Each of the Gospels gives one or more accounts of Jesus feeding the crowds by multiplying the loaves and the fish. Often our focus is simply on the miracle, and we miss the fact that Jesus is feeding the crowds in more than one way.
In Matthew 14:14-20 we read: “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things.” When His disciples came and asked Him to dismiss the crowd “ ‘so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.’ He said to them in reply, ‘Give them some food yourselves.’” They told Him that they only had five loaves and two fish. Jesus took what they had and “looking up to heaven, He said the blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to His disciples to set before the people… They all ate and were satisfied.”
Notice that Jesus first feeds their minds and spirits with His teaching before He feeds their bodies. Love reaches out to feed the whole person in mind, body and spirit. This is why the Church traditionally calls us to both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. One can wipe out hunger with “bread and circuses” as the Roman emperors once did. The result was a population that did not revolt but whose inner spirit decayed, and Rome eventually fell.
This is why the Church calls for an integral development of the whole person. Mind, body and spirit all need to be fostered, so that all persons will be able to exercise all of their human rights in community.
So if we begin with feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and those in prison, and welcoming the stranger, we are then called to continue on to see that all are educated in both knowledge and virtue, that those in doubt and pain are comforted and consoled, and that those who are wronged find both justice and forgiveness.
Only this will result in a full culture of life where the dignity of each and all is recognized.
How do we get there? The First Letter of John shows us the way: “Beloved, if God has so loved us, we also must love one another. …If we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is brought to perfection in us” (4:11-12).
As Jesus shows us by His life, love is not about sentiment but about actions that feed the whole person. We are called to love our neighbor as Jesus loved others and as He loves us. “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. ...
We love because He first loved us” (4:16-19).
This is our hope and our prayer: that we so allow His loving grace into our lives that we, as the community of the Church, become more and more like
Jesus – feeding the body, spirit and soul of all in the world.
Jesuit Father John Michalowski is the parochial vicar of St. Peter Church in Charlotte.