Multiplying by dividing
(Mt 14:13-21)
«Man is a limited being who is himself limitless» (Fratelli Tutti [Brethren All] n.150).
In our hearts we have a great longing for fulfilment and Happiness. The Father has introduced it, He Himself satisfies it - but He wants us to be associated with His work - inside and outside.
The Son reflects God's design in compassion for the crowds in need of everything and - despite the plethora of teachers and experts - lacking any authentic teaching (cf. Mt 9:36).
His solution is very different from that of all 'spiritual' guides, because he does not overlook us with an indirect paternalism (cf. Mt 14:16) that wipes away tears, heals wounds, erases humiliations.
It invites us to make use of what we are and have, even though it may seem ridiculous. But it teaches in no uncertain terms that by shifting energies we achieve prodigious results.
This is how we respond in Christ to the world's great problems: by recovering the condition of the man viator - a being of passage, his essential mark - and sharing goods; not letting everyone make do (v.15).
Our real nakedness, the vicissitudes and the experience of our many brothers and sisters, who are different, are resources not to be evaluated with distrust, "as dangerous competitors or enemies" of our fulfilment (FT no.151).
Not only will the little we bring be enough to satiate us: it will advance for others and with identical fullness of truth, human, epochal [v.17: the particular passage insists on the well-known Semitic symbolism of the number "seven"].
In Christ, everyone can inaugurate a new Time, and Salvation is already at hand, because people gather spontaneously around Him, coming as they are, with the burden of so many different needs.
The new people of God are not a crowd of chosen and pure people. Everyone brings with them problems, which the Lord heals - but healing not with proxy measures (v.16), as if from above or from without.
In short: another world is possible, but through breaking one's own (even miserable) bread and companion (vv.17-19).
An authentic solution, if one brings it out from within, and by standing in the middle - not in front, not at the top (v.15c).
The place of God's revelation was supposed to be the place of lightning, on a "mountain" smoking like a furnace (Ex 19:18)... but finally even Elijah's violent zeal had to recant (1 Kings 19:12).
Even to the pagans, the Son reveals a Father who does not simply erase infirmities (v.14): he makes them understood as a place that is preparing a personal development, and that of the Community.
He imagined that in the time of the Messiah, the lame, the deaf and the blind would disappear (Is 35:5ff.). Golden age: everything at the top, no abyss.
In Jesus - distributed Bread - an unusual fullness of time is manifested, apparently nebulous and fragile, but real and able to reboot everyone, and relationships.
The Spirit of God acts not by descending like lightning from on high, but by activating in us capacities that appear intangible, yet are capable of regrouping our dispersed being, classified as insubstantial - involving the everyday summary - and re-evaluating it.
The Incarnation reweaves our hearts, in dignity and promotion; it truly unfolds, because it not only drags obstacles away: it rests on them and does not erase them at all: thus it overpowers them but transmutes them - posing new life.
Lymph that draws juice and sprouts Flowers from the one muddy, fertile soil, and communicates them. Solidarity to which all are invited, not just those deemed to be in a state of 'perfection' and compactness.
Our shortcomings make us attentive, and unique. They are not to be despised, but taken up, placed in the Son's hands and energised (v.18).
Falls themselves can be a valuable sign: in Christ, they are no longer reductive humiliations, but rather path markers. Perhaps we are not making the best use and investment of our resources.
Thus, collapses can quickly turn into rises - different, not packaged - and a search for total completion in Communion.
Therefore, in the ideal of realising the Vocation and sensing the type of contribution to be made, nothing is better than a living environment that does not clip the wings: a lively fraternity in the exchange of resources, and coexistence.
Not so much to dampen the jolts, but so that we are enabled to build stores of wisdom not calibrated by nomenclature - which everyone can draw on, even those who are different and far from us.
If a shortcoming is found here too, it will be to teach us to be present in the world in (perhaps) other and further directions, or to bring out mission and creative maturity - not to remain fixated on partiality and minutiae.The allusion to the seven foods (multiplied because they are divided) supports the quotations regarding the malleable magma of biblical icons, such as those of Moses and Elijah: figures from the five Books of the Pentateuch [the basic Loaves], plus the two sections of Prophets and Writings [which act as 'companions'].
The first "five" are the essential fullness of food and wisdom for the soul, which is called to proceed beyond the surrounding hedges, breaking through the embankments of the boundary-subjugated mentality.
It is the basic nourishment of the human-divine spirit, to which, however, is added a young and fresh companion food, which precisely involves us (v.17.19).
[As St Augustine said: "The Word of God that is daily explained to you and in a certain sense 'broken' is also daily Bread" (Sermo 58, IV: PL 38, 395). Complete food: basic food and 'companion' - historical and ideal, in code and in deed].
