Mary Cavanagh was the resident housekeeper for a wealthy family in Edinburgh during the second world war. She lived in the basement of the house with her daughter, a space with a huge kitchen and a large kitchen table. During the war, RAF officer trainees were sent to Edinburgh for part of their training and were billeted in these large Georgian houses. Mary fed them and welcomed them. They would give her their ration coupons and she used her excellent cooking skills to feed them all. As well as feeding them physically, she fed their hearts and souls with her generous hospitality, her warm spirit, and her sense of humor. I know this story well because Mary was my grandmother and one of those young airmen married my mother. Mary’s spirit of hospitality is the core value that was passed down in my family, from grandma to my parents, to me.  

The value of hospitality is central to today’s gospel. It is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. The story of the feeding of the five thousand follows the beheading of John the Baptist and Jesus was grieving. As we know from last week’s Gospel, his intention had been to have some time away with his disciples for some rest and recovery, but the large crowd followed him, so Jesus began to teach them and to minister to them. As evening drew near, the disciples wanted to send the people away so that they could go and buy food, but Jesus said, “you feed them". Now this would have seemed like an impossible task, but Andrew asks the crowd “who has food to share?” and he brings to Jesus a small boy who is willing to share his lunch. This is important because Jesus always calls for a community response, a response that is marked by generosity and a willingness to trust that all things are possible with God. True hospitality is also marked by joy. If we lose sight of that, we may provide food for the body, but neglect to feed the spirit. 

When the Franciscan nun Jose Hobday, a Seneca Indian, was a child, money was short and her parents struggled to make ends meet. One day she heard her parents arguing about which bills should be paid and which ones left for next month. Picking up on the insecurity and worried tone, she began to cry. Her parents stopped arguing and her mother gave her the small amount of money they had and told her to go to the store and spend it on strawberry ice cream. Strawberries represent joy for the Seneca people. When she brought it back, the family enjoyed the ice cream together, and her mother said “we must never forget to be joyful even when life is challenging. There are always things to be joyful about.”

Andrew isn’t usually at the forefront in the Gospels and only has a central place three times. The interesting thing is that on each occasion, he introduces someone to Jesus. In this story, it is a small boy who is willing to share his food. On another occasion, some Greeks wanted to meet Jesus and he made the introduction. Significantly it was Andrew who introduced his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. Based on what we know, we might assume that his vocation was to introduce people to Jesus. 

The young boy who offered to share his lunch simply gave what he had, which happened to be five loaves and two fish.  

The feeding of the five thousand is even more miraculous when we view it through the lens of our current situation and see it as a collective response of the human spirit. In this challenging time, I am amazed at the creative responses I see around the world.  

It can be hard to know HOW to feed the multitudes. In our own time, it seems more complex.  Currently we are struggling to know how best to offer hospitality to the homeless in Victoria:  a situation that seems to be getting out of hand with no clear path forward. It is hard to understand the pain, the anger, the addiction, and yes, the hopelessness that so many of the homeless experience. We need to experience their pain reflected in our own anger and frustration. We may need to take time apart to reflect on the situation before responding to it. We may need to change our thinking; we may need to change our course, and we may need to live with a seemingly impossible situation before we see how to offer hospitality in this situation. 

John Lewis, the civil rights icon is quoted by his sister as saying “when you see injustice...do something.” That “something” may be different for each one of us.  

What are our loaves and fishes? Do we sometimes feel inadequate because we feel we don’t have anything to offer? It seems to me that Jesus is more interested in our openness, our willingness to share what we have, our sense of hospitality. Our own loaves and fishes may be the political will to effect change, it may be fundraising to provide food for the needy, it may be rolling up our sleeves to prepare the food, it may be prayer, and it may be listening to a lonely person. Above all, our response is most effective when it is a community response to the situation. Our efforts may feel small and inadequate, but Jesus is saying to us “bring me your loaves and fishes and see what we can do together.  

When my grandma Mary was dying, I went home to England to be with her in her last days. I expected my parents' house to be filled with sadness but as I went into the hallway, I heard laughter coming from grandma’s room. It turned out that the community nurses had begun to gather for their coffee break every day at mum's house, because they experienced hospitality there. On the last days of her life, grandma was doing what she had always done, offering her loaves and fishes:  she was propped up in bed telling funny stories and making these hard-working nurses laugh before continuing their tasks. This is all that is required of us, that we bring our own loaves and fishes and see what God will do with them. 

 

Loaves and Fishes 

God of private reflection, 

God of collective response: 

Be with us as we withdraw 

Into the time we need alone 

with sadness, anger and confusion. 

Then be with us as we regroup 

To face the world that is. 

May the will we have to be a part 

of something greater still 

transform the little we can offer 

into a feast we all can share. 

AMEN 

 

 

 

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