By: Mauro Russo
Editor’s Note: Articles originally published on Pane Vivo.
A Reflection on Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus left the house, crossed the sea and withdrew to a deserted place. But the crowd followed him. And seeing them, he had compassion on them and healed the sick. This is the heart of Matthew 14:13-21, and every time I read it I stop on one word alone: compassion.
It is not the same as duty. It is not the same as giving alms. I can give alms without feeling anything for that person, for their poverty, for their pain. The gesture is concrete but remains cold, antiseptic. Compassion is something else: it is entering into another person’s pain, taking it on, feeling it as your own.
Jesus did not heal to build an audience. He had no need of recognition. He was the Almighty. Jesus healed because he loved. And those he healed felt it: they felt understood, not merely assisted.
Even today that would be a great miracle. Not necessarily a material one. Sometimes an embrace is enough, a look, a genuine how are you, a can I do something for you. It is not in my character, we might think. I am shy, introverted, embarrassed. But the Gospel does not stop at our shyness.
Give Them Something to Eat Yourselves
When the disciples suggested sending the crowd away so they could return to the villages to eat, Jesus answered: “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat” (Mt 14:16). It is a phrase that strikes the heart. He does not send them to solve the problem on their own. He involves them. And he calls them to be part of it.
And they answered with five loaves and two fish.
That answer contains something this world has taught us not to do. The world says: defend yourself, do not show weakness, you have to manage on your own. The disciples did the opposite: they put their humanity on a plate. Limited, imperfect, insufficient. And they said: this is everything we have.
It is an act of surrender. And it is there that the miracle happens.
Jesus took those five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven, said the blessing, broke them and gave them to the disciples. And he fed five thousand men, not counting women and children. And twelve baskets were left over.
The Lord’s Genesority Abounds
The Lord does not ration. He overflows in grace. For those who seek him sincerely, for those who put their humanity on the plate without pretending to have more than they do, God answers in abundance. He had already done it with Elijah, exhausted under a broom tree, bringing him bread and water without being asked. He does it still today.
But we need to let go of the idea of exchange: I pray, therefore God must answer immediately, in the form I have decided. As if grace were a contract. As if patience were not part of faith.
Paul reminds us that not even tribulation, anguish, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger or the sword will be able to separate us from the love of God (Rm 8:35). He lists them not to frighten us but to tell us that we too will suffer. And that in the middle of that suffering he is still there.
“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rm 8:38-39).
And so I close with the words of Psalm 145: “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing” (Ps 145:15-16).
At the proper time. Not ours. His.
Let us ask for that holy patience that only the Most High can give us. To look to him in our troubles and say with an open heart: Father, remember me.
Even if imperfect. Even if sinners. Because as Isaiah reminds us: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Is 55:1).
Let us go to him without conditions and without hesitation. Because he loves us.
Related Links
When God Writes Straight on Crooked Lines
Jesus Christ: The Bread That Satisfies
How Christ Fed the Five Thousand
