Miracles, For Real

This Sunday begins the Bread of Life Discourse from the Gospel of John chapter 6 and will continue for the next four weeks after this Sunday.   For Catholics, John chapter 6 is a cornerstone of our faith, in and that Jesus will be with us always even until the end of the age through the Eucharist.

As Catholics we believe in the real presence of Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity when we receive Holy Communion.  As the weeks proceed we will get into that further.  For now though, it is interesting that Jesus, like that wise and patient professor who slowly guides his pupils towards enlightenment, begins not with the all out, “My flesh is true food and my blood true drink,” but rather, he begins with a sign so that the students (the people) will recognize the more difficult saying later as a belief that has credibility because the belief is based on the one doing the teaching, in this case Jesus himself.

The sign that Jesus offers is that he will first feed us earthly food and that he can feed us that food regardless of how much or little there is.  In this story of the multiplication of loaves and fishes Jesus does more than just give people a free meal.  He is proving who he is; he is also preparing this audience to accept what will be the greater miracle, that he will give his flesh and blood as true food.

There are many interpretations and sides we can go off on, but I want to stick with the “miracle” aspect here, since that will lead us into the next few weeks.  The traditional sense of miracle means that God brakes into nature through supernatural means for some purpose, i.e. to heal a crippled man or restore sight to the blind.  Over the last fifty or more so years some theologians have moved away from this traditional sense of miracle to what they call a more human approach.

One such way that the multiplication of bread and fishes happened was not that something came from nothing, or something from very little, but rather when Jesus prayed the people who were there were so moved that they shared what they had with their neighbors, hence the miracle here is the selfless acts of the people gathered.  This interpretation while nice, and containing a “feel good” sentiment actually does harm to the text because it goes beyond what is written and infuses an interpretation not within the text.  Allow me to explain.

The story of feeding the multitude occurs six times throughout the Gospels, in each case there is never a hint that people brought food with them.  There is actually the notion that they followed Jesus for a while and ran out of food and Jesus had pity on them because they had nothing to eat. (c.f. Mt. 14:13-14)  Another problem with the humanistic interpretation is if everyone brought a little they could have just ate what they had, no need to share.  Another problem is that people did not have the means to keep food cool for that long, as one person said to me once, “what did they do, pack coolers with tuna fish sandwiches?” 

All kidding aside, those are not even the biggest problems with the humanistic interpretation, the biggest problem is that is does not give proper due to Christ himself.  If you notice all of Christ’s miracles are done almost instantaneously, he never asks for help, and the command is quick and effective.  He does this for two reasons, one to heal that which is broken and to prove who he is, “God in the flesh.”  Jesus has power over nature, not to control it, but to guide and gently bring it to wholeness, i.e. holiness.

The more important reason for this miracle, besides proving who Jesus is, is so that the people will remember his credibility.  For soon he will make an even bolder claim, all earthly food is good, but it cannot keep you from the second death, separation from God, only my food can do that, and that is my flesh and blood.  You would think that the people would have been quick to believe, but they think him mad, i.e. “will he truly give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink.” 

Stay tuned in until next week, same bat time, same bat channel (for the answer).

And by the way, Miracles are Real!

FJ