Dear Friends,
This weekend we have a familiar story in the Gospel in which Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes. In this famous Gospel story we cannot fail to notice the compassionate regard Jesus had for the need of the crowd. There were no stores or restaurants around. The people were obviously going to feel the need for food; they would soon be hungry. Their need presented Jesus with an opportunity to demonstrate his power, and there was an opportunity here for him to meet an evident human need. That's what God is like. That's what Christ, who is God among us, came to do: to meet our needs. All of these started with the little boy who contributed the original five loaves and two fish. I can picture this young boy sort of looking around and thinking something like, "It's too bad, really, about all these others. I wish there was something I could do. But five hunks of bread are just five hunks of bread. My little efforts aren't going to change this mess one bit." Then suddenly there are a couple of apostles towering over him, saying, "Yes, there is something you can do. Give your bread and your fish to Christ." The kid says, "This little bit?" The apostles reply, "Yup. That little bit."
Well, the point is clear. If that child had insisted on being his own judge as to what the effects of his efforts could reasonably be expected to be, then he would not have made that effort, and an awful lot of hungry people would have sat there for quite a while. But he didn't. He was content to simply make the effort and let Christ be the architect of its effects. There is a very profound truth in all of this: those who live in God's world never know the final outcome, the full effects of their efforts. That is so because it is, in fact, God's world. It is God who builds it, and by God's choice part of the essential raw material of that building is the effort that we make. That means that there is a real sense in which God depends, in the building of the kingdom, on the efforts that we make to be virtuous.
Fr. Alex Ureña
This weekend we have a familiar story in the Gospel in which Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes. In this famous Gospel story we cannot fail to notice the compassionate regard Jesus had for the need of the crowd. There were no stores or restaurants around. The people were obviously going to feel the need for food; they would soon be hungry. Their need presented Jesus with an opportunity to demonstrate his power, and there was an opportunity here for him to meet an evident human need. That's what God is like. That's what Christ, who is God among us, came to do: to meet our needs. All of these started with the little boy who contributed the original five loaves and two fish. I can picture this young boy sort of looking around and thinking something like, "It's too bad, really, about all these others. I wish there was something I could do. But five hunks of bread are just five hunks of bread. My little efforts aren't going to change this mess one bit." Then suddenly there are a couple of apostles towering over him, saying, "Yes, there is something you can do. Give your bread and your fish to Christ." The kid says, "This little bit?" The apostles reply, "Yup. That little bit."
Well, the point is clear. If that child had insisted on being his own judge as to what the effects of his efforts could reasonably be expected to be, then he would not have made that effort, and an awful lot of hungry people would have sat there for quite a while. But he didn't. He was content to simply make the effort and let Christ be the architect of its effects. There is a very profound truth in all of this: those who live in God's world never know the final outcome, the full effects of their efforts. That is so because it is, in fact, God's world. It is God who builds it, and by God's choice part of the essential raw material of that building is the effort that we make. That means that there is a real sense in which God depends, in the building of the kingdom, on the efforts that we make to be virtuous.
Fr. Alex Ureña
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