope because we do not rely on ourselves but on the gift and grace of God which is showered upon us. We experience that hope because we have been give of the one Spirit, the Spirit of God who dwells in our being and fills us with the strength and the energy to keep on keeping on. All of which leads to us becoming one body. Here we see why numbers didn’t matter to Jesus. We as the people of God are one body. As one body we are bound together despite the legion of things which tend to pull us apart. No matter how many the wounds, God brings healing. No matter how high the goal, God provides the leg up. No matter how daunting the challenge, God extends blessed assurance. We are the one body of Christ. Isn’t what God does wonderful! God can take the tiniest seed and have it grow into a mighty tree. God can take the teeniest baby and have her grow into a wonderful woman. God can take our little church and have it care for the neighborhood. Five loaves and two fish when used by one heart full of compassion are all that we need.