But a small boy is found who has five barley loaves and two fish. The disciples can’t purchase enough food for everyone.

Crowds that large present certain practical problems, such as how to feed them all. We are not told how many women and children may have also been with them, but it is a huge number of people by any measure. We are told in the gospel that about five thousand men were present. He had been performing healing miracles and was gaining quite a following.

It is the extraordinary way in which Jesus feeds the multitude in this Sunday’s gospel that I want to focus on.Ī large crowd has gathered around Jesus. But before Jesus teaches his followers that he is the bread from heaven they must eat to gain eternal life, he first feeds them with ordinary bread which he gives to them in a very extraordinary way. This week we begin to look at the sixth chapter of John a chapter every Catholic should be familiar with because of its culmination in the great “Bread of Life” Eucharistic discourse.

What is the opposite of miracle