In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In the Gospel today, 5,000 people are fed with five loaves of bread and two fish. When we are serving special services on feast-days, we use five loaves of bread which remind us of the miracle in today’s Gospel reading. Nowadays, we ask the Lord also to bless wheat, wine and oil (instead of fish). The prayers that go with the blessing of the five loaves of bread on these special feast-days and other special occasions ask that the Lord will multiply the loaves of bread, and that He will feed everyone.
Our Lord multiplied the five loaves of bread and the two fish. The provision was so generous that it did not merely feed the 5,000 men (they counted only the men in those days). However, there were obviously women and children present, in large numbers. He fed them so well that there were still plenty of left-overs after everyone was completely satisfied. The Lord’s provision is in abundance. They gathered up the left-over pieces into twelve baskets (and these were not little baskets). We are talking about big baskets such as the ones in which we collect apples, or even bigger ones : those great big baskets that you can hardly get your arms around. These baskets were taken up after everyone had eaten and felt full. That is what we are told today in the Gospel reading, and this is extremely important for us to remember. This is Who is looking after you and me also to this day. This same King who is in charge of feeding His people (or feeding His sheep because He is also a Shepherd), is feeding His flock, His children, His family, not simply enough, but rather He is feeding us with more than enough, because there are always left-overs.
It is necessary for us to remember how much the Lord is looking after us. There is a tendency in Canada with our “rationalism” and so forth, to think that such events are limited to those apostolic days, and that only our Saviour and His apostles did these things. However, that is not at all the case. There are stories over and over and over again in the lives of monks, nuns and saints, that when people are in dire need, and they turn to the Lord and ask Him to meet the need, the need is met. I have known this in my own life in recent years many times (not just rarely). Many times the need is not always met precisely as we asked for, because the Lord knows best. Nevertheless, the need truly is met. What we truly need is given to us. In many monasteries when there was no food left for another meal, suddenly before the next day, someone would arrive at the door with enough to eat for quite a while. I know monks and nuns in the United States and in Canada who can speak of this from their own experience. They have had this happen to them. The Lord, who loves us, is with us. This is happening not only to monks and nuns, although it is monks and nuns who speak about it more. I know that there are ordinary parishioners who have been in the same predicament : Orthodox Christian believers, and other Christians, too, who, turning to the Lord in their need, have their need met. They trusted the Lord, and the Lord fed them. The Lord saw them through. He sees each one of us through our difficulties, and He meets our needs.
Sometimes our Lord is feeding us just as He feeds the multitude today with the five loaves and the two fish. Today’s Gospel reading is not merely a story. It is an event which actually occurred. It really happens, and is happening because the Lord is the Lord of all creation. If He can turn water into wine by short-circuiting the grapes and the fermenting process and about five years of quality control, He can also multiply five loaves and two fish. If we look at the Gospel passage today in which we have heard about our Lord’s loving generosity (which we imitate with our Christian hospitality), we recognise the custom in many Orthodox families of always setting an extra place in case someone drops in. In Canada, however, because we are obsessed with having appointments for visitors, it is happening much less than it used to. However, in my childhood it happened many times. People would arrive at supper-time, and we always had to have more food than for ourselves alone because someone was certainly going to show up – and they did. Sometimes it still actually happens out there at Fair Havens, and I am certain that it has happened to you, too. The point is : always be prepared to give hospitality and love. We show our confidence in our Saviour’s provision when, at the end of meals, we customarily ask the Lord to multiply the left-overs from this meal and throughout the world. This is a very clear example of what our Lord does today with the 5,000, and what He is doing with us all the time.
If we read beyond today’s Gospel reading, we will see that our Lord let His disciples go off in the boat. He says His last words to the crowd, and He leaves to pray by Himself for a while. The disciples are on the Sea of Galilee, on which a storm often can blow up unexpectedly. That is just what happens this time in the middle of the night. It is a violent storm, and the disciples are all greatly frightened because of the waves. Walking on the water in the night, our Saviour comes to them and He calms the storm. He calms the waves. This is Who He is to you and to me in the storm of our life, too. He calms the storm of life around us so that we can live in peace and glorify Him, and live our lives giving thanks to Him. He feeds us. He cares for us. He meets our needs. This is Jesus Christ in whom we live, whom we love, whom we serve. He is the Lord, the King of the universe. He provides everything for us. He is the King of the universe, for whom the other kings in Israel had been preparing. It is that King into whom we are baptised, and in whom we are also anointed. That is why we can live in Christ the way we are able to do, glorifying Him, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.