Miracles Overlooked!

Friday, April 12, 2024

Acts 5:34-42; Jn 6:1-15

In today’s Gospel, we read about Jesus feeding the five thousand. 

The miracle of multiplication invites our attention to some lesser-known details as well. 

1.We only read that a boy has five barley loaves and two fish. But we hardly talk about his readiness to share. Hence, we are invited to think of the generosity of the boy. 

2. The diverse group of people that followed Jesus is another point for consideration. Jesus was followed by a ‘large crowd’ that had men alone, five thousand in number, without accounting for the number of women and children. In a society that was divided along ritual purity, the very coming together of the large crowd as followers of Jesus must have been revolutionary. There must have been gentiles, tax collectors, sinners, shepherds, and some from the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes too. But the name of Jesus united them all. This is also something that we often ignore. 

3. We know that Jesus was criticized because he ate with gentiles, tax collectors, and sinners. This fact prompts us to ask, ‘Were all those five thousand men ritually pure, given the diverse nature of the crowd that followed Jesus?’ It would not have been possible. By making them all eat together in one place, Jesus abolished the boundaries that separated people around the time.

Hence, today’s Gospel is not just about the miracle of feeding the five thousand. 

It is also the miracle of Jesus abolishing the boundaries so that his followers could relate to one another as God’s children with no bias to separate them. 

For a change, let us reflect on these miracles that are often overlooked. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar