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It is a tradition of our church to celebrate a Jubilee every 25 years. On December 24 Pope Francis opened the sacred door to launch the Jubilee year “Pilgrims of Hope”.
The gospel reading for January 7 (Mark 6:35-45) speaks to a familiar challenge in our world – great need and few resources to meet them. The disciples faced with a huge hungry crowd urged Jesus to send them away so they could buy food for themselves, but Jesus told them “Feed them yourselves”. The financial cost just to supply a small amount of bread was enormous and well beyond the means of the disciples. It seemed a hopeless situation. When Jesus asked them to find out what resources were available, they found just 5 small loaves and two fish but what use was that with so many hungry people.
Then Jesus had the disciples have the people sit down on the green grass in groups. He took the 5 loaves and two fish, thanked God for them, blessed them and distributed them to the people. They had their fill and still had12 baskets of leftovers.
A situation that seemed without hope was transformed. The story, told in all four gospels, does not tell us how Jesus produced all this food. One theory suggests that the willingness of a young boy to share what he had invited others to check in the basket often carried by Jewish people and share what they had. But the text does not tell us how, only what Jesus did - he saw what was there gave thanks for it, blessed it and shared it out and it was more than enough.
Every day in the news there are stories about great need in our world - the threat of famine in Sudan, the destruction going on in Gaza, Myanmar, Ukraine, the violence that is overtaking many countries like Haiti, the vast numbers of displaced people around the world, the long stream of migrants in search of a better life as well as numerous threats to the health of our planet. The scale of the problem is so enormous that it is easy to feel, as the disciples did, overwhelmed and hopeless. If ever we needed a focus on hope it is now.
Mark wrote his gospel for a community that was facing severe persecution so in the passage that follows the feeding of the 5000 he depicts the disciples struggling to make progress rowing into a strong wind. He comes to them walking on the water and gets into the boat with them and again the situation is transformed. Weariness and fear are replaced by calmness and hope.
When we struggle to deal with overwhelming demands or are struggling against adverse conditions, Mark’s gospel serves as a message of hope as it reminds us of who Jesus truly is, the Son of God, with whom nothing is impossible. He is the source of our hope.
Fr Pat O’Shea lives and works in Aotearoa/New Zealand
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