We become in Christ as an actualised and propulsive corpus of sensitive witnesses (and Scriptures!); admittedly reduced, not yet established and lacking in heroic phenomena, but accentuatedly sapiential and practical.
Announcers and sharers without clamorous proclamations of self-sufficiency, never enclosed within archaic fences - always in the making - therefore able to perceive unknown tracks.
And to break the Bread... that is, to be active, to go further, to share the little - to nourish, to overflow (multiplying the listening and the action of God) and to make even the desperate regain esteem.
We are children: like few and little fish (vv.17.19), who do not wallow in competitions that make life toxic - rather: called in the first person to write a singular, empathic and sacred Word-event.
Infants in the Lord, we swim in this different Water - sometimes perhaps outwardly veiled or muddy and murky; finally made transparent if only because it is yielding, compassionate and benevolent.
The old exclusive puddle of religion that does not dare the risk of Faith (v.13) would not have helped us to assimilate the proposal of Jesus the Messiah, Son of God, Saviour - acrostic of the Greek word "Ichtys" (fish: vv.17.19 diminutive).
He is the Father's Initiative-Response, support in the (unethereal) journey in search of the Hope of the poor - of all of us destitute people waiting.
It seems strange, for those of us who have grown accustomed to it: the working Faith has as its emblem the fractional Eucharist, a revolution of sacredness.
Indeed, the purpose of evangelisation is to participate in and emancipate the complete being from all that threatens it, not only in its extreme limitation: also in its everyday action - to the point of seeking communion of goods.
The prodigy is placed after the rejection in Nazareth (Mt 13:53-57), Herod's ambiguous and superstitious questioning (vv.1-2), and the execution of the Baptist (vv.3-12).
In short, the Source and Summit Sign of the community of sons is a creative gesture that imposes a shift in vision and action, an absolutely new eye and gesture.
[In this way, faced with the destitution of the many - caused by the greed of the few - the attitude of the authentic Church does not take pleasure in emblems and fervour, nor in partial calls to distinction].
The breaking of the Bread takes over from the Manna dropped from above in the desert (Mt 14:15; 15:33; Mk 8:4) and entails its distribution - not only in particular situations.
There is no settling, in multiplying life for all.
This is the attitude of the living Body of the thaumaturgic Christ [not the miracle-worker] who feels called to be active in every circumstance.
Grateful adherence must lead us to the gift and sharing of 'bread'.
If it is not punctual alms-giving, external pietism, mannerist welfarism, there is the result:
Women and men will eat, they will remain full, and there will be food left over for others. Indeed, not all of God's intended guests are yet present....
We note that it had not even occurred to the disciples that the solution might come from the people themselves and their spirit - not from the patented leaders or some individual benefactor.
Unexpected solution: the question of food is solved not from above, but from within the people and with the few loaves they brought with them.
There is no solution with the verb 'to multiply' - i.e. 'to increase' ... what? relationships that count, increase property, pile up wiles.
The only therapy is the coexistence of 'breaking', 'giving', 'offering' (v.19). And everyone is involved, no one privileged.
At that time, competitiveness and class mentality characterised the pyramid society of the empire - and began to infiltrate even the small community, just starting out.
As if the Lord and the God of retribution could live side by side, yet.
It is the communion of the needy that conversely rises to the top in the non-artisanal Church.
Real sharing acts as the professor of the ubiquitous veteran, pretentious people, the only ones yet to be converted.The germ of their 'durability' should be not altitude and role, but love.
Such is the only meaning of sacred gestures; not other projects tinged with prevarication, or appearance.
The 'belonging' astound.
For the Lord, the distant (though still poised in their choices) are full participants in the messianic banquet - without preclusions, nor disciplines of the arcane with nerve-racking expectations.
Conversely, that Canteen presses in favour of others who have yet to be called. For a kind of re-establishment of the original Unity.
In short, the Redemption does not belong to elites concerned with the stability of their rule - which it is even the weak who must sustain.
Saved life comes to us by incorporation.
To internalise and live the message:
Have you ever broken your bread, passed on happiness and made recoveries that renew relationships, putting people who do not even have self-esteem back on their feet? Or have you favoured attitudes of the monarchical elite?
Appendix
Jesus wants contributions, resources and skills to work in synergy; to serve and unite for the life of the multitudes (vv.13-15.19).
The Eucharistic gesture - breaking of life - says: new heavens and new earth do not correspond to the world in which each one hurries to reap for himself or his circle, in order to grab the maximum of resources.
Even the Apostles - called by Jesus but still remaining at a safe distance from Him - are not the owners of the Bread, but those who are to give nourishment to all (v.16), to create abundance where there is none.
They are to share, not to rule - least of all over the opinions or situations of others. And, in order to avoid impoverishment and damage to happiness, place themselves in a logic of overcoming.
The Son reflects God's design in compassion for the needy crowd. However, his solution does not gloss over us - simply wiping away tears or erasing humiliation.
It invites us to use what we have, although this may seem ridiculous. But it teaches that shifting energies creates prodigious results.
This is how we respond in Christ to the world's great problems: by recovering the condition of the man viator - a being of passage, his essential mark - and by sharing goods.
Our real nakedness, the vicissitudes and experiences of our many brothers and sisters, who are different, are resources not to be evaluated with distrust, "as dangerous competitors or enemies" of our fulfilment (FT no.151).
The Lord does not agree with the idea of everyone making do (v.15); neither does he like alms, or the old idol of "buying" (v.15).
He imposes on his own that "the crowds" (plural) lie down in abundance (v.19 Greek text) as the lords and free people did at solemn banquets.
He wants and insists that it is primarily the disciples who serve (v.19), not other slaves.
And perhaps the most astounding thing is that he does not impose prior gestures of purification on any of those present, as was the custom in traditional, hypocritically sterilised and selective religiosity.
Before the meal, it required ablution: a ceremony that emphasised a sacred detachment between the pure and the impure.
The disciples' only task is to distribute the Food - then to be chopped up, sifted and assimilated personally, to build a new world - not to X-ray it beforehand; much less to be interested in it.
In religion we have a long rigmarole of fulfilments to observe in order to present ourselves before God, which unfortunately normalise us.
In the path of Faith, it is the free encounter with the Lord that makes us grow and complete, making us perfect and uncontaminated, unconditionally... extracting authentic Pearls, precisely from our character eccentricities (those that depart from millimetric agreements).
His Kingdom? All invited and brothers (even not in agreement), no one master or ruler - destined to lead the humble by his own hand, always standing in front or above - because he is quicker and more able to manage himself.
The Eucharist remains a Call to Real Conviviality (of differences as they are) and an evergreen Reminder not to settle for individual devotions or a twinnable but empty spirituality.
The working Faith thus has the Eucharist as its emblem, a revolution of sacredness. It seems strange, for us who have grown accustomed to it.
The aim of evangelisation is to emancipate from everything that threatens life, not only in its extreme limitation, but also in its everyday action - to the point of seeking the communion of goods.
In Matthew 14 the prodigy is placed after Jesus was rejected from Nazareth, Herod's concern, the murder of the Baptist.
The Source and Summit Sign of the community of sons is a creative gesture that imposes a shift of vision, an absolutely new eye.In the face of the destitution of the many - caused by the greed of the few - the attitude of the authentic Church does not take pleasure in emblems and fervour, nor in partial calls to distinguish itself in almsgiving.
The breaking of the Bread takes the place of the Manna dropped from above in the desert and involves its distribution - not only in special situations (v.15).
There is no contentment in multiplying life for all.
This is the attitude of the living Body of the thaumaturgic Christ [not the miracle-worker] who feels called to be active in every circumstance.
Eucharistic participation must lead us to the gift and sharing of bread.
The result: women and men will eat, remain full, and there will be food left over for others [not all of God's intended guests are still present...].
We note that it had not even occurred to the disciples that the solution might come from the people themselves and their spirit - not just the paternalism of the leaders or some individual benefactor.
Unexpected solution: the question of food is solved not from above, but only from within the people and with the few loaves they brought with them (vv.15-17).
There is no solution with the verb 'multiply' - i.e. 'increase' ... relationships that count, increase property, pile up wiles.
The only therapy is 'to break', 'to give', 'to distribute' (vv.16-19 Greek text).
And everyone is involved, no one privileged.
At that time, competitiveness and class mentality characterised the society of the empire - and began to infiltrate even the small community, just starting out.
As if the Lord and the God of retribution could live side by side, yet.
It is the communion of the needy that conversely takes centre stage in the authentic Church.
Real sharing acts as the professor of the ubiquitous veteran, pretentious and pretentious, the only ones who have yet to be converted.
The germ of their 'longevity' should be not altitude and role, but love.
Such is the only meaning of sacred gestures, not other projects tinged with bullying, or appearance.
The 'belonging' and veterans astound.
For the Lord, the distant (though still poised in their choices) are full sharers in the messianic banquet - without preclusions, nor disciplines of the arcane or nerve-wracking expectations.
Conversely, that Canteen cries out in favour of others who have yet to be called, for a kind of re-establishment of the original Unity.
In short, the Redemption does not belong to the (pyramidal monarchical) elites who are concerned about the stability of their dominance - which it is even the weak who must sustain.
[As St. Augustine said: "The Word of God that is daily explained to you and in a certain sense 'broken' is also daily Bread" (Sermo 58, IV: PL 38,395). Complete food: basic food and "companion" - historical and ideal, in code and in deed].
To internalise and live the message:
How does the Eucharistic gesture speak to you of the Revolution of Tenderness, and of your Calling by Name through the Church?
