Making Space for God!

Friday, May 2, 2025

Acts 5:34-42; Mk 16:1-15

Today’s Gospel invites us to examine if we make space for God to intervene in our lives.  

The passage on the multiplication of loaves shows Jesus testing Philip regarding feeding a large crowd, of which men alone numbered five thousand. 

Though Jesus asked Philip regarding ‘buying enough food’ for the large crowd present, he wanted to see how Philip would respond in light of the many miracles he has already performed. In other words, Jesus put the question to Philip, having known that he was with him at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. Hence, Jesus expected Philip to recall whatever he had done before answering the question on feeding the massive crowd. But Philip fails to grasp Jesus’ question and goes on exploring the feasibility of buying food without once recalling Jesus’ other miracles. His past experiences with Jesus do not help him with an answer. 

While Philip only saw the insurmountable problem, Andrew saw where Jesus could begin, though he was unsure of how these things would end. Though both Philip and Andrew seem lost in the face of the immense problem, I believe that Andrew’s response integrates what Jesus could do, though he does not know how Jesus would take things forward. Though Andrew is equally unclear like Philip, we can take his response to offer some room for Jesus to multiply ‘the five loaves and two fish.’ In this sense, we find Andrew not only recalling the past miracles of Jesus but also placing his faith in his ability to carry out something similar with the situation at hand, just as he turned water into wine at Cana. 

By his initiative, Andrew inspires us to make space for God to intervene in our lives. 

In effect, Andrew is saying, ‘Yes, God is capable of doing anything, if we allow Him to.’ 

Let us pray that in all that we do we may make space for God to act on our behalf. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar