Overview:

Friday of the Second Week of Easter

A Reflection for Friday of the Second Week of Easter

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

Find today’s readings here.

My mother is an excellent and generous host. She welcomes all and happily feeds any person who walks through her door. Because she would never turn anyone away, she always makes extra food “just in case.” (In fairness, in high school I was known to sometimes extend a last-minute invitation to a friend or an entire track and field team.) No one ever leaves her house hungry. Everyone leaves with a plastic container of leftovers.

I have absorbed much of my mother’s philosophy on hosting, so the situation described in today’s Gospel represents my nightmare: a huge crowd of hungry people and not enough food to feed them. Therefore, I am struck by Jesus’ response to the situation. After quizzing his disciples about what should be done (although he already knows), Jesus has one message: Chill out.

Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”

Jesus’ message at a moment that might lead most people to panic is to ask those present to prepare for a meal, to behave as if there already is enough. 

I also love that the Gospel tells us that “there was a great deal of grass in that place,” which implies that there is space, there is comfort, there is abundance where the disciples fear there will be none. 

How often do we look at what we have and fear it is not enough, see scarcity and lack trust? It is common (and understandable) to look at difficult situations and fear we don’t have what it takes to meet the needs of those around us, to give sufficiently, to provide. Today’s Gospel reminds us to trust that God will always give us the grace we need to respond and give it in abundance.

When we truly encounter Christ, when we trust in what he offers, we will find a wider, more generous world. We will find that there is more than enough space for everyone. We will be filled. We will not leave hungry. There might even be leftovers to sustain us on the road ahead.

Kerry Weber joined the staff of America in October 2009. Her writing and multimedia work have since earned several awards from the Catholic Press Association, and in 2013 she reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship. Kerry is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press) and Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students (Twenty-Third Publications). A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, a local reporter, a diocesan television producer, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.