Are we aware of God’s gifts?
In the Book of Kings, the prophet Elisha knows the people are experiencing a food shortage due to drought. But when a man comes bearing twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits, and fresh grain in the ear, Elisha recognizes these as God’s gift. Give it to the people to eat, Elisha tells his servant, They shall eat and there shall be some left over. Elisha knows, as Psalm 145 tells us, that the hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs. The world depends upon God’s generous gifts; the psalm reassures us that when the eyes of all look hopefully to God, God gives them their food in due season. It is our job to open to every gift that reveals God’s presence, that we might be fully aware of God’s action in our lives.
Jesus, God’s greatest gift, also reveals the Father by providing for the large crowd that is following him. In John’s Gospel, five barley loaves and two fish are certainly not enough in human terms to feed such a crowd, but on God’s terms there is plenty. Jesus is capable of doing extraordinary things, but his disciples are not immediately aware that he is inviting them to participate in the miracle. The event has Eucharistic overtones; later, Jesus will offer himself to us in order to draw us into him and into his life, that we might live as one body. Paul calls the Ephesians to a unity they are not yet experiencing, a unity that is located in all God has revealed. To be worthy of the call, we must live as Christ lived, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love. Only once we do so can we be fully aware of the gifts we have been given, and ourselves be God’s gift, a gift to a world so desperately in need of food for body and soul.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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