Saturday of week 5 in Ordinary Time

Genesis 3:9-24; Ps 90(89):2. 3-4. 5-6. 12-13; Mark 8:1-10

While Mark's account of the Gospel was written for a Jewish audience (12 baskets correspond to 12 tribes of Israel, and the meal itself was on the western shore - the Hebrew side) and Matthew for a greek audience (7 baskets, 7 loaves, correspond with Greek notions of completeness in the number 7, and the meal takes place on the eastern, hellenistic banks), the two accounts are probably of the same event.

Some commentators reduce the miraculous meal to a simple exaggeration of what happened: when the people saw Jesus sharing what he had with his apostles, they copied his behaviour, and shared what they had, discovering to their surprise that they had more than enough between them anyway. I prefer to accept the text as it is written - that Jesus did feed all those people from a very limited supply. The numbers in either interpretation show that the complete people of God (7 or 12) have sufficient to feed the world with - both temporary and spiritually.

We may in life often find that Jesus really does have what we need! We have to trust in that.

Posted in Daily Reflection.