“Where shall we buy bread so that this people may have something to eat?’ He said this to test Philip, FOR HE HIMSELF KNEW WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO…” (John VI, 5-6)
There were about five thousand men, plus women, plus children. Three days and three nights of wandering and listening and everyone were exhausted. The master took pity on the people. He wanted the disciples to give them something so that they may eat and rest. The latter complained. None of the adults around understood the plea of the Lord. None of them wanted to part with the provisions that they have with them either. The grown-up men refused to trust Jesus to make something out of what they have with them; they offered him complaints and incredulity instead. A little boy came forward and gave all that he has. Jesus knew what to do. He merely tested them. Everyone else failed. Save for that little child…
The disciples were bewildered at the improbability of the Master’s command: “Give them something to eat yourselves!” immediately, calculators went calculating, debaters went debating, and all sorts of opinions and strategies and every manner of evading the problem flew aplenty in the thin, harried air. And this was not what the Master has in his heart. He was saddened that the immediate response these grown-ups gave was to take control of the situation and forget the most essential, in fact, the very first thing that they should have done. They forgot to ask help from Jesus. They forgot to first listen to Him before even setting out on a hunt for solutions they could never have. They quickly turned to the poverty of their empty hearts and found nothing. They forgot they have the Lord in their midst! They forgot Jesus!
This vicious habit of forgetting the Lord whenever faced with the challenges of life would continue to be handed over from one generation to another. The same sorry scenario would be repeated again and again in a seemingly never ending train of miseries and failed attempts at pseudo-discipleship. And the farce would go on, for as long as the essential thing remains buried beneath our insistence on being on top of every situation and other brash and brazen and utterly foolish display of adult-like stupidity and stubbornness. The sad story would continue, for as long as we keep on forgetting that “he knew what to do” and he’s just trying to find out if we truly trust him enough so as to first do whatever he asks us to do before even asking how or why.
The Lord was not looking for an intelligent solution or a scientific analysis to the trial that he has set before his proud disciples. He was simply looking for trust. He was simply asking for obedience. He knew very well what to do. Not one of the adults got the message. It was a small child who truly heard and understood the simplicity of the Lord’s invitation. It took a simple kid to show everyone the way.
This episode in the ministry of the Lord flashed into my mind as I went back to the WTC for the third day of the priests’ congress. More than two thousand years later, the event sprang back to life…Three days, five thousand++priests, hungry for the bread that the Lord would provide, huddled together in rapt attention.
The call remains as we trudge past this third day of the congress. Renewal for us would mean to never again forget that the risen One is in our midst! That as priests, we are never asked by the Good Shepherd to satisfy the hunger of the flock with what we do not have in us. He is not goading us to commit suicide. He simply asks us to trust enough. He simply invites us to remember…
